Healthcare Bill Must be repealed (See Sarah Roluf’s rebuttal below)
by Kaitlin Hanlin
Business Manager

The health care bill that has recently been passed stated that every citizen is now required to have insurance, no exceptions.  The health care bill needs to be repealed because it is unconstitutional to force every person to buy insurance; the government is monopolizing health care, and this bill allows people to live off the administration.

Every American is now unconstitutionally required to purchase health care insurance, whether they need it or not.  Companies that possessed a good insurance policy for their employees are now getting charged by the government to have that good of a policy.  Therefore, those companies are changing their policy to make it worse, so the company doesn’t have to pay the government more money.  In the end, the employees are the ones that are getting ripped off because their insurance coverage went down thanks to the administration.  The cost of insurance is going to skyrocket because everyone has to have it no matter what.

Through this health care bill, the administration is taking over health care when it distributed everything else fairly.  For example, at the end of Jimmy Carter’s Presidency, the government de-monopolized airplanes, causing the price to go down because the regime was not controlling.  In 1984, the regime disbanded Ma Bell, a phone service that owned all the other services; this caused the cost of phone services to drop dramatically due to the competition.  The regime’s track record is bad to begin with.  So why does the government want to dominate health care when they de-monopolized almost everything else?

The health care bill allows people to live off the government.  On page 216 of this bill, it states that 69 percent of Medicaid went to the correct individuals and every state chooses services to provide which were unequally distributed.  This means that the government realizes that there is the problem of inadequate dispersion of help to the individuals that truly need it.  That leads to the question: who’s getting the help that doesn’t truly need it?  The answer: people that are pretending that they need help so they can live off of the government.  On page 522 of the health care bill it states that certain medical education center would receive grants to improve already schooled employees.  This leads one to wonder where the government is getting the money to provide these grants; the money is most likely coming from the new insurance that more people are buying due to the requirements.  The government should put the newly acquired money towards getting us out of our national debt.  The national debt would also deplete if the administration didn’t give support people that don’t need it and are just lazy. If this bill gets too far there could become a point at which the regime assigns what a procedure costs and decide the qualifications a person needs to meet in order to receive the procedure.  For example, a 55-year-old needs a lung transplant and has the health care and worked for that health care, has the money to afford the operation, and a 20-year-old need the same operation but hasn’t worked for the health care the government provided.  Yet, the government could decide that the 20-year-old’s life is more valuable to society than the 55-year-old, and grant that the 55-year-old does not get to have the operation even though they worked for it.

There was no agreement between Democrats and Republicans to get this bill passed, it was just pushed through.  Republicans voted no, but the bill went through without them.  Soon the House of Representatives, currently in Republican control, is to consider their repeal of the health care bill; they are calling it: “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act.”  It will most likely pass the House.  Then the new bill would go to the Senate, which is currently under Democratic control, therefore it is very unlikely that it will pass the Senate.  If it does, it would continue its journey to the President.  The President would most likely veto, and there are not enough votes to override the presidents’ veto because there needs to be 66% to override, which is difficult to acquire.  Overall, this health care bill was a potential harm to our government, due to the bill being unconstitutional, monopolization, and completely supporting people.

Healthcare Bill offers access for citizens                                (see Kaitlyn Hanlin’s rebuttal above)
by Sarah Rolufs
News Editor

As the Republican Party took over the United States House of Representatives in the midterm elections in November, new Republican speaker of the House John Boehner made it clear that one of the first goals on the GOP agenda would be to repeal President Obama’s Health Care Reform. Despite the Republican claim that the Health Care Reform is a government takeover, what they don’t take into account is that countries like Great Britain, Sweden or Australia, nations with government-run healthcare, have some of the most successful healthcare systems in the world. However, that term “government-run” seems like a jab at the presidency, an office that does in fact have some say in our nation’s future. If the Republicans could stop waving their gun-slinging, big business loving propaganda for once second and really take a look at the provisions of the healthcare reform, they might see how Obama’s bill will significantly change the way healthcare is paid for and delivered in the United States. Most of all, it would represent an enormous expansion of access to medical care for millions of Americans.

Let’s take quick look at the most important issues that are attended to in the Health Care Reform. First of all, insurance companies are some of the most powerful preventers of national healthcare in the United States, but Obama’s bill ensures that insurance companies would no longer be allowed to deny coverage to people based on their past medical history; everyone would be entitled to insurance, and insurers couldn’t charge immensely higher prices for people with preexisting conditions. Currently, states allow insurers to deny coverage to people with any sort of condition – from acne to cancer – and some even let insurers decline coverage to victims of domestic violence. Insurance companies hold immense power over who is and isn’t allowed healthcare, and for what reasons. Insurers would have to spend 80 to 85 percent of what people pay in premiums on actual medical services; currently, they’re allowed to spend far less than that and then they pocket the difference. Insurance companies would no longer be able to drop people from coverage once they get sick, a heinous practice known as “recision.” Also, lifetime limits on the amount of medical care your insurer would pay for would be illegal. Insurance companies are the main culprits of the issues with healthcare, and unfortunately, they are largely supported by, who else, the Republicans.

This bill would also help small business owners and those who buy their own insurance, not to mention those on the federal poverty level. Small businesses will be able to pick their own plan through state created exchanges in which insurers offer plans and a list of options, while those who can’t afford it will be offered subsidies, or to ensure that they can afford at least some time of plan. Though offering subsidies will cost the nation money, the idea of providing health care to 307 million people costing very little is an absurd assumption, but it will still cost far less than it does now. Though this won’t put into place 2014, the long-term effects will considerably reduce the number of people who don’t have insurance. Twenty-four million people would get coverage through the exchanges, according to the Congressional Budget Office; another 16 million would enroll in Medicaid. Thirty-two million people, total, would get insurance who don’t have it now. Similarly, children will be allowed to stay on their parents’ healthcare until the age of 26.

Yes, there will be a cost, that’s inevitable. $943 billion over 10 years seems like a lot, but that money is going into subsidies to help those who can’t afford comprehensive healthcare. But compare that to the $2.5 trillion spent each year on healthcare now and you’re looking at a massive difference. The Republicans are pushing for repeal, but it’s a repeal that will cost $230 billion dollars, which is just another reason not to do it.

I don’t care what your parents or your grandparents are saying; repealing this bill is not a smart move. Healthcare reform is more than necessary and is going to significantly improve the healthcare system in the United States.