Obamacare: The 2nd Decade (Fiction)

We are now in the 2nd decade after the passage of what many Americans deemed to be comprehensive health care reform, Obamacare. The creator of Obamacare, Barack Hussein Obama, died shortly after it's passage in the year 2010 of unknown causes. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have long since passed. All of the Congressional leaders from the year 2010 are now deceased.

Obamacare did not work out as promised. From the moment it was signed into law it increased the U.S. budget deficits each and every month. Medicare and Social Security became insolvent in the year 2012. All of the surpluses in these programs were borrowed and spent on Obamacare. Millions of Americans lost their health insurance as soon as the bill was passed. Nearly 50% of private practitioners closed their practices almost immediately.

Through the law of supply and demand, with the increased demand for medical services and the lower supply of practitioners, health care costs skyrocketed. Health insurance premiums increased by 100% on average each year until no one in the country could afford it. Income and excise taxes, fines and fees were imposed, but people were unable to pay these levies and their living expenses. Unemployment continued to rise as employers, being overburdened with taxes and regulations began to fail.

The national debt had actually reached the point of no return just before the passage of Obamacare, but only a handful of people knew it at the time. The only way for the government to reverse the negative effects of this erroneous legislation was to print more money. As the Federal Reserve began to print money in 2011, the rate of inflation went off the charts. Inflation reached 17% by the year 2012. The cost of gasoline soared to $10 per gallon in 2012. States began to declare bankruptcy and the most fiscally sound States began to acquire the weaker ones.

The Republic of Texas now consists of the entire southern half of the old United States, stretching from Southern California to Virginia. The old United States now consists of only a few states in the Northeast. The others declared themselves to be sovereign republics in the year 2013. The Republic of Texas seceded from the Union in the year 2013. This time there was no civil war, and the issue was not slavery.

The city of Washington, DC was destroyed in the year 2013 by a nuclear missile attack launched by Iran. No one came to the rescue. No one cared. The blight had been removed. The culprits were dead. The problem had been solved.

Now I tell the story from the year 2030. I am one of the survivors. I saw it coming. I tried to warn others. Most wouldn't listen. They believed that big government was the solution. They relied upon government entitlements for their health and well being. Now they are simply wards of the old country, for all practical purposes, slaves. The United States of America is no more. And it all came to a crashing halt, in the year 2010.

Not quite. The spending part is not going to go into effect until 2013. Some of the taxes will go into effect immediately, but assuming they don’t reignite the recession, they will reduce the deficit slightly over what it would otherwise have been until 2013. In 2013, the wheels will begin to come off the bus, and by 2018, it will be clear that the massive level of entitlement spending cannot be sustained. Cuts will be made to prevent “the rich” from collecting medicare, social security, and Obamacare subsidies. But that won’t be enough to fix the problem, and voters who’ve been cut out will revolt, demanding mass cuts in all of those programs. In addition, the disincentive to work will be so severe that the economy will be in an irreversible downward spiral.

Finally, the conservatives will have the opportunity to pick up the shreds of the liberal train wreck. They’ll completely eliminate social security, medicare, Obamacare, and most of the rest of the federal budget. The only part that will survive will be the military. The States will be given the opportunity to pick up the terminated programs. But they’ll have to raise their own tax revenues to support them, and most of the States will decline the opportunity to pick up any of the programs.

In 2012 two years after the passage of Obamacare, Medical care has been reduced to a two tier system. For people still able to afford to pay for their care there are top quality cash only clinics. Insurance companies have either gone broke and ceased business or offer only plans with deductibles starting at $10,000 for prices in excess of $12,000 per year. Most employers have ceased offering employees health insurance and nearly 60% of the population relies on Medicaid. To avert a crisis, President Obama issued an executive order to raise Medicaid eligibility to 400% of the poverty rate. 47 states have gone bankrupt trying to pay for these increased Medicaid costs.

Medicare has become worthless as most health care providers are refusing to accept Medicare payments and are operating on a cash basis. Many people are relying on charitable health care clinics for their most urgent care, but waits of 10-12 hours are common to be seen by a nurse practitioner. Many of these people are sent home untreated as the care they need is only available at cash only clinics.

With the US deficit swelling by nearly $4 trillion US securities have been downgraded to B by Moody's and the US appears on the verge of bankruptcy. Interest rates are approaching 20% and the housing market has collapsed. Double digit inflation has made the dollar almost worthless and not accepted in many foreign countries.

Marshal law is still in effect after President Obama declared the 2010 elections null and void. Republicans have left the US Capital and Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats members of Congress live in a secure enclave protected by paramilitary forces recruited from the SEIU and other unions. Members of Congress do not go back to their states after several were lynched by angry mobs. Independent radio stations broadcasting from Canada and Mexico are the only source of uncensored news and there are reports of military forces and armed militias organizing to take back the government.

The only problem with this scenario is that it assumes that the people will not revolt. As conditions worsen, each person is going to reach a tipping point. At that point. life or death have less meaning than freedom and liberty.

The conditions today are the same as in 1860, where one faction is imposing its will on another faction. We are no longer the united States. Old Joe Biden was right in wanting to partition the country - only he got the country wrong. America should be partioned, not Iraq.

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