Thursday, March 15, 2012

Health Care Reform Act

The health care bill, formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is around 1,000 pages in length even in tiny print. Personally, I support the provisions of this bill, as many problems inherent with the status quo will be amended with this piece of legislation. One problem with our current system is the cost of everything. Most people agree that health insurance policies are too expensive; for a family, the average premium is almost $14,000 dollars a year and growing. Since more people are aging, health care costs are the fastest growing part of the federal budget. Another problem is the loopholes inherent in the system. As of now, people buying insurance may be turned down as the result of having a pre-existing health condition, meaning some of the people least likely to have coverage are the ones who need it most. Due to high costs and holes in our system, more than one in seven of us have no health insurance.

The health care reform bill addresses these issues. To address the issue of high costs, insurers will be limited in how they spend premium dollars; if insurance corporations use too much money for administrative costs or profits, they will have to give some of it back through rebates. Preventive care, such as screenings and vaccinations, will become free in all new private insurance policies and in Medicare. Furthermore, it will be illegal to turn children down for having a pre-existing health condition like asthma or diabetes. The health care reform bill will make health care more affordable for those who need it most, and discrimination on the basis of pre-existing conditions will be illegal. For these reasons, I support the contents of the health care reform bill.

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