Health Insurance.

So today I was going to have some warm fuzzy post about my first day at Kindergarten (which was wonderful, I absolutely love my kindergartners and can't wait to go back), but then I read this article about what exactly will happen if the repeal of Obama's Health Care plan goes through. It's a letter specifically detailing the impact of repealing this act.

I've read several articles about this because it's been in the news a lot lately and the New York Times is my home page. For those of you that live under a rock (or just don't know), the Grand Ol' Party is supporting the repeal of the new health care initiative. It recently just passed in the House and is now going on to the Senate.

More info: House Votes for Repeal of Health Law in Symbolic Act
Senate fight looms after House health care repeal

Or you can just google it and I'm sure you can find a million other articles about it.

Anyway, I like the letter because it says exactly what will happen if the health care plan is repealed, and it's not pretty. Granted it is from the Democrats' House site, but it does a good job spelling everything out. It's got hard numbers backing it up, and you can click on your congressional district to see exactly how it affects you and other people in your area.

It's especially relevant because as a college student, I don't have a full time job. (Read: I don't have my own health insurance). Neither do probably most of you. Under the current plan, I will be able to remain on my parents' health insurance until I turn 26. So will most of you, if you're 25 or younger. If it's repealed, I'm going to be SOL on my own here pretty soon. So will most of you.

There are currently about 32 million uninsured Americans. The current plan provides them with affordable coverage. Repealing the plan would mean that they would continue to be uninsured. I personally do not want to be one of those 32 million Americans without health insurance. Nobody should be without health insurance.

So why do these people need health insurance? Why can't they just buy it themselves? Why do they need the government to provide it?

Well, in a nutshell, heath care is EXPENSIVE. I know that when I need to go to the doctor now, it's a $20 co-pay, and insurance covers the rest. Without insurance, it'd be a hell of a lot more. And then insurance itself is expensive. Honestly, I can't afford to pay for health insurance while I'm working part time and going to school, so until I have a full time job that provides it (which I won't for at least another 3 years or so) I probably won't have it (unless the current plan stays and I can still be on my parents' insurance). And with this whole economic crisis thing, unemployment is high and it's getting harder and harder to find jobs, especially for newbie college grads. So more people are unemployed and don't get job benefits, meaning less people have health insurance...and I think I already alluded to this, but if you're working some minimum wage job just trying to make ends meet, after feeding your family and paying rent you're not gonna have a whole lot left over for things such as, oh I don't know, insurance.

So people who can't afford it don't have health insurance. And they'll probably be fine. But what if their kids get sick? What if they're in a car accident and have to go to the hospital? It's not likely to happen, but if it does, then what? No insurance, you're pretty much screwed.

We're not becoming socialists. The government is stepping up to provide affordable health insurance as an additional option for people who can't afford it. Capitalism is all about competition and the market right? Well by providing government subsidized insurance, it helps keep prices down, and that's better for everyone. There will always be private insurance companies. The government isn't taking over, it's just helping out its citizens.

All three Nebraska representatives voted to repeal the health care plan. Why? Because the United States needs a more "common-sense" approach to health care reform.

What makes more sense than affordable health care for everyone?

Poli Sci.

I'm a pretty liberal person. For the most part, I agree with Obama and what he's doing, and I'm a registered Democrat.

My high school had a lot of like-minded people, or least the like-minded people were more vocal than the un-like-minded people, so I always forget that most people in Nebraska are conservative. I mean, I know a lot of older people are, but it always surprises me when I find out people my age are.

But, I realized that I really am a part of the minority in my poli sci recitation. There's always a lot of good discussion and such, but god, that class makes me crazy.

Actually, I love that class. Just some of the people make me crazy.

People were actually arguing that global warming is not real, and that climate change is not a big deal.

Read a freaking science book people. How does it make sense that emitting thousands of tons of crap into the atmosphere would not have some degree of a negative effect on the Earth??

And yes, we might have had cooler than usual temperatures in the past few years, but you have to look at the big picture. Temperature cycles fluctuate from year to year, but if you look at the average yearly temperatures over the past few hundred thousand years, you will see that the Earth's average temperature has been steadily zig-zagging upward, and is much higher that it used to be.

And if the Earth is not warming, how do you explain the melting ice caps? The rising ocean levels? The reduced precipitation, especially snow? (Which, incidentally, results in reduced snowpack runoff, which is what fills most rivers and supplies A LOT of the Earth's water. Less snow in the mountains=water shortages. A problem? I think so.)

They were saying that instead of spending money on reducing carbon emissions and pollution, we should be focusing on the economy. These are the same people who said we should be spending more money on defense, but that we shouldn't be doing anything to help out war-stricken, starving, under-resourced countries in Africa and Asia. Developing corporations is apparently more important.

Oh, and also according to them, health care reform will make it so that the government decides who gets health care and it will just be terrible for everyone because it will reduce the quality of medical care. This is apparently because Europe is socialist and it has a terrible economy and terrible health care.

The health care reform is focusing on health insurance. It would offer government-sponsored insurance at affordable rates to people who can't currently afford health care. How is this terrible? It's making health care available to more people, not less. It's not going to reduce the quality of health care because our medical system will be exactly the same, just more widely available. The government is not becoming socialist or subsidizing hospitals or anything like that. Health INSURANCE reform. Not health "let's-overhaul-everything-and-make-everything-terrible" reform. Not quite the crisis situation.

And Europe? Germany is one of the leading exporters in the world and has one of the strongest economies. I can't think of a single country in Europe that is as far in debt as the U.S. and the Euro is one of the strongest currencies. Doesn't seem like a terrible economy to me.

And their healthcare? How often do you hear about European countries having problems with their healthcare? That's what I thought...

I really do not understand people sometimes.

That's my rant.