Scott Summit
Prof. Brown
English 2010
Argument Paper
There are
many social issues that confronting America today. These issues include the continuing war on
terror, immigration, social security, obesity, gay marriage, healthcare and drugs. At least one if not many of these problems
affect every person in America. A social
issue can be defined as “a condition (such as poverty) or a pattern of behavior
(such as substance abuse) that harms some individuals or all people in a
society and that a sufficient number of people believe warrants public concern
and collective action to bring about change" (Bidwell). One major issue that has come under focus
since the 2008 election of President Barack Obama is healthcare.
Having access to health insurance is
a major concern for most people.
Everybody wants insurance coverage for their medical emergencies, but
some are unable to afford the monthly or annual premiums. Doctor visits as well as unexpected visits to
the hospital are expensive. Without
health insurance these things can often lead to bankruptcy and other unintended
consequences. Those who are unable to
afford the increasing cost of having insurance are worried.
These people
are concerned about their future and their ability to pay for rising medical
costs. Since they are worried, they want
someone to take action. One body of
people that have shown a willingness to take action is the government. In the 1960’s the federal government started
two programs called Medicaid and Medicare (CMS).
Medicare and
Medicaid give medical insurance to those ages 65 and older as well as those who
are disabled. This has helped those who
are in the most need of medical insurance.
This is the first step that the federal government took towards
universal healthcare.
Since that
time, people have seen the benefits that Medicare and Medicaid have given to a
select group of people, and they wanted access to the same benefits. They wanted the government to not only
provide health insurance to the elderly and disabled but to the general
public.
Beginning
with Medicaid and Medicare the healthcare industry has grown in size and in
government regulation. While government
subsidies has increase the number of people the industry has had increasingly
more mandates on coverage, on practices across the country, and the industry in
general. These regulations have hurt the
healthcare industry.
With more
and more regulations, mandates and insurance paid for by the government the
industry has little room to innovate and improve. Since patients with government healthcare can
always pay the hospitals and doctors do not need to improve as their income is
assured. In a none subsidized industry
if people do not approve of service provided they go somewhere else with their
business.
In the year
2010 both houses of Congress agreed to the Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act. (ACA)
This law was signed by President Obama on March 23, 2010 (STOLBERG). This act
was intended to make healthcare affordable to those who can afford it and
provide it for those who are not. It
does this by mandating that companies with a certain number of full time
employees provide health insurance, making it cheaper for the individual.
Supporting the Affordable Care Act:
There are
many reasons people support universal healthcare. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act states that “Starting January 1st of 2014 the following
"benefits" must be included under all insurance plans: emergency services, hospitalization,
laboratory services, maternity care, mental health and substance
abuse treatment, outpatient, or ambulatory care, pediatric care, prescription
drugs, preventive care, rehabilitative and facilitative (helping maintain daily
functioning) services, vision and dental care for children” (ObamaCare Facts).
Many
Americans believe that it is a right of person to have access to
healthcare. They believe that if someone
has something they do not the government should step in and provide it for
them. There really are people who get
sick and die because they are not able to pay for care. This is really sad. Everyone should be able to live a healthy
life. Sometimes things happen in life
that just isn’t fair. It is not fair
that a young mother gets cancer and dies.
One issue
that many people have had with the healthcare industry before the ACA was the
increasingly higher premiums charged by insurance companies. As the cost rose fewer people were able to
afford it. In 2005 “more than 40 million
adults stated that they needed but did not receive one or more of these health
services (medical care, prescription medicines, mental health care, dental
care, or eyeglasses)… because they could not afford it.” (HealthPAConline)
One benefit
of the Affordable Care Act is that now insurance companies are not able to deny
healthcare coverage to anyone based on a pre-existing condition. Before the law companies were able to ask if
an applicant had any previous medical issues.
If they were diabetic, or had had cancer, the company was free to deny
service or increase the premiums for that person.
Many saw
this as unfair. They believe that
everyone should have access to medical care, and those with pre-existing
conditions were in the most need. It
seems that this was one part of the law that gained the most support during the
healthcare debate. One tactic of
insurance companies used to stay in business was that they would often drop
someone from their coverage when they got a chronic disease. Under the ACA companies are not allowed to do
so. This means that health insurance
companies have an increase in cost, thus raising their prices for
everyone.
It is
believed that having access to adequate medical care would help increase the
health of most Americans. When you get
the flu, or catch a cold, if you have insurance you can go to the doctor at a
low cost, and get the medicine you need help you get better. When you are not able to get medicine your
body may take longer to fight the infection.
This is not necessarily true.
Diet and exercising play in a big role in helping people maintain their health.
Colds and
the flu are part of life, but if we exercise regularly we can help our immune
system fight diseases. If we are obese
our bodies have a much harder time fighting the flu. What is important to remember the best way to
have good health is to eat right and exercise.
Many women
support the ACA because the Act mandates that insurance companies pay for
preventive care for them. The companies
must pay for testing of HPV, contraceptive methods, counseling for violence,
and screening for cancer (Peterson).
This is believed to enable healthcare costs in general to be lower as
the companies do not have to pay for the treatment of many diseases that could
be prevented with regular checkups.
Opposing the Affordable Healthcare
Act:While having
all these changes in place are nice there are many aspects of government
regulation of the healthcare industry that need to be considered. When it was
passed in 2010 there were strong opponents who loudly voiced their opposition
to the bill. The opponents to the ACA
are chiefly Republican.
