You see, currently President Obama is touring the country to promote the new law and explain how it will benefit all Americans so maybe I can do my little part to help him out. Let's start by highlighting what the bill will do and then combat the fallacies that still abound regarding it.
First of all, and perhaps most importantly for you, my readers, is that the new law will keep insurance companies honest. Perhaps you, like me, have never been screwed over by insurance companies, but many people are and it could just as easily happen to you or one of your loved ones. Should an insurance company really be allowed to take your money when you're healthy and then refuse to cover you when you get sick? Should they actually be allowed to turn away people with "pre-existing conditions," the sick people who need insurance the most? These changes have already taken place which could mean good news for you or your family. Hopefully no one you know or love will get sick, but if they do, you can thank the new law for making sure the insurance companies don't screw you.
If you are concerned with social justice - stop reading Glenn Beck fans - then you will also be happy to know that this law extends health insurance to roughly 31 million Americans. If you're not concerned with social justice, you should still be happy to know that this will save you and our country money. The system as it is currently set up, mandates that anyone in need of health care receive such care even if they can't pay. This means that people who don't have insurance don't go to the doctor until they absolutely have to which means that you and I and the government are paying for these people to receive the most expensive type of care, emergency care. If these uninsured people have insurance then they will be able to go to primary care physicians and pay for it themselves rather than waiting until things are so bad that they need us to pay for their emergency room visits.
So whether you are concerned with the general well-being of the American public or the money our government spends on health care or even your own expenses, there is something for you to like in the new health care law.
Now let's combat some of the fallacies that still exist about this law.
Something that I hear and read frequently is that this law constitutes a government takeover of health care and that it is communist. I'm not exactly sure what to say about this except that it is wrong. The government is mandating that you buy insurance - which helps you and the government - but they aren't selling it to you. People will still get their insurance from privately run insurance companies, but now the government will make sure those plans don't screw you over. I know there are some people out there that don't trust the government but my question to those people is simple: do you really trust a company whose sole purpose is to make money more than you trust the officials you elected? Some people may take offense to the fact that the government is forcing people to buy insurance but I fail to see how this infringes upon our rights as Americans. Do we not have the right be healthy and know that if we get sick we will be able to afford health care? Is it communist for the government to make us buy health insurance from a private company? If so that is a strange definition of communism. The government hasn't taken over our health care system, they've stepped in to make sure that it benefits us rather than bankrupts us; helps us rather than harms us.
There also exists the notion that this bill will bankrupt our country. I won't pretend to be a fiscal expert and yes, this is an expensive law, costing nearly 1 trillion dollars over the next 10 years. However according to the "official scorekeeper" of Congress, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, this bill will save 100 billion dollars over the next 10 years and, get this, 1.2 trillion dollars over the next 20. It's like the anti-credit card, spend now, save later. That sounds good to me. Different people have different predictions for how much the law will save or cost. Republicans say that it is doomed to increase the deficit rather than lower it while some people - Nobel-Prize winner Paul Krugman among them - estimate that it will actually save more than the 1.2 trillion projected by the CBO. I won't offer my own speculations, but that fact that the CBO says that this law will save money has to count for something. That is actually a huge deal. Far from being a "fiscal Frankenstein," this law will save our country money. How can we lose?
I understand that the government has taken a big step and it makes sense to be nervous about it, but this is not a communist undertaking. It is a cost-effective measure designed help the American people. Not all legislative undertakings are perfect, but I can't think of one that was designed to hurt our country. At the very least, Americans need to give the new law a chance. Even the Republicans know that; their talks of repeal have been tempered with talks of replace, an acknowledgement that this bill does some very good things for the well-being of our nation.
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