I didn't think they gave us enough credit. They said that young people were going to sign up for healthcare but we were all going to wait until the last few days in March. I actually believed them, but I thought I was better than that...
Well here we are, March 30th and still no healthcare for me. I'm going to sign up (who wouldn't) but I'm kind of annoyed that it has taken me this long to get to it. I've actually been on the site a few times, looked around, poked my nose into things and got a feel for what I could expect. I must admit that I was furious to find out that dental coverage isn't included. That is probably an unwarranted critique since dental coverage always seems to be disjoined from health coverage, but that still doesn't make any sense to me. Anyway, when I found out that dental wasn't included, I started looking around the internet to see how to get dental coverage and ended up leaving the healthcare exchange without signing up. As someone who has had to constantly defend the Affordable Care Act (being a liberal in a conservative part of town) I am pretty annoyed that I haven't proven the critics wrong. It's not that I am head over heels in love with this program (single payer anyone?) but there is no doubt in my mind that it is better than what we had and better than anything (if anything) the "other guys" are putting out there.
Despite the fact that many young Americans have yet to sign up for health insurance, many others have. One of those people is a really good friend of mine, and it turned out to be an incredibly wise choice. Just days after signing up (but before it had actually began covering him) he went to see a doctor about an irritated patch of skin on his back. Turns out he had skin cancer. He did have to pay for that initial visit out of pocket (insurance hadn't kicked in yet) but he did get covered just in time for the treatment he would end up undergoing. Now I'd like to believe that in 21st century America that even without health insurance he would have received the treatment he needed to save his life, but I have serious doubts that it would have been at a similar level and especially that it would have been accomplished without tremendous headaches and financial strain. Getting covered might not have physically saved his life (we can thank doctors and medicine for that) but it might have saved his financial life and his mental health (things that do affect your physical well-being). Knowing someone with a story like this makes it really hard to understand (and remain calm) why some politicians make it their mission to destroy this legislation.
There is good cause to have honest and open dialogue about the state of healthcare in this country, and there is a lot of good reasons to be critical of the affordable care act; but what we have seen goes well beyond constructive dialogue and has turned into an ideal representation of the vile partisanship with which our country is now deadlocked. With all the debates it's all too easy to forget about the real people that this law is affecting, not just those who get covered but all Americans.
What I can't seem to understand about opposition to the Affordable Care Act is its characterization as a generous government program. When we have people show up at hospitals who need healthcare, we treat them whether they have insurance or not. This expense gets passed on to the rest of us who pay our bills and have insurance. What the ACA did was tell all these people that don't have insurance that they have to pay their fair share, they need to contribute (what they can) so that the burden of caring for them doesn't fall to everyone else. Now there are obvious benefits to the uninsured, many are eligible for free coverage through the Medicaid expansion (I'll have to write about that another time), most others get subsidized insurance based on their income, and most importantly is that when they need coverage that can be assured that it will be there, that they won't be stigmatized and that they aren't burdening anyone else. What is amazing to me is that so many poor and low income people are willing to step up and say that they want to pay their fair share, they want to contribute, they want to be healthy and they want to do it without passing on the burden to everyone else.
I am one of those people, a graduate student making a meager living who feels he owes it to society to pull his own weight. It shouldn't be so hard to better yourself and contribute to society and it shouldn't be so controversial. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go get me some of that Obamacare... first thing tomorrow morning.
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