Affordable Care Act or American Health Care Plan

Today, Monday March 13, the PBS newshour had this report on the proposed replacement bill for the Affordable Care Act.  It is a pretty good debate in that it illustrates the different viewpoints of the interested parties. This link takes you to the video on PBS  The proponents of the replacement bill see giving choice back to those being insured as being paramount.  They see that as being preferable to the point of insuring the most people and keeping costs at an average cost for everyone.  It points out rather dramatically the differences of perspective of the two political parties.  The ACA attempts to insure the most people by spreading risk across the entire pool population while its replacement makes no such attempt.  It is simply to allow the market to price certain segments of the population out of the market thereby making it cheaper for those who can afford it.  The replacement does not mandate the same coverages that the ACA does thereby making it possible for people to choose less coverage for less money.  The ACA says those people are going to seek treatment after their coverage runs out thereby increasing risk to the taxpayer.  It all depends on the view that you take.  If you are young and healthy you may decide to forego coverage entirely and take your chances.  If something happens you'll go to the emergency room for treatment and, if you get it, either the hospital will take the loss or the taxpayer will pick it up.  If you are, say, age 55 to 64 then your coverage will cost you far more than it does now which will effectively force you out of the market and into the same quandary as the others who lack insurance.

Personally, I can't live with the idea that we will allow fellow citizens to go without medical care just because they can't afford to pay some multi-billion dollar insurance company what it thinks it can get.  This is what makes the difference for me.  I think it is acceptable to ask those who have resources to pay a bit more in order to take care of those less fortunate.  The real inequity between the two bills is caused by forcing people to buy insurance on the open market which is what big business loves.  A national health care plan (Medicare for all) takes care of this.  Even giving people access to a subsidized public option would help.

I hope this helps someone reason through their thoughts on this subject.