Obama finally gets his health care reform passed after a couple of years of him battling for it. Despite the strong opposition of the Republican party, The Supreme Court upheld an individual mandate in a 5-4 ruling allowing the health care bill to pass. Obama is sticking behind his stance one hundred percent, explaining there is no reason to spend more years debating this past issue.
The individual mandate is considered constitutional, and is therefore allowed to pass the health care bill. If a citizen refuses to pay for health care coverage they can be penalized with a tax. While the federal government does not have the power to force someone to buy insurance, they do have the power to impose a tax for those who do not. Arguments have been proposed since the bill has been signed, some concerning the government's exceeding power to impose such laws. If they can to this what will stop them from abusing this power? Upholding the mandate under the taxing clause is not a way of exceeding power, but a way of using one that was already in place. Placing taxes on cigarettes influence people to stop smoking, and taxing citizens without coverage will influence them to get health care.
As a country the important issues should be determined on the well being of our citizens. Nothing will ever be perfect and that is why issues have too sides of the spectrum, but basic human rights should never be denied. There are many situations were citizens can't receive health care because they are unhealthy, that's the real problem. Would you want to watch a loved one suffer? Of course not, just as its important to deliver education to a younger generation it is equally important to maintain health for a better future as a whole nation.
People are worried about their coverage changing or not receiving the proper quality as before. Some feel the government is becoming too controlling, forcing us to have coverage and believe that more employees will lose their jobs. On the other hand, it's believed the health reform will lower the nations debt and help benefit a lot more people who couldn't receive proper care before. It's understandable why this is such a heavily debated issue, but at the end of the day this is a decision about livelihood and the well being of our country. However one may feel about the health care reform, they must agree something must be done.
The government has the right to tax the American people, yes. But whatever happened to No Taxation Without Representation? It’s now more like, you don’t want to do what we want, well you will have no choice… we’ll just penalize you for not listening and not sharing our same opinion, and it’s fine because we’re just going to call it a tax and therefore it’s “constitutional.” As far as human rights are concerned I completely agree no one’s human rights should ever be denied. However, rights shouldn’t be given at the expense of someone else. While I think you make some valid claims here, I’m not sure I agree with comparing our country’s healthcare system to our education system. It is pretty clear that thought not everyone in America might agree, education in this country is seen as a privilege and not a right.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the government is basically giving the people an ultimatum. You either get on board with health care or we will impose a tax on you. Technically the government is not forcing anyone to buy health care, but with either option the people are being forced into being charged a fee. The tax is to prevent citizens that can afford health care not pay for it and still receive free health care when they aren't able to afford it. This is a flaw in the health care law and should have other options consider that may work more favorable. I still feel at the end of the day people's well being should be the primary concern when weighing out the pros and cons of the law. Also, I wasn't necessarily comparing the education system to the health care system. I was saying the idea behind education is to prepare the younger generation for a better future to insure our nation's progression. In turn, health care should be giving to citizens to ensure healthier living and the betterment of our nation's future.
DeleteI agree with you that very important problem is when unhealthy and the poor people (e.g homeless, the unemployed) can't receive health care. In my country (Poland) you can buy extra health insurance and most of people do that, because our healt service don't work efficiently. But you can receive public healt care(if you are very patient). I think that the goverment shouldn't force us to buy insurance.
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