By Katy Stegall
A perspective
Politics has rarely been so vicious or intentionally misleading as the American healthcare saga. A CNBC poll showed that 46 percent of Americans opposed Obamacare and 37 percent opposed the Affordable Care Act.
They are, um, the exact same thing.
More than a third of Americans do not know that. President Trump, with great cruelty, played that card.
Trump is to blame for millions of people not having health insurance in 2017.
With the start of a new semester, some students have already missed one of the most important deadlines of the year– the cutoff date for health insurance. After midnight on January 31, people lost the opportunity to be covered by Affordable Care Act in 2017.
Or Obamacare. A rose by any other name.
Trump’s administration made sure roadblocks were put up to insure that potential applicants missed the deadline to sign up for the 2017 year of Obamacare. Slander and empty promises, were used to create mistrust between governmental health security and Americans.
Before his inauguration,Trump went on one of his infamous Twitter rant.
“Obamacare was a lie from the beginning,” tweeted Trump. He closed out the series of tweets with a wish to create a plan that was, “much less expensive & FAR BETTER,” as if using capslock was going to make his statement come true faster.
Repealing ACA is more complicated than Trump’s single-syllable diction could communicate. Besides, most Americans do not want it repealed. Even polls by right-wing Fox News show that 50 percent supportACA, while only 39 percent support Trump. Perhaps they wish for a president that was FAR BETTER.
The roadblocks to insuranceville do not stop there.
One trick the ruler in the White (Power) House include halting ads that encouraged people to apply to ACA before the deadline, according to Politico reporter Paul Demko.
Another tactic included slamming ACA consistently throughout the campaign. What our president says and what is true are on opposite ends of the veracity spectrum.
Trump made several claims that Affordable Care Act was a “catastrophe” due to its alleged “higher prices, fewer choices and lower quality.”
Right-wingers are guilty of being “pro-life” before a baby is born, but indifferent afterwards. Post-partum, the quality of health is no longer a GOP priority. “At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins,” wrote Shakespeare.
College students had few health care options before ACA. Now students under 26 years old may stay on their parents’ insurance plans. There are also a variety of plans someone can look through and research to decide what sort of coverage and payment works best for their lives.
Most SWC students are low-income. More than 70 percent qualify for financial aid. Textbooks and tuition are tricky enough, but students also need money for those pesky essentials like food and shelter. Health insurance could be seen as unnecessary if the student is healthy.
It might be, until a medical emergency. Car accidents and diseases still happen. Broken bones and stabbings still happen. Trump’s biggest lie of all is that he has a better plan. Trump and the GOP have NO replacement plan. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
Despite what Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham bellow on hate radio, Obamacare/ACA was working. Uninsured America dropped from 37 percent to 9 percent by 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
And, despite the mendacious bluster of the Republican establishment, Obamacare is still cheaper than privatized insurance.
Only in America would lower and middle class citizens destroy their own healthcare because their political party says they must. Students need to be aware and prepare. Something new is coming, we don’t know what, and it won’t be good.
Students need to be smarter than Trump. Plan for whatever grenade he throws into Obamacare by checking qualifying factors for Medicaid or other low-income healthcare alternatives. Do not wait until “breaking news” is flashing on the screen as an anchor talks about the executive order repealing the Affordable Care Act. Call your senators and your congressman and tell them there will be consequences if they take away your healthcare.
Fight like your life depends on it… because it might.
