How healthcare was, is now, and will

be in the future for the

United States of America

By: Nate Murry

The most simplistic way to describe the current healthcare system is to say that Americans now have the option of federal standardized healthcare. Many Americans are still struggling to understand this change. This article will address how United States citizens struggle with healthcare, the downfalls of the health care system, and how everyone will be affected by the 26,000 page Affordable Health Care Act; which is broken down into 7 major points below.

As such, we (the people of the United States) have healthcare, for better or worse. I have an analogy of marriage that parallels healthcare and showcases exactly what’s wrong with healthcare.  How is it like marriage, you ask? Let’s break it down to before and after we received a public healthcare option.

Prior to the healthcare bill, the privatized healthcare option is what was available to Americans. Healthcare was limited by each state and the companies that were offering the insurance options. That means, your insurance was dependent upon the company you worked for or your ability to afford independent insurance. At the end of the day, if you were poor your options were severely limited, and if you were not eligible for Medicaid it is likely you had no coverage at all. According to CNN, 49.9 million Americans were uninsured as of 2010.

So, how does that compare to marriage?  Essentially, you could end up with a wonderful significant other who would do anything for you, or you could have an utterly terrible relationship with someone who was just there to take your money.  Just like with insurance, dependent upon your level of income and place of business, you could end up with good or bad insurance options.

The federal government has decided that it is responsible for the well-being of its own people, and it should provide some type of affordable healthcare system. However, that is quite laughable in the current instance of the bill.  We have a giant mixed system of laws that deal somewhat with providing healthcare to citizens, but fall more on the side of curtailing the behavior of private insurance companies.

So basically it’s still the same setup with the same rules playing out overall, except now your money hungry wife who left you dead in the street can be arrested for doing such (ie: the insurance companies now have rules to follow in order to continue providing insurance to American citizens).

You might be thinking to yourself, shouldn’t our government create a public healthcare system that is paid through taxes? I already pay enough in taxes, and I feel healthcare should be a piece of it. Well, if the two main parties that run our government could agree, we may be able to have a functioning system paid through taxes, but alas that is not the case.

The Affordable Healthcare Act was created to cover approximately 15% of the population that has no form of healthcare coverage, be it government subsidized or otherwise. That means approximately 85% of our population has some form of healthcare coverage. The biggest issue is that the costs of healthcare is getting out of control, so the government has geared the bill to fix issues amongst insurance and care providers, which will eventually cause the price of healthcare to fall overall.

To be fair, I did some of my research using websites, including: Wikipedia, “Obama Care is the Devil” websites, and “So We Have Canada’s Healthcare” websites, like many others trying to understand the new bill. After reading the information broadcasted on these opinion based websites, I was left more confused and misinformed on what we have and don’t have for healthcare. Therefore, I did the smart thing and contacted the people who are paid by our government, which is being shamed to death, to assist me in helping all of us have a better understanding of the changes currently taking place. This brings us to the 7 things you need to know about the new healthcare law.

There is an online, somewhat nonfunctioning (due to large masses of people trying to use it), exchange for people trying to access all types of insurances. The best way to describe the types of insurance is to compare it to the four Olympic medals. In this system, just as in Olympic medal rankings, platinum is the best type of insurance, while bronze is the worst in terms of plans and affordability. Here is the website: https://www.healthcare.gov/marketplace/individual/.

For anyone 26-years-old and younger, your healthcare coverage is through your parents’ insurance. This means you are covered under the new mandated healthcare law.

If you are a student (and who else would you be if you’re reading this paper?) you are covered for the minimum requirements for the health insurance law because Fayetteville State University requires its students to have healthcare.

If you do not have health insurance, either through your parents or on your own, by Mar. 31^st, you will be taxed and/or fined for not getting insurance.

North Carolina is not expanding its Medicaid program. Medicaid helps most of those in the state deemed too poor to afford regular insurance, but have a salary too high to receive supplementary income. In other words, Medicaid is a program from the state (and sometimes federal) government for those who meet the qualifications to obtain help to acquire health insurance and other medical assistance.

Despite number 5, the healthcare bill covers how healthcare will affect citizens and business. It further discusses the relationship between current and future healthcare coverage. Remember the good/bad marriage example? Well, it turns out insurance companies were exploiting immoral actions to their customers and filing them as something completely legal. Although I actually don’t know why they would do this, among those immoral actions they were:

Pre-existing conations for children, and adults (because apparently preexisting conditions is a cover all for not affording your customer the care they need to survive)

Forces insurance companies to give you a summary of conditions and benefits of your coverage (instead of a War and Peace novel of information that makes no sense).

Holds insurances companies accountable for sudden rate increases (that ultimately you did nothing, as a customer, to help create).

The health care law also forces insurance companies to provide free coverage for eligible services. What are those services you might ask? Well, here are some of them:

• For women specifically, insurance companies must now cover services like mammograms, annual exams, and contraception. Additionally, they can choose from any primary care provider or pediatrician, no referral required.
• For homosexuals, discrimination is completely rampant even though the law is supposed to be covering you as a citizen. Conversely, to be honest, insurance companies are inflating their rates in some arbitrary manner because you identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered.

In other words, our healthcare has now begun to change toward a more positive light for the whole of the United States society and its people.  Clearly, now that we have begun to recognize the limitations of this healthcare law, we are recognizing that there are things to improve. With the Affordable Healthcare Act in place, historically more people now will be covered which will increase the time and quality of life of Americans.

Whether if you approve or disapprove of Obama Care is not important; the law is here as long as the general population approves of it and we should move forward with healthcare law not backwards. We are not getting rid of privatized health care; we are expanding the people who can buy the privatized healthcare coverage. We will finally lower the rates down because everyone will have healthcare coverage. It should be noted, however, that on Capitol Hill the Affordable Healthcare Act and the positive outcomes provided by it might change dramatically due to the government shut down. If you want Obama Care or want it enhanced, let your congressman and congresswoman know.