When President Obama pushed for healthcare reform, it was to provide health coverage for the 30 million Americans who didn't have it. Then, earlier this week (and in recent months), pundits arguing in favor of this new healthcare law, or "Obamacare", as it's sometimes called, said there were 40 million Americans without healthcare. Then, yesterday on the news, someone said it was for the "over 50 million Americans" without health insurance. And this evening on NPR, someone used the positive number of 55 million Americans who are without healthcare. So over the past three years, the number of uninsured has swelled from 30 million to 55 million, all since the president's healthcare reform bill has passed? So rather than making me feel this law is more necessary than ever with their ever increasingly exaggerated numbers, it seems like since the new law passed, 25 million more Americans are without healthcare, which would mean that the new healthcare law is doing the exact opposite of what it was intended to do: it is creating more uninsured people (unless they're just lying, and they wouldn't do that, would they?).
Look, we all already know the "Affordable Care Act" has drastically increased most people's health insurance rates since its passage: mine have gone up a lot, and I haven't been able to see my actual doctor since then, either: they're so overloaded now that I only see trainees. Also there are a lot of new charges and red tape lately, and it's definitely due to the new law. This is the opposite of what I had hoped for! I support some of what this law was intended to do, but we were lied to a lot about what its effects would be, how much it would cost (the CBO now says it will cost almost double their original estimate, and at a time when we're already dangerously in debt and way over-leveraged as a nation), etc., and they're lying about the number of uninsured to brainwash us to keep it. Have they no shame? Honestly! This bill is seriously flawed, and we really should have it done right. It was written by corrupt politicians who know nothing about healthcare. They should have had it written by healthcare professionals appointed by a bi-partisan panel, and both parties should have worked together. But most of all, they should have been honest with us about its effects. Those lies have made me lose faith in this law, and now the over-exaggerated numbers of uninsured just make the bill's supporters look like desperate liars and propagandists. (I'm sorry, but it's true.)
I support parts of the law's intended goals: people with pre-existing conditions need to be covered more than anyone, and the fact that they've been excluded is not only a crime, it's also a sin. (Having a serious illness is hard enough without all the added stress of not being able to afford medical care.) But there are problems with the way this bill was put together, and it's not a very good solution, as well as being incredibly divisive. I really think they need to go back to the old drawing board, and work together to find a solution. And exaggerating the number of uninsured people does nothing to fix this bill's problems, or to convince its critics: it simply adds more dishonesty and corruption to the mix, and that's both reprehensible and counter-productive. Doesn't the truth matter to anyone anymore? I guess not to those with an agenda. And remember: whenever anyone uses deceit to try to get you to support something, it's always because you wouldn't support it if they told you the truth.
BTW: Here is some further recommended reading on the subject which comes from CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/04/opinion/borger-washington-fail/index.html
BTW: Here is some further recommended reading on the subject which comes from CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/04/opinion/borger-washington-fail/index.html
