Now, recently there has been an ever increasing volley of fire from the right, towards The Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). Now, however you may take this rhetoric, the act is not an imaginary reform in a fictional world, its a real living piece of documentation with real world implications. So, I want to hear your story. Obama is known to bring "real" people onto the scene during his speeches supporting his health care reform, but these people are a small population of rather poor people. The real struggle is not from these families, who are also usually on welfare, food stamps, free school lunches, etc. The real struggle is the lower middle class family, making just enough to be slightly above the poverty line. Most of these families have both parents working, at least one child in school, and more likely than not, a substantial mortgage on a decent sized home, often in the suburbs. This is a specific picture I have painted, it might not always be true, but that's why I ask for your story. Anyways, these families often barely have enough money for food, heat, and other necessities, and although families in poverty have the same problem, they get help. The families I have brought up as my "Average Joe's" get none. Sometimes the difference is as slight as the amount it takes to put food on the table for one night. These families get no help on anything, and with the mandate in Obamacare forcing people to get health insurance, with no public option (A deal struck between Obama and the Insurance industry in exchange for Insurance companies to not run campaigns against the Act would force this mandate, removing the Public Option, a mandate similar to that of our northern neighbors Canada) a lot of these average families feel better off just paying the fine, since most insurance plans, even on the Health Market, would cause these families to pretty much go bankrupt. My family is a good example. With both parents working, we make $50 more than enough to get welfare, and free lunches. This is a huge problem, and in fact, my parents have insurance through their jobs, but even the family plans through these companies are too much to be able to keep my family afloat.
My goal here is not to talk down on The Affordable Care Act, as many of its mandates were made through backroom deals in exchange for support. This was controversial, and often was the point of ridicule from Republicans. The fact is, during the Clinton Administration, there was a major attempt at health care reform. Hillary, with a little help from her husband, drafted a 1,200 page piece of legislation, that was tossed in the trash the very second it was handed to the Congressional Finance Committee. After this, series of highly funded ads from 527 groups were run with the financial backing of Health Insurance Companies, and Congressmen alike. The Reform was quickly shot down, and Clinton had basically committed political suicide. Obama, wanting reform, learned from this. He worked to quickly get the same groups that bashed on Clinton's Reform, to help push a reform through during his Administration. This lead to the Affordable Care Act being severely altered from its original form, and added in most of the mandates that Republicans love to bash. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that the final product that the public sees today is not the direct work of Obama, but basically a medley of big business interfering with policy, and the work of political lobbying. So, before anyone bashes on Obamacare, think about the fact that Democrats, and well as Republicans, and special interest groups had a major roll in the passing of this.... attempt at reform.
Overall, the ability of Obamacare to work will be seen developing over the next few years. Regardless of how effective it is, it opens up a precedent for health care reform, and gives future presidents more elbow room when dealing with a once untouch topic. In conclusion, it doesn't work for everyone, but it's a start, and my final message to Republicans who are open to bashing this Act, how about finding an actual solution to the problem, rather than simply complaining about it, and claiming its a bad thing.
-Jake
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