A Step in the Right Direction
Printer-friendly versionThe March 21st passing of the Affordable Health Care for America Act marked a new era for the United States of America. After nearly a century of failed attempts and a year of bitter debate, the U.S. is adopting a majorly modified health care system that will provide coverage for an additional 30 million Americans and make the country’s claim of “liberty and justice for all” ring more true.
In brief, the legislation will address problems that have led to tens of millions of uninsured citizens, thousands of which die annually for this very reason. Its methods of abolishing coverage denial based on preexisting conditions, requiring all Americans and businesses to have/provide health insurance, and reducing the overall cost of health insurance aim to ensure that all citizens possess coverage without having to struggle with bills or worry about rejection from their insurance companies.
In the words of President Obama, the health care bill “isn’t radical reform.” Our health care system will not be totally fixed through this one piece of legislation, and the gap between us, the only industrialized nation that does not employ universal health care, and the rest of the world will not be completely closed. However, to again borrow Mr. Obama’s words, “it is major reform.” And it is, in fact, a step in the right direction.
Beyond the practical reasons, health care reform entails a refreshing new phase of American history in making the country more socially just and morally based. Quality, affordable health insurance should not be a privilege, especially in a country as powerful as the United States. It should be a right. Every American deserves to be treated with equal care when they are sick, sans quarrels or bills piling up. Finally this ideal has been acted upon, and our health care system will be dictated by what is humane and virtuous.
The passing of the health care bill also proves something else about the U.S.: fear does not trump morality. The fear-mongering tactics applied by opposition may have dampened the bill’s provisions, but ultimately failed when the House vote reached 216. The warnings that a “socialist utopia” would be born from this legislation and women will have to receive “prenatal care from TurboTax” were defeated by American stories of suffering, while the lives of citizens took precedence over the overhaul’s price tag and political label. The health care debate was fundamentally a moral argument, and the side fighting for what citizens truly deserve triumphed over the side ruled by cynicism and falsehoods.
As the United States continues to change and grow, hopefully this new health care system will act as a guide to tell citizens that modern social justice can be implemented if the rights of the people, rather than politics, are considered first.
