Of all of the time in American History, Obamacare may perhaps be the biggest political as well as social issue ever. The new health care legislation is named after the current president of the United States of America. The new legislation has infuriated many Americans throughout the United States. There is nothing good that many Americans can see about Obamacare. It has its numerous restrictions, it has reductions in the service as well as the care, it’s extremely expensive, and it eliminates some benefits as well. For the first time ever, many older citizens of the United States have formed tea parties, and are marching for their first time to show their disapproval for the new healthcare legislation.
One fact that is totally undeniable is that the Presidents new healthcare legislation called Obamacare has divided the nation. The minorities favor the law. The majority of the people however feel nothing but hate towards the President and the Democratic Party. The two thousand page bill is not only the newest but it is also the most expensive American piece of legislation ever. Well what are the effects of Obamacare? The first is increased taxes. The second is that the benefits will not kick until several years later. This is one reason why Americans are so angry. Although it will not be a benefit until several years down the road, Americans are having to pay for the benefit.
It gets worse though. People who normally don’t think about health insurance are now required to buy and pay for their coverage as well. Well what if you just don’t do it? Then you will suffer a substantially large penalty and or fine. Even medical professionals do not like the idea of the new piece of legislation. Why not? The new piece of legislation will reduce the fees for specialists as well as doctors. For this reason many doctors are threatening to start finding a new profession. Doctors believe that the new legislation will not only hurt the health care system but say it will immensely hurt the current condition.
Due to the new legislation of Obamacare a survey showed that by the year of 2020 the United States of America will need an extra ninety one thousand and five hundred doctors in order to keep up with the medical demand. This issue could cause the biggest crisis in our society as we know it. Just think if doctors are already leaving their professions because of the new law, then the issue is only going to escalate even further as time goes on. Another area of concern due to the new law is that the relationship between the doctors and the patient will be compromised. Over half of the doctor’s in the country believe the increased bureaucracy will reduce the personal interaction between them and the patients which is crucial for building a close relationship as well as the understanding the nature of the health of the patient.
Conservatives as showed by CNN have backed the movement to shut down the federal government if the funding for the new health care law is not cut off by the end of September of this year. This is putting most of the pressure on the Republicans to do something about this issue. This caused Senator Ted Cruz to state that this may cause a new paradigm in Washington which is the ability of the grass roots activists to demand that their elected officials do what they were elected to do. Some have called Obamacare the beginning of the end of freedom in the United States. Let’s look at some of the facts about Obamacare for a minute now. If you have ever seen the new bill then on page 272 you will see that at the age of 76 which is when most people need it, you will not be covered for cancer treatment. Obamacare will also force about fifty percent of Americans to become reliant on the government. Many part time workers will be forced to pay for their health insurance. These are some serious facts here.
Due to the new healthcare law six million out of nineteen million people who contain individual health policies will be forced to pay more. If you are between the ages of twenty one to twenty nine then you will be hit with a whopping forty six percent increase. The CBO which stands for the congressional budget office predicts that three million Americans will altogether lose their insurance. If you don’t want to pay or can’t afford the coverage of the new law then guess what, you and about six million people will be forced to pay the penalty in 2016 of the individual tax mandate. If your employer covers your insurance, you could have your plan dropped due to increasing rates.
MSNBC shows that fifty four percent of the people in the United States do not like Obamacare and that they totally oppose the idea. Forty three percent say that they support it. There are people in both parties who oppose the new law. The majority of its supporters are made up of Democrats however. Are we overreacting about the new law? The white house claims that the new law offers new protections as well as rights that make the coverage easier to understand and much more fair. They claim that some of these protections and rights apply to plans in the health insurance marketplace. They say that some apply to all health coverage.
Is there any hope against all of this big political talk from Obama though? Four federal courts as a matter of fact have struck down Obamacare based in part on constitutional rights. Even the Supreme Court is set to take on the case in the coming weeks. A Bipartisan group is even calling for an exemption on Obamacare due to religious beliefs. As you can see there are people who want Obamacare and people who don’t want it. The thing about this social issue is that it affects my community just as it does everyone else in the country. As our books read, Social issues are matters that can be explained only be factors outside of an individual’s control and immediate social environment which affect many individuals within a society.
