The Affordable Care Act was signed into law March 23, 2010, and survived a challenge in The Supreme Court in June 2012. Its primary goals are to provide health care that is both accessible and affordable to millions of Americans who might not otherwise qualify or be able to afford to insure themselves and their families. The law also makes it illegal to deny coverage or eliminate existing coverage to someone simply because they have a “pre-existing condition.” And finally, one of the law’s most popular components qualifies adult children, until they reach the age of 26, to stay on their parent’s health care plans. This singular tenet of the Affordable Care Act immediately added a sense of security and well-being to hundreds of thousands of American students and their parents.
If this new law portends to have some of the most sensible and humanely inclusive offerings available, why is there such venomous debate and political vitriol aimed at undermining its implementation and inclusion as the law? After all, the astronomically expensive health care system in the U.S. has been spiraling out of control for decades and the debate as to how to bring it under control has been endless. Our system of health care and health care delivery is one of the most expensive in the world and yet, its effectiveness in the overall health and well-being of the U.S. citizenry comes woefully short when compared to other developed nations worldwide. We are underperforming and too many of our citizens do not have access to healthcare and are unable to afford it. Too many Americans have lost their homes, jobs and lifestyle due to bankruptcy and home foreclosure, because of the rising costs of medical bills associated with catastrophic or long-term health concerns.
Why are so many people fighting this new law? It has the well-being of the many over the few as its core principal and isn’t that supposed to be the American way? E Pluribus Unum…out of many ONE! It’s on the seal of the United States!
I submit to you that when the POTUS (President of the United States) decided to hang his presidential legacy on making health care affordable for ALL Americans regardless of their politics, religion, lifestyle, race, class or gender, in the minds of his political opposition he laid down the gauntlet. One might argue that the opposition was so firmly committed to their beliefs as patriotic that in their minds, what they were fighting for was also “good” for the nation. However, when the nullification of a President and presidency is your ultimate goal, as has been unabashedly stated by the President’s opposition, I have to question whether the commitment to a democratic government by the people and for the people is truly what you believe? I mean the people of the United States elected President Obama with full knowledge of his intention to fight for affordable health care. The election was run democratically and the results were uncontested. And yet, political maneuvering, posturing and manipulation along with ill will have combined with the overwhelming confusion created by the clumsy and incompetent rollout of the website dedicated to the Health Care Exchange to fuel the debate that has long since been settled by the Supreme Court.
Change is hard. When this country adopted social security, the equal rights amendment, Medicare/Medicaid there was also mass resistance to CHANGE. The Affordable Care Act is LAW. It is time for all Americans to acknowledge and accept that FACT. Let’s get on board and all start rowing the same direction so we can stop going in circles. If changes are necessary let them be made, but stop trying to sabotage what is really in the best interest of US ALL!
Dr.T
Tawnya Pettiford-Wates. Ph.D.
Artistic Director and Founder
The Conciliation Project
Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University
DrT@Margin2theCenter.com
www.theconciliationproject.org
Up Next Week: The Spirit of the Holiday Season is Universal
