Affordable Appreciation

           As an American, I live in a free country; and when it comes to price, I live in an affordable country.  Unfortunately, acquiring healthcare has been a struggle for much of the American people for the past 234 years.  But then legislation was passed on the eventful day of March 23^rd, 2010, and that piece of legislation promised over seven million Americans that healthcare will not only be available from the federal government, but it will also be extremely affordable.  You’re probably thinking to yourself that this is just another blog post, written by another Democrat that simply endorses President Obama’s signature; however, I am a Republican.  That’s right, I should be on the opposition, yet I choose to stay open-minded unlike many of my colleagues.  I choose to stay open-minded so that I can appreciate what the Affordable Care Act has actually done, rather than what’s written in the piece of legislation itself.

            Many citizens of the United States have failed to recognize what exactly happened on that day of March 23^rd, 2010.  Yes, the Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Obama; but something else has happened.  The healthcare revolution has emerged within our domesticity. 

            First off, we have to understand the definition of what the healthcare revolution actually is.  Physicians for a National Health Program reports that universal healthcare has been talked about in Congress and Progressive reformers since the last decade of the 19^th century.  Healthcare debate has been happening, yet the actual debate that happened over 100 years ago is nothing compared to today’s debate.  Even though healthcare has been talked about on a federal level for this long, we see that the healthcare revolution has not started yet.  The healthcare revolution did not even start when Senator Max Baucus decided to write the piece of legislation that we call the Affordable Care Act.  The healthcare revolution emerged on that day of March 23^rd, 2010, when President Obama decided to sign his name and pass legislation.  Seeing that the National Institutes of Health reports that there has never been any bill that has passed universal healthcare until the Affordable Care Act, we define the healthcare revolution as universal healthcare taking action into legislation, as opposed to simply making efforts for healthcare reform within the United States. 

The Affordable Care Act started the Healthcare Revolution.

            Now that we know what the healthcare revolution is, we have to now think about the Affordable Care Act in general.  Yes, there are many cons to it, one of which is fining any citizen who is not covered by any sort of healthcare by 1% of his or her annual household income.  The Wall Street Journal reports that another con of the Affordable Care Act is that it hurts small business; it fines a small business with over 50 full-time employees that doesn’t give healthcare to its workers.  The fine is $2,000 per employee, at a maximum of 30 employees paid off for this fine. 

Understanding that the small business world is being drastically hurt by this piece of legislation passed in 2010, we have to learn the fact that the healthcare revolution is not over.  The healthcare revolution will never end until the majority of Americans are content with legislation that will not negatively impact their microeconomic lives.  As I have stated before, I’m not on the complete opposition of the Affordable Care Act; however, I believe that as Americans we need to start making efforts to reform our current healthcare system.  We need to stay open-minded, and see what we can do to improve our healthcare system rather than ridicule it and encourage the repeal of it.  Seeing that the Affordable Care Act has started the healthcare revolution, think to yourself about what you can do as a citizen, appreciate the Affordable Care Act, and help me encourage Congress as a fellow constituent to end the healthcare revolution with new legislation once and for all.