By Alejandro Cardenas |Staff Writer|
The Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, is good for America because it has, and will continue to insure millions of people who did not previously have access to healthcare.
Although some people have experienced inconveniences, the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the national rate of uninsured Americans has already dropped by a full percentage point since last year, and state medicaid enrollment has increased by 14 percent.
Although a one percent increase may not seem like much, I believe that any increase in the amount of insured Americans is significant, and this number will more than likely grow as word of its benefits spreads.
Before its enactment, I would have not been able to afford health insurance; it seemed like a luxury.
After signing up for the program and learning that I would receive preventative care, as well as doctor visits with no cost out of my own pocket, I was elated.
Based on the average income of college students, I am confident that most would benefit from it as well.
It is difficult to understand how a program that helps sick and suffering people can gain so much bad publicity, but as with every issue, there are pros as well as inevitable cons.
One obvious pro is the access to healthcare that millions of people now have, but the suggested con from this are new taxes, which often burden the highest-earning individuals.
Since people can’t be denied health insurance for already being sick, some would say that this is a con, because those who are not sick end up paying for services they are not using.
I disagree with this argument because any of us could be diagnosed with an illness at any moment.
Our taxes already pay for services such as the fire department; just because someone’s home is not on fire at the moment does not mean that they should not have to pay for the service.
The debate on Obama Care has been turbulent since its initiation into congress, but I have found that many people don’t know very much about the program.
For the past five years, Kaiser has performed numerous polls which consistently show that about half the population is against Obamacare.
However, those Kaiser polls also showed that six out of ten people did not even know how Obamacare affected them personally.
This did not make much sense to me, so to better understand perspectives on Obamacare, I spoke to a number of students and co-workers on both sides of the issue.
I was surprised when the poll’s findings were reaffirmed, as very few people had an idea on how Obama Care affected them.
Partisanship could be guiding public opinion on Obama Care rather than personal experience; I believe this could explain the almost fifty-fifty split in approval rating.
Republicans currently control both houses in Congress, giving them power to repeal the Affordable Health Care act.
“Over time, threatening to repeal Obamacare is going to become a liability because more and more people are going to draw benefits from it,” said Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution.
However, President Obama has made comments that he would veto any legislation that seeks elimination of or threatens essential elements of the program, according to Yahoo Finance.
Before students form an opinion on Obamacare, I suggest they find out how Obamacare affects them by visiting www.coveredca.com, or the CSU based website at www.calstate.edu/coveredca.
Lisa Graham from the Health Center says that students can get on-campus help with Obamacare by reaching Yadira Sanchez at sancy300@coyote.csusb.edu or Claudia Valtierra Ortiz at valtc300@coyote.csusb.edu.
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