Is Obamacare good for guns?

[silicosys4]

First off, let me make this perfectly clear: I am not an advocate for Obamacare. I do not think it is the answer. Health care reform is the answer, in my opinion.

So here's the deal. We have a rash of mass public shootings happening these days...or at least, much more hyperactive media coverage of shootings. Many of these shootings are perpetrated by people who can be classified as genuinely, not-pretending, truly-gone-fishing, mentally ill.
The general argument here on THR seems to be, in my opinion, correct; Its the persons fault, not the gun's. However, what then? Where do we go from there towards preventing such incidences without curbing personal freedoms?

I don't want to get into my experiences, but lets just say I know someone who was a perfectly normal, fresh college graduate, until age 25...just after graduating college, who then rapidly degenerated over the course of a few months into a schizophrenic. Many mentally ilnesses, for males in particular, manifest in the early twenties. This person, when medicated, is perfectly functional and every bit as capable mentally as you or I. However, when he is medicated, he is prone to slip into episodes of extreme hallucinations, paranoia, and an incapability to distinguishing reality from fantasy. He needs to stay medicated, for his sake and for the sake of those around him. He is not evil, or a criminal.

His medication, because he is uninsured and paying out of pocket, is $1400 per month. To say the least, its hard for this person to afford, particularly since they do not have a job, as finding a job as a mentally ill person who cannot afford their meds is tough, let alone finding a job with health care coverage sufficient to pay for their medical requirements. This persons family is helping to cover the cost of his medication, currently, and it is the biggest expense for the family...but necessary.

Obamacare is supposed to help their situation out immensely, by lowering the cost of his medication to reasonable levels, and making the supply a steady one, not intermittent as fundings make available.

So my question is; in the face of what appears to be a growing amount of mental illness cases around the country, do you think Obamacare increases the chance that help is available and affordable to those people, before there is a chance for them to degenerate in their illness to the point that they shoot or otherwise hurt people (thereby feeding the anti-gun crowd)?

This is not a suggestion that the family gets free meds on the publics tax dollars. The family in question would rather pay for the medication themselves....but it cannot be argued that the cost of the medication is unreasonably high, and unaffordable for the average american.

Hopefully my question makes people think a bit before they start frothing at the mouth...I know its a hot topic for many.

 

[Hunterdad]

For those people that need the medication and can't afford it, I think that's the only positive thing about obamacare.

As far as mentally ill people go.....I don't think it's getting the medication that's the problem, its getting them to TAKE the medication. We can throw all the meds we want at these people, that doesn't mean they are going to take it. Remember....they are mentally ill.

 

[Kingcreek]

Is obamacre beneficial to some small or select groups of individuals? Probably.
Is it good for the country? Off topic and destined for lockdom.
I'm more interested in WHY there is so much more mental illness.

 

[silicosys4]

Hunterdad, I can't speak as a nurse in an asylum; but I do know the three or four genuinely mentally ill people I know live in fear of running out of their medications. They absolutely DO NOT want to have an episode, and will check themselves into the emergency room, and have done so, before they go without their pills. Their problem is finding an avenue to get their medication. Medicare is paying for those emergency room visits, do you think an emergency room visit simply to get a pill is efficient or cheap? There are NO programs for a 25 year old college graduate to get that kind of medication. If he were a 17 year old single mother with 3 kids, who never had a job, I'm sure he'd be able to get all of it he needs as part of the hoodrat welfare benefits package, but he isn't.

 

[ATBackPackin]

No, I think it will make it worse. First, if anyone wants to see what happens when the feds run health care, just go visit a VA hospital. Secondly I think people will not seek out help even if they are simply depressed for fear of losing their 2nd Amendment rights.

 

[Jeff White]

This is off topic