UNITED STATES—For months, Americans have been well aware that President Obama’s health care plan would soon come to fruition. On October 1, the plan took its first steps to ensuring that every human being would be offered health coverage. I do however have a bone to pick with the plan.
In my personal opinion, I believe every single citizen in America should have health insurance. The unfortunate side effect is that we live in a world where people are so absorbed with making money and being global titans they’d like to charge an arm and a leg for insurance to the everyday citizen. We live in a world where it’s all about making money. So the insurance companies are going to continue to do everything in their power to make sure rates are as high as possible to keep the dough coming in.
My argument is to any employer out there, rather your employees are full-time or part-time they should be offered health benefits or packages. Don’t dismiss part-time workers compared to your full-time workers because let’s face it, the company can not run on just full-time workers, those part-timers play a bigger role than what they are given credit for. Anyway, to go back to my argument, there are various levels to the universal healthcare plan with ranges from bronze to platinum. Like any medal, the lower level ensures basic health coverage, where platinum provides a bit more amenities to the consumer.
The one problem with the plan is the cost. There is this assumption in America that people make much more than what is known to those in Congress. There are many everyday Americans who would sell the clothes off of their backs to ensure that their child has healthcare, but the problem is some just can’t afford it, even if they wanted to as they are barely making ends meets now. The plans vary based on income and those covered in the package.
My biggest gripe with President Obama’s plan is to penalize Americans who are not signed up for some sort of healthcare. So the goal to get people to sign up is to tax them if they don’t. How idiotic is that? It’s alarming in my opinion, it borders a dictatorship in my eyes. You cannot force someone to do something against their will because it’s something that you want. If that’s the case we should create a tax for every person that drinks alcohol, smokes, drive gas guzzler vehicles that are damaging the planet’s atmosphere.
Of course, I’m going to get the argument that those things are not comparable to the idea of healthcare. And to some degree it’s absolutely a fair assessment. My concern is how forcing people to pay a penalty will ensure people to get healthcare. Hey, we’re one of the richest places in the world, why can’t we just make it so that healthcare is free for all Americans? Oh, yeah I remember, we live in a global competitive market where it’s all about making money and lots of it. Forget the price that people have to pay for products or services, we have to make money. We are a cynical culture. We like to depict what we see wrong or what perhaps needs to be fixed, yet no one is willing to take steps to make that change. I’ll give an answer to help erase the poverty line in America: increase the minimum wage. If people are making more money it gives them the opportunity to ensure extra money to take care of the things that are important like having healthcare.
Yes, it should be a top priority on many people’s list, but some are thinking basics: roof, clothing and food. Everything else is secondary. With the fiasco involving the idiots in Washington about the government shutdown, we should strip them of their powers; it’s obvious my nephew can do a better job then these idiots who are not willing to budge no matter what as the American public continues to suffer.
I personally believe Obamacare, as so many people are calling it is a great idea, but I beg to differ with the idea of people being penalized for not having coverage. You don’t kick a person when they’re down; you lend them a helping hand. If we want to universally implement change let’s change the dynamics of money, if everyone was able to earn a decent wage for the services they perform the idea of providing healthcare for all would not be such a difficult task.
By Trevor Roberts
