*Caution*: This post is highly opinionated and political. :)
I hate Obamacare. There. I said it. I hate it. I hate universal health care! I hate socialism. I've been avoiding the whole Obamacare for sometime now, because I knew it would make it me mad. Today I went into the Terrace in the Wilk to eat my whole wheat bagel and CNN was on like always. They were talking about the health care reform and I got sucked in. I sat there wondering how I could change all of this from happening.
I think universal health care will ruin what is considered the best health care in the world. I want to be served and work in the best health care system in the world. I want to work right here in the United States, but I do NOT want to work in a universal health care system.
Competition runs our economy. There is no competition with universal health care. Doctors, Nurses, Therapists, Rad Techs, (the list goes on) will stop contributing and working at the top of their game if there is no competition in the health care field. Why would you want to take your child or your spouse or your mother or father or yourself to a Doctor when they are not going to provide you with the best practice they know how? Of course, there will be some that it won't effect, but for the most part people will stop working hard if their jobs and their money are not on the line. Along with universal health care comes a committee that decides if YOU get to have a surgery. Why would we want someone who isn't even a doctor and doesn't even know us to decide if we need a back surgery, or knee surgery, or brain surgery??
Don't get me wrong, change needs to happen. The health care system in America is not perfect. It's far from it. But I wouldn't say it's broken. It doesn't need to be fixed or reformed. It needs to be mended and added too. Malpractice insurance for example, is out of control! Doctor's cost so much because they have to pay such high malpractice insurance because people are so sue happy these days. And health insurance is too expensive. And needs to be available to more people. I don't know how to fix all these problems, but I do know that the answer is NOT obamacare!
We live in America, where we have freedom to choose right? Then why does the President want to mandate that everyone have health insurance?? I should not be required by the government to pay for something I don't want. If I don't want health insurance I shouldn't have to buy it!
Democrats are claiming that this "obamacare" is going to save money. But it's not. "The Congressional Budget Office says the leading health-care-reform proposals will increase health-care spending and make the budget harder to balance in the long run. Yet saving money is the President's principal stated rationale for reform." (Time) So, if the President wants to save money why is he proposing a health care plan that is going to cost us money now and later? Read this article.
The government currently has two insurance plans-Medicaid and Medicare. I know from experience that these types of insurance are extremely difficult to work with. Yes, they help thousands of people obtain health care. But Medicaid provides nothing! Everything has to be pre-authorized through Medicaid. If a woman is planning on getting pregnant she can't get per-natal vitamins until after she is pregnant! If a person who is having trouble losing weight and has tried all the other options and would like to have a surgery; Medicaid won't cover it. They cover well-child checks that's about it. And Medicare is a whole other issue right up there with Social Security!
I do like that what the President wants to do with what he calls stability and security. It cuts a lot of the unnecessary garbage you have to go through a lot of the time to get your insurance company to pay. It can be found here at the top of the page. I don't agree with what he wants to do for those who don't have insurance. A new insurance marketplace, as he calls it, and public health insurance is universal health care. And I also don't agree with his reform for all Americans. It would require a "large" business, more than 50 workers, to provide health insurance to their employees. That's going to make a lot of business goes bankrupt-just what our economy needs! Thanks Obama! And how can he promise that this isn't going to add a dime to the deficit. How does he plan to provide health insurance to over 50 million American without adding a dime to the deficit?
I've recently joined a Student Nurse's Association Committee at BYU that was made to write some Legalisation to send to Washington this year. I hope that will help me get my voice and my opinion out there as a student nurse and as an America.
Here are some articles that I found interesting and informative:
Will Doctors Buy ObamaCare?
Malpractice Reform
Side Effects
Health Care Reform Players
After Obama's Speech
The President's Plan