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Politics and Activism

The Affordable Care Nightmare

The Truth about Obamacare and Socialized Medicine

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The Affordable Care Nightmare
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Obamacare was first introduced in 2009 when newly elected presidential nominee Barack Hussein Obama had just taken the oath of office. The promise? Cheap affordable healthcare for all, stating that it will save families an average of $2500 a year. With time this has turned into admissions of price hikes according to Sally Pipes of Forbes Magazine. The Affordable Care Act is a socialist scheme that looks great on paper, but disastrous when put into effect, it is a growing problem and a serious threat to the American way of life, which is one based on self-dependency. Now some people argue and get offended by that word, socialism and say America is nowhere near a socialist country. Anytime a wealthier Person in society has to pay more to subsidize something for someone less well-off is a redistribution of wealth which is a fancier way of saying Socialism. The Affordable Care Act or Obamacare as I will refer to it is ruining health care, it is skyrocketing costs on both the Federal government's and the consumers end, causing the federal debt to keep rising and people’s premiums to go up across the country.

John Goodman of Forbes Magazine in his article "Obamacare is ruining health insurance" cites examples of circumstances in which people in need of care could not attain it. The New York Times' Elizabeth Rosenthal states an example of a woman, Karen Pineman of Manhattan sought treatment for a broken ankle, her insurer told her that the nearest in-network doctor was in Stamford, Connecticut – in another state. This is just one of many situations in which people could not get the care they needed because of doctors leaving the Obamacare network. An example of this according to Elizabeth Rosenthal is a woman by the name of Aviva Starkman Williams. A California computer engineer, tried to determine whether the pediatrician doing her son’s 2-year-old checkup was in-network, the practice’s office manager “said he didn’t know because doctors came in and out of network all the time, likening the situation to players’ switching teams in the National Basketball Association.” No customer should be subject to this especially when the treatment is seriously needed like a broken ankle. Health Care should not be about “teams” or “networks”, if people need the care they should be able to go out and find it no questions asked. We had this before Obamacare. A free market system where people went out chose their own insurance and their own doctor. Why would anyone try to fix something that is not broken; it's madness. Now people say well healthcare costs are outrageous, and the cost of prescription medicine is so high people can’t afford it. While I agree with this argument this is a problem created by Big Government, subsidizing a product for someone lets the maker of the medicine know that the customer is paying little to nothing for the treatment or medicine so they know they can get away with charging a little bit more, and when big Government steps in once again and throws more money around; they raise the price again. If there were no government subsidies in medicine and the price of prescription drugs were this high no one would be able to afford it and the pharmaceutical companies would begin to lose money forcing them to downsize and cut prices across the board. This would be true in all things subsidized by big Government including higher education.

Another point that Goodman makes on Obamacare ruining healthcare is the fact that its skyrocketing costs’. The promise of “low-cost" health insurance was the case for the first year for many, but then turned into outrages price hikes. According to Chris Conover of Forbes Magazine, The Affordable Care Act will increase health spending by $7,450 for a typical family of four.” This is troubling because the promise was to save families about $2,500 a year not increase it. This is not the only problem; this system will also add to our national debt. According to Constitutional scholar Mark Levin, “the federal government will spend roughly $1.3 Trillion through 2024.” These are huge numbers to be adding to our already huge national debt of almost $20 Trillion. When Obama came into office he promised not to leave “A mountain of debt” and also stated "ACA will not add a dime to the deficit" this would certainly render these statement false. Even insurance companies have warned small business’ that health premiums would increase by 20% according to Sally Pipes of Forbes Magazine. Obamacare is the law of the land if you don't get on board, you will get fined, that doesn't really sound like freedom to me. Not being able to choose where you get health care is not freedom. This is going to leave a lot of people in the country in a huge hole, not only families around the country but the country itself.

The problem with this type of system is that if you monopolize the health care market; or any market for that matter, innovation stalls and the quality of the product drops (i.e. people will get lazy because they know there is no competition). That’s where the beauty of Competition comes in, an example of this is by Sally Pipes when she says “In every other aspect of our economy, market competition has lowered prices, improved quality, and expanded the availability of goods and services. It’s why there are low-cost flat-screen TVs in almost every home and mind-bogglingly advanced cell phones in virtually everyone’s pocket.” Market Competition, Free Market Capitalism is what makes prices go down it gives forward-thinking people an incentive to innovate and drive down costs of goods and services. The Affordable Care act was a great idea but was destined to fail with its Socialist Architecture, because it fails to take into consideration the uniqueness of the individual. I believe the Federal Government should stay out of the health care marketplace and all other marketplaces and let the individual states decide what is best for their own population. The US is a diverse unique nation; we are one nation, but the people in different states are unique in themselves. For Example, Oregon and California would be a lot more accepting of socialized medicine than say Texas and Oklahoma. The notion that Big Government subsidies help the induvial is false. The truth? The truth is that big government subsidies give companies an excuse to raise prices to increase profits. this is Just one of the many reasons Big Government Sucks!

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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