Support at expense of middle class

By Ron Stodola

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I guess I'm one of the healthy ones that Obamacare expects to help pay the bills for the unhealthy.

Turns out I'm also one of the sheltered who was able to help pay the bills for those needing the federally backed mortgage reductions/restructurings. (I lived up to my original mortgage agreement through several unemployment periods because I did not purchase beyond my means.) Turns out I'm also one of the educated who was able to help pay the bills for those defaulting on their student loans or declaring bankruptcy to reduce their debts.

Turns out I was also able to help pay the bills for the hungry children (and their parents) who chose to bring children into their lives when they could not afford to feed and house themselves.

And now those in need of health insurance premium assistance include smokers, drinkers, obese, and others who make daily lifestyle decisions that cause many of their health problems. Add the people who make irrational and costly end-of-life decisions for relatively short extensions to a poor quality of life and you have a pool of self-determining people that no one else should be mandated for financially assisting.

Enough already. Now that I am unemployed and considering early retirement due to the poor job market, I no longer have the income to support myself and all the “less-fortunate” people who create their own problems. I'm sure there are many deserving people in true need of assistance because of circumstances beyond their control, but their number is far fewer than the federal and state governments are currently supporting.

And I refuse to be forced into financing insurance corporation profits and their excessive management compensation. That is not freedom.

Obamacare will have little impact on the wealthy, so this law is providing premium support to the poor primarily at the expense of the middle class, and we are just beginning to see how it is starting to drive up all premiums. President Obama is no friend of the middle class as he continues to redistribute more and more of the present and future income the middle class has been working to live on.

Without insurance, if I cannot afford needed medical care, I'll suffer the consequences, and I am OK with that. If I can afford it but am denied treatment because of not having insurance, I may not be OK with that.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the IRS will extract Obamacare's no-health-insurance fine (“tax” per the Supreme Court). Put me in jail and the federal government can pay my health care bills. So this is my line in the redistribution sand.

Ron Stodola of Marion grew up in Cedar Rapids and worked as an engineer for aerospace companies in St. Louis, Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Cedar Rapids for 28 years. Comments: ronstodola@earthlink.net.