By Alex Massoud ’20
Obamacare: The very word, even if spoken in just a whisper, can spark a heated debate among lifelong friends. In Trump’s White House, perhaps the most controversial issue is Obamacare, more formally known as the Affordable Care Act.
Republicans currently in the House of Representatives are pushing time and time again to repeal the ACA once and for all. However, the election of Democrat Senator Doug Jones from Alabama all but ended those efforts. “I think we’ll probably move on to other issues,”Senate majority leader Mitch Mcconnell said in December.
The inability of Republicans to repeal any form of Obamacare is all but a blessing for this country. Unlike the Republicans in Congress or President Trump, millions of Americans suffer from a lack of healthcare and insurance. If we are to actually call ourselves the greatest country in the world, then how is it possible that we could be denying a service that every other developed country in the world offers?
The dissenters of Obamacare state that it is not effective, and that it borders on socialism. To that, I say this- Obamacare has been in place for less than ten years. The impact it has had on the daily lives on so many poverty-ridden Americans around the country in just its early years is astounding, and while it does have some problems, it is nearly impossible to craft a perfect bill without amending it slightly. This does not mean repeal it all together, however. Republicans are so eager to repeal anything put in place during the Obama administration that they forget what governing is all about helping the people. Obamacare helps people and tweaking it to help even more people should be the goal.
The second claim, that giving affordable healthcare to all our citizens is socialism, is a ludicrous one. First of all, calling it socialism shouldn’t make something less effective or impactful or correct. That would be like refusing to go to school on the grounds that everyone learning together is a form of Communism. If a law or bill helps Americans, then regardless of what it is doing, it is the government’s job to enforce it. Second of all, dozens of non-socialist, democratic countries throughout the world give free healthcare. In this day and age when medicine and treatment are within reach, there is no reason not to give universal health care.
Lawmakers need to set aside their partisan grudges and focus on the true meaning behind Obamacare– improving the daily lives of the American people, which Obamacare clearly does. While it is true, the Affordable Care Act can be fixed, lawmakers should not be starting from scratch when the framework is already in place.
