I've Been Waiting A Long Time For This Moment To Come

by Amanda Nix

The debate over health care has been a vital one for decades. It has centered on questions like “Who has the fundamental right to receive health care?” “Who would be responsible for paying for this change? And “Will the federal government make such a change?” This past month, they did make that change when the health care reform was passed.

In the United States, 62% of all personal bankruptcies are cited from medical debt. This is overwhelmingly high in such a developed country. The U.S. is clearly divided among party lines on whom, if anyone, should receive free health care, and if they do, when?

For the first time in this country’s history, citizens will be required to have health care. This legislation requires insurance companies to provide insurance regardless of preexisting conditions, lowers premiums, making insurance more affordable to the general population, and is supposed to reduce our deficit by $100 billion over the next 10 years. These changes will take time though. Not everything will change either. Some benefits, like students without insurance staying on their parents insurance until they are 26, will remain the same.

There is still much controversy over this bill. Conseratives argue that the bill will stand between a person and their doctor; however, the reality is that the government has always been involved with doctors, only now they can continue to be doctors without denying patients because they are too sick.