You can’t say Obamacare without snarky comments and hushed defenses.  I don’t understand much about insurance, but it’s worth talking about. <there used to be a sentence here that I’ve removed because a lawyer proved in 3 paragraphs how blatantly wrong it was>.

I love the idea that our nation is making an effort to provide useful health care for even the poorest of our people. John Wesley and the Methodist Movement were hardcore committed to making healthcare available to the poorest of society.

The Marketplace is now what Insurance Companies are called, with a variety of insurance plans you can purchase, and whatever your income is depends on the kind of plan you can get (Platinum down to Bronze).  The poorest people who got this insurance still get a bare-bones insurance now can’t get the free meds they used to get because now they have insurance, and they can’t afford the copay.  Others have wondered if it’s better to just pay the non-insured penalty.  Undocumented immigrants still can’t get any insurance, and they are all still here and they still get sick and need health care.  The Insurance Companies aren’t dictated by the Government, so a lot of small businesses have felt a crunch, like they have to pay way more for employees than before, or maybe hire people just under the required amount of hours to pay benefits.  The biggest positives of the new system are that you can keep your kids on your insurance till their 26, and especially that insurance companies can’t disqualify you based on pre-existing conditions.

Churches need to be creative when it comes to insuring their non-clergy employees.  I’m VERY thankful for the hard-working Staff Parish Relations Committee at my church because they are incredibly mindful and diligent in researching and considering the best for their staff.  In my denomination, all of the Clergy are considered employed by the Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, rather than by their local church, and so receive a health care plan through the Annual Conference they belong to.  What if Methodist Connectionalism meant that lay staff of all churches in their Conference (or even in a District) united as one employer to be able to achieve better insurance?  Maybe that would help or maybe not.  I don’t really know.  After all, I had to use Wikipedia to figure out what an “Actuarial” is.