We Cannot Do Without A Health Insurance Plan
Four years ago, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed by Congress. The plan would provide access to healthcare for Americans who had been denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions. However, in 2017, it looks like depending on Congress for health insurance is no longer a viable option.
Due to efforts during the Trump administration’s time in office, we are now at risk of repealing parts of the ACA without having anything close to a replacement plan in its place. This repeal would restrict those who rely on Medicaid and Medicare for their insurance and reduce federal subsidies that make healthcare more accessible by charging more out of pocket costs. Due to this repeal there is uncertainty as to what will happen and how much it could cost us...
The repeal of the ACA would affect people of all demographics. The government could change the way they pay for insurance, which could make things more expensive. Even though these changes may seem small now, that is not to say they will not have a large effect down the road.
If this repeal was to happen it would cost us over $600 billion dollars between 2018 and 2026... This does not include what it would cost us in terms of lost tax revenue.
To put that into perspective, California's budget deficit for this year was estimated at $180 billion dollars.... So if this health care repeal was to go through, California would be leaving $150 billion dollars on the table in just one year alone.
To put it simply, this healthcare repeal has the potential to cost us an enormous amount of money. As the nation continues to try and outpace China's GDP, it may seem as if this is a small sum of money compared to where we are now. But that is not to say that $600 billion dollars is insignificant. This dollar figure can be better understood by looking at how many student loans could be paid off for the next decade if the government chose to allocate these costs towards student loans.
Over about 10 years, $600 billion dollars would be enough to pay off all student loan debt for about 29 million people.
Being able to pay off student loans is of course an important and admirable goal. But the country needs to look at the bigger picture.
For those who do not have access to healthcare, those are dollars that will continue to be taken out of our economy and go into hospitals and clinics when people could be working instead.
This repeal does not just affect students... It affects all of us. The estimated 5.4 million people with pre-existing conditions will also find themselves in a situation where they cannot afford insurance in a way that they can now. This repeal would only serves as a band aid on our healthcare issues and we will not escape it into the future because we refuse to address them at their roots...
The United States is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but there are still many people who cannot afford healthcare.
This repeal would not only affect Americans, but it would also hurt our international competitiveness. As the way we buy and sell goods becomes more digital, we will start to lose out on international business opportunities... We absolutely need a health insurance plan for this country in order to remain competitive....
The way that our healthcare system works is that we allow people to pay for their own healthcare if they can afford it... This does not mean though that all plans are affordable. There is still a lot of work that we need to do in order to make sure that everyone has access to affordable healthcare.
As Congress continues to debate whether or not the ACA should be repealed, more and more people are losing their health insurance because they can no longer afford it...
We need a plan in place just in case something happens to the ACA. We cannot wait until it is too late before we start looking at what we can do next.- Alhadeff, Marilyn (2014). We Cannot Do Without A Health Insurance Plan. San Francisco State University. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database. SFSU website .
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Conclusion
The repeal of the ACA without a plan in place that could potentially replace it could be disastrous for Americans. We would not only be facing having to pay for insurance that we previously did not, but we could also see premiums increase astronomically. The ACA was a step in the right direction, but as more and more people become insured, there still have to be other steps taken to ensure that all people have access to healthcare. This will only foster growth in terms of quality of life in America.
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