Healthcare In America - Where Do I Begin? Read online

thousands; and that six thousand dollar deductible under the Affordable Care Act will start looking pretty good. And this is one of the things President Obama designed the Affordable Care Act with comprehensive coverage to do--to prevent people from possibly losing everything they have because someone suffers from a serious injury or disease. Oh, and by the way, if you buy into cheap insurance that only buys you cheap coverage, forget about choosing your own doctor. So, how do we improve the Affordable Care Act? Well, improvement comes with what is truly moral.

  What I find so compelling is watching the Republicans bow their heads so earnestly in prayer to Jesus, then after the prayer, proceed to cut over twenty million people out of healthcare. Doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of earnest belief in Jesus, or morality there. Poor Jesus must stand in front of God just shaking his head--where did I go wrong? And with all the debate, the way to really improve healthcare does seem to be with a single payer system to take all the ridiculous complications out of it, including the mandates, and put the good health of we the people first and foremost--something I think both God and Jesus would put first and foremost--something I think even the forefathers and foremothers of the country would put first and foremost--after all, it is right there in the preamble of the constitution…”to promote the general welfare…”--meaning to promote the good health and well-being of we the people--even though the words welfare and healthcare have been stigmatized as something ill to the country--a brilliant propaganda campaign executed by the rich, spurred on by ignorance and bigotry. However, as I like to think, whenever the Trump administration compares itself to the Obama administration--better to be in the black, than in the red. This should provide the Democrats with the slogan they should have in the upcoming midterm elections…”Let’s get the country out of the red!” However, if we can’t have the single payer system, at least let’s keep moving in that direction with what President Obama proposed right from the very beginning to set the standard of competition with the government public option--a means to create quality healthcare at an affordable rate. And if quality healthcare at an affordable rate is in place, the incentive to comply with the mandate to buy into healthcare will progress to being voluntary, which might call for some different thinking, but would also be healthy for healthcare companies. However, the Republicans argue the government public option would put healthcare companies out of business; that they couldn’t compete with the government. Well, isn’t that admitting, right there, that health insurance companies are unable to provide quality care at an affordable rate, and that this is really not the business they are in, and that they really need to rethink their policy towards our healthcare policies? All the government would be doing with a government public option is setting the standard of competition. And a standard does need to be set. Republicans tell us competition alone will bring about quality care at an affordable rate. But this isn’t true, because if health insurance companies really wanted to compete, they could compete right now. There is nothing stopping them, except themselves--because health insurance companies are not about competition. With health insurance companies, it’s you get what you pay for. Even if you buy out of state. That’s why a government public option is so important--it sets the standard to force healthcare insurance companies to actually compete, and bring good health not only to the country, but also to the healthcare industry. Yet, the Republicans also try to make the point--the government public option would cost jobs. However, do you, or I, work so that healthcare companies can make money, and people who work for healthcare companies can have jobs, and healthcare--and we can’t, because we can’t afford it, or afford the quality of care we need, because we are more compelled to have healthcare companies make money, and people who work for healthcare companies have jobs, and healthcare? No…! I know I don’t. And if there is a demand for the government public option, don’t you think there will also be a demand for jobs to absorb the increased demand on the government to provide care. There may be a raise in taxes, but nowhere near the amount the average person currently puts out to pay the soaring premiums of private health insurance companies. And don’t you also think there will be a demand for jobs within the healthcare industry when they are actually forced to compete with the standard of competition set by the government public option and the business that will generate from it? What all of this really comes down to is a choice.

  With their health bill, the Republicans promise the people choices. But what they really promise is just the choice of cheap insurance that gives you cheap coverage. Nothing really different than the way things were before the Affordable Care Act. Minimal care compared to that of comprehensive care. Back to the old standard of pay me now, or pay me later. Only now, everything is even more expensive, so we all will be paying a lot more out of pocket, later. And I guess the choice that we the people will have to live with from the results of the last election is making the profits of private healthcare companies more plentiful than our own health and economic stability. It seems though, that the promise to really keep both the private healthcare companies and we the people, who really are much more important, in good health and economically stable, would come with the action of improving the Affordable Care Act with the government public option. Otherwise, the good health and stability of both will eventually perish with no chance of ever being plentiful. However, this current administration and congressional lawmakers in the majority appear to be much more interested in serving the wealthy, rather than the constitutional well-being of we the people. The mammoth triumph of improving upon our healthcare system and our good health seems to have slipped from the grasp of we the people and so haphazardly away with the ironically ill choices we made in the last election.

  I will conclude with this--greatness does not come with bluster, greatness comes with action that is true to the spirit of humanity. And if a soldier can be asked to risk life or limb to pay the price for freedom and the well-being of the country, then there is no reason not to expect the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes, and contribute to that price. The policy to strip away subsidies that go towards healthcare along with a discount for veterans, and redistribute this money and more towards tax breaks for the rich is class warfare. And for all the talk Republicans and the people who vote republican do about freedom and democracy, it seems they still want to be a nation ruled by great white kings and great white lords. And that sadly, does come at the price of our good health and the good health of our good country--America.

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