Submitted Content
To the editor:
Perhaps one of the most highly divisive issues in our nation right now is American healthcare. However, I am not writing to advocate support of partisan views in regards to healthcare; in short, my main concern is the rejection of the American Healthcare Act for a simple reason that has nothing to do with being a Democrat, Republican, liberal, or conservative. Rather, such reasoning lies in the ideas of basic ethics and morality, and the upholding of humanistic ideals in regards to the issues of real people. Allow me to explain.
With a Republican controlled Congress and President Trump in the Oval Office, the United States government is working to completely dismantle the years of work that were put into forging Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act. In turn, over the course of the past few weeks the government has released its replacement Obamacare, the American Health Care Act. Although many people see a myriad of problems written in the lines of the AHCA, to me, one of these issues is more pressing than any other, and that is in regards to the treatment of those with pre-existing conditions. Under the new bill, if states are able to meet specific conditions, then they can permit insurers to raise health care premiums substantially for those with pre-existing conditions. Although many supporters of the AHCA are quick to state that the bill still does not allow insurers to deny coverage outright to people with pre-existing conditions, the impacts of the bill will, in essence, produce the same result. Based on the AHCA, insurers will be able to increase premiums so significantly for people with pre-existing conditions that their health insurance will be virtually unaffordable.
And, thus, this is why the American Health Care Act to me is not an issue of partisan politics. Instead, it is an issue of humanity; I genuinely hope that we, as humans, can all agree that pricing people with pre-existing conditions out of the market for health care is inherently wrong. Take the famous television star, Jimmy Kimmel, as an example. His son was born with an extremely rare heart disease that required hours and hours of immediate surgery. Although Kimmel was able to successfully finance the procedures, if the American Health Care Act is passed, there will be plenty of people that will not be able to afford health insurance for their babies with pre existing conditions and that will not be able to finance such extensive procedures. No matter how expensive an operation may cost, no one’s child deserves to die simply because they can not afford to save them.
Under Obamacare, those with pre-existing conditions are particularly well-protected, as the bill was forged with a common awareness of the fundamental rights of every American citizen as a human being, regardless of their economic standings. Thus, we are brought around to a common issue that has plagued American politics in recent years. I understand that the Republicans are eager to repeal Obamacare, and I agree that the bill has major issues that need to be flattened out sometime in the future. However, we as a nation should not repeal and replace Obamacare until said replacement is actually an improvement from the Affordable Care Act. So far, the American Health Care Act is clearly not a step up from the Affordable Care Act, especially in regards to its treatment of those with pre-existing conditions. In fact, Obamacare’s approval rating is substantially higher than that of the American Health Care Act at the moment. Thus, in order to protect each other as humans, and in an effort to improve America’s overall system of healthcare rather than abide by partisan agendas, we as a nation need to reject the American Health Care Act and keep Obamacare until we create a better replacement. In the end, what matters more, partisan politics or the proper treatment of human life?
Danny Kozimbo
Hillsborough