The issue of Obamacare is one that affects and is relevant to my community due to its two thousand pages of new laws for the healthcare law itself. I live in a small town we have one hospital, one clinic, and a few doctors’ offices located within the hospital perimeter. If Obamacare is enforced and not defunded then we risk losing our whole hospital. Many of our local doctors have already either left or quit their profession due to the new law on healthcare. The new piece of legislation would force the people in my community to spend more money on the new healthcare law than they could afford. The Obama administration claims that the healthcare under Obamacare is affordable but people in my age group which is 21-29 would be forced to pay over $800.00 for this insurance while we are used to paying way less if we even have health insurance.
The older citizens in our community would no longer be eligible for cancer treatment at the age of 76 which is about the time when these senior citizens usually have to go through some sort of cancer treatment. What does the government expect them to do? Just sit around, suffer, and die? We would no longer be able to sit and talk to our doctors like we have been doing for years now which establish a well needed relationship between the doctor and the patient so we can establish a better plan to keep us healthier. If our doctors all quit or leave then where will we have to go then? Could everybody even get to a different medical facility? It is very concerning as well as intimidating once I sit here and look at all of the different facts and ways that my community could be affected by this new piece of legislation.
The new healthcare law also affects our religious beliefs as well as many other beliefs that we have. The HHS or health and human services mandate under the new law requires almost all insurance plans to cover abortion induced drugs, sterilization, and contraception. We as Christians believe that abortion in itself is wrong in the fact that you are playing the role of God in deciding who lives and who dies. Even in another point of view, it goes against our Christian values because it pretty much is like taking what God has created and destroying it. It also goes against our freedom in the fact that the federal government is or will be in complete control of all medical care and therefore will be able to say what employers must offer, what insurance plans must cover, and what individuals must buy.
The problem is that if you do not go along with the new laws because of your religious or moral objections then you are then slapped with federal fines that can get even more expensive. If you think about it, it basically walks all over our basic freedoms. The first Amendment freedom of religion is especially trampled on when you do the math. Furthermore it harms civil society institutions. I say this because this issue is concerned with the freedom of Americans to work and live in line with their beliefs. A relevant ethical theory is that people have certain inalienable rights that were given to us by our creator.
We have rights to life, liberty, justice, the pursuit of happiness, and freedom of religion. The new piece of legislation handed to us through the Obama administration threatens every single one of those rights as we know them. On a political view of Obamacare we see that the politicians claim that the new piece of legislation provides affordable healthcare for all Americans. I found a problem with this particular point of view though. It does not say anywhere in the piece of legislation that it is guaranteed that the health care will be one of an affordable nature. There is also no guarantee that it will be accessible as well. What does this mean? If it is not accessible then the individuals who are seeking care will find out that the alternatives are nowhere near affordable.
The problem with any type of health reform as well is that even if you searched everyone’s ethical codes in the world, none of them would be consistent with this one. I say this due to the fact that it forces young citizens of the United States to pay three times the amount they would usually pay for their real insurance. It steals from lower income senior citizens so it can provide subsidized insurance for people with higher incomes who are not senior citizens. It takes from all kinds of people who need what they have and turns around and gives it all to people who don’t need it. I do not see one bit of justification that they could use to claim this new law is right ethically.
There are so many new laws, rules, and regulations within one healthcare system that it almost requires a degree in complexity theory. There are just far too many issues that we need to really stop, look at and think about. Whether you believe it or not, we all will be affected by the new piece of legislation known as Obamacare. I personally do not want to have to experience all of the downfalls that are associated with the new law. The strange thing is that all the President and the few Democrats who actually support this new health law can say good about it is, it will provide affordable healthcare to every American citizen.
Digging deeper into the subject though what if there is a company hiring someone new to work in a restaurant let’s say. There are two applicants. The first applicant is a U.S. citizen has a degree, and will cost the owner more money in taxes work the man because of the Obamacare taxes. Then you have an illegal citizen that does not have to be documented and would not cost the restaurant owner anything extra in taxes to work. Who is the owner going to pick if the new tax laws from Obamacare have him in a bind barely staying open. I can honestly say it is easy to pick the easy way out of a situation like that. This is what we all need to realize.
Not only will Obamacare affect our religious freedoms, our norms, beliefs, values, etc. It will also affect the employment rate which is not being debated too much on this issue. I have stated two different opinions on this issue but one side only has one positive thing to claim about the new piece of legislation, while the other side has a list of things negative to claim against the new law that could go into effect if we do not stop it. This is one of the biggest perhaps the biggest social issue that the United States has ever faced throughout history. It is definitely something to think about.
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