Health Care Reform

When Barack Obama started campaigning in 2008 he urged for a reform in health care because he thought that health care was a threat to our economy and should be a right for every American to have health care. So, in March of 2010, Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and they also passed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. President Barack Obama signed both of them into law. He also signed into law Executive Order 13535 which states that no federal funds are to be used for abortion services. These new laws reform our health care greatly. People who support the health care reform and these new laws say that it is a "historic victory" and a "landmark legislation". They also say that it will cut costs