Trent Enyart
English 121
November, 23 2013
Key words: Health Care, Premiums, Affordable, Government
Health Care Reform: Lowering the Standard of Care
Americans have recently been informed they will be able to receive cheap affordable health care through the government affordable care act. Americans who have lived most of their lives without healthcare are now able to sign up for government provided insurance plans. The rates of these plans have promised to be so low people are required to have health insurance of some sort or else they will be penalized for being uninsured. People who do not receive Health insurance through their work or spouses work or who may be unemployed will be provided a website which they can sign up for a government appointed health insurance package. This new health care reform has many positive outlooks as well as many negative outlooks, but which side outweighs the other? I have been affected directly by the new healthcare reform because my insurance premium and deductible has risen by 15%. Why should I have to pay more for my quality health insurance plan because Obama wants to provide low rate poor quality insurance to the uninsured? Millions of hard working Americans, including myself, who have been receiving benefits through their employers for years, are being charged an increased premium and deductible and some people are being dropped completely because of the drastic increase. Bottom line is these employers can no longer afford to insure their employees. These employees who had great insurance plans covered by top name insurance companies, which insured their workers and their families, will now be forced to choose a different plan provided by the government. The problem with the government appointed policies is that the coverage is not nearly the quality of care as these workers had received before. Coverage will now be limited and regulated by the government causing deductibles to go up and the standard of care they receive to go down. Treatment that was once covered by a quality health care provider may now be denied or turned down by the government’s substandard healthcare system. This healthcare epidemic will affect all of us in one way or another. I fortunately will be able to keep my healthcare plan through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan but at a price. My premium has increased substantially, about 45%, but that is a price I’m willing to pay for better healthcare treatment. At least I had a choice, many of Americans were told by their employer’s they will be dropped from their benefits plan and need to find their own source of healthcare.
From another view point is the American’s who the healthcare reform is intended to help. The large percentage of people who are uninsured will now have access to an affordable health care package. This raises the question what is the government’s definition of affordable? These healthcare packages will be at a lower premium for people but they are not free. There are still millions of unemployed Americans who will not be able to afford these healthcare plans and they will be penalized for not having one. Yes the people who can afford the new healthcare plans will at least have some sort of coverage especially major medical coverage, but these peoples deductibles will still be at a higher cost. People are more likely to go to the doctors for minor injuries and illnesses than a major medical emergency so why make their deductibles so high. Yes I believe that the government should do something about the healthcare epidemic that faces our nation’s uninsured people, but penalizing the hardworking American’s who had exceptional health care by forcing them to switch to a lower standard of care is unjustifiable.