Why would
the opponents, mainly Republicans, be opposed to something that would seem to
help so many? Many Republican leaders do
not like the increasing power of the federal government, believing that the
power of the government is limited to what the Constitution allows. Since the Constitution is the supreme law of
the land they believe that it should be followed. Nothing in the Constitution talks about
healthcare. Many believe that healthcare
is not an inalienable right
Many leaders
recognize that ever increasing government spending will only hurt those whom it
is trying to help. Governments get their
money through taxes. The more programs a
government offers to the people the more money it needs. If it needs more money they increase taxes. If I have more taxes to pay I am not able to
use that money to provide for myself and my family.
There is a
phrase that originated in the 19th century that is relevant to this
discussion: “There is no such thing as a free lunch” (Martin). To illustrate this consider a story about 3
young boys in a school lunch room. Billy
has a wealthy family who sends him to school with 2 sandwiches each day for
lunch. Johnny is from a poor family who
is unable to send him to school with any lunch.
Robert, the school bully, sees this and takes one sandwich from Billy
and gives it to Johnny so that Johnny does not go hungry.
Now, who is
paying for Johnny’s lunch? He is not
able to pay for it. Billy’s family
is. Johnny is given a sandwich each day
which he did not earn. He did nothing
other than be poor. Billy did nothing
other than be able to have 2 sandwiches.
Billy considers this unfair because why should he have to give Johnny a
sandwich each day? Billy wants 2
sandwiches.
Robert
thinks that everyone should be nice to each other and forces Billy to be nice
to Johnny. Stealing is not nice. Using force to take something from someone
and giving it to another is not right.
Johnny did not earn the food; therefore he should not get it. It is not Billy’s fault that Johnny is not
able to get food. Billy might choose to
give the sandwich to Johnny of his own free will if he has been taught
compassion. Compassion will take care of many of the social ills, but forced
compassion or forced charity will never benefit a society.
“There is no
such thing as a free lunch” means that someone must pay for everything. If you give someone a gift you are saying
that you are willingly giving that person that item. I am paying for that item to give it to
you. When something is taken from you by
force it is theft. The person taking it
does not have your permission to use your goods to give to someone else.
So when we
talk about healthcare something that is not often discussed is cost. Since giving healthcare to millions of
uninsured Americans will cost a lot, taxes will increase. A tax is taking money from someone. If this is used for something I do not
willingly give it to it is wrong. There
are many things that taxes should be used for.
A government should be able to protect its’ citizens with a military,
provide fire and police services, roads, postal services and other necessary
things. Regulating and giving healthcare
to people is not needed.
One
unintended consequences of the ACA is that with healthcare now provided “free”
of charge private medical insurance companies will not be able to compete. If there is a service you want and the choice
is either pay for it or get it free, which would you choose? Most people would probably choose the free
service. This will mean that private companies
will lose revenue, which will leave to a decrease of jobs. Jobs created money for people. This means that more people will be
unemployed and not able to purchase private medical insurance.
This cycle
will just continue until private medical insurance companies cease to
exist. Once it does the government will
be the only provider of insurance. With
more and more people under government medical insurance the cost will only
increase, leading to a huge increase of taxes.
Nobody likes to pay taxes, so why would you support something that will
only lead to an increase?
Government
run healthcare with regulations and mandates is wrong. Just like the saying “There is no such thing
as a free lunch” someone has to pay for government run healthcare. The average citizen would do well to consider
the implications of providing others with a service that they are unable to
provide for themselves. Taking something
from one person is wrong. If I took from
you it would be called stealing. Why is
it when government does takes from us to give to another it is considered
right?
Works Cited
Bidwell, Dr.
Lee D. Millar. Defining Social Problems. Longwood University, Web. July 3,
2013. http://www.longwood.edu/staff/bidwelllm/socproblem/defineout.htm
CMS.gov. cms.gov, Center Centers for Medicare
& Medicaid Services,
06/13/2013
Web. July 3, 2013 http://www.cms.gov/AboutCMS/AgencyInformation/History/index.html?redirect=/history/
HealthPAConline, Health
Care Statistics in the United States. HealthPAConline. 2001-2013. Web. July 3, 2013 http://www.healthpaconline.net/health-care-statistics-in-the-united-states.htm
Martin,
Gary. The Phrase Finder, Gary Martin.
1996 – 2013 Web. July 3, 2013.
ObamaCare
Facts. Benefits of Obamacare: Advantage of ObamaCare, ObamaCare Facts. Web.
July 3, 2013. http://obamacarefacts.com/benefitsofobamacare.php
Beadle, Amanda Peterson. Think Progress, Center for American
Progress Action Fund.
July 31, 2012 Web. July 3 2013. http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/07/31/614331/women-benefit-from-obamacare/?mobile=nc
STOLBERG,
SHERYL GAY and PEAR, ROBERT. Obama Signs Health Care Overhaul Bill, With a Flourish, New York
Times, 23 March 2010. Web. 3 July 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/health/policy/24health.html?_r=0
Figure 1
OKPolicyBlog. Oklahoma health
insurance consumers will still receive benefits and protections of the
Affordable Care Act. Okpolicy.org April 16, 2013. Web. July 8, 2013.
Figure 2
Voxxi. Affordable Care
Act: What are the options for young adults? Disqus. June 11, 2012. Web.
July 8, 2013.
Figure 3
Working
Class Heroes. What we stand to lose if the Affordable Care
Act gets Repealed! Working Class Heroes.
October 30, 2012. Web. July 8,
2013.
Figure 4
The Liberal Curmudgeon.
Democrats Should Campaign On New Health Care
Protections. The
Liberal Curmudgeon. September 24th,
2010. Web. July 8, 2013.
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