This article is part of a PRO/CON opinion piece on nationalized healthcare. To view the opposing side, see here.
Friday, April 9, 2010
By Jason Boxer
Opinion Editor
A 2,400-page bill a day keeps the doctor away. On March 23, President Barack Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a piece of legislation that will greatly improve the American health care system.
President Obama began calling for medical reform in 2007, before he announced his candidacy for president. Now, more than three years later, this bill will insure 32,000 previously-uninsured Americans and alleviate deficit troubles.
Possibly the most impressive statistic involving this act pertains to the budget. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, this bill will cut the federal debt by $1 trillion over two decades. This alone is a huge case for the bill.
A 2007 survey by the Commonwealth Fund found that 12.6 million Americans were being denied health care simply due to pre-existing medical conditions.
This historic bill changes that. The bill directly states that health care providers “may not impose any pre-existing condition exclusion.” Health insurance companies can no longer view Americans as expensive clients and will now be rightly forced to view them as sick patients in need of care.
According to a 2007 survey by the American Medical Journal, medical expenses cause 62 percent of personal bankruptcies in the United States. This fact will also be addressed by the bill.
Americans who have struggled to receive and pay for medical insurance will be given significant financial aid. “Health subsidy programs,” as the bill reads, will help Americans who subsist on wages near the poverty line to pay for these costs.
In 2007, the Census Bureau estimated that 13.2 million Americans between the ages of 19 and 29 were uninsured. This large part of the population was putting its finances and health at risk every day.However, this hole in American health coverage will be completely filled, as this bill mandates that young Americans be covered by their parents’ plan until age 26.
Many critics of health care reform worry that it makes for far too much government intervention into the lives of Americans. However, naysayers should assess Obama’s actions in light of others like him.
If Americans plan on judging President Obama’s future plans by anticipating what he might do, they should look at what he has promised to do: follow the example of one of the most highly-regarded presidents of all time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
In 2005, President Obama said in a speech at the Washington National Press Club luncheon that his economic plans will draw inspiration from FDR’s historically popular economic policies.
Increased government intervention was necessary in the days of FDR, and the similar problems that America faces today demand the same amount of government action. For this reason, it is an unequivocal truth that the Unites States needs government intervention into healthcare.
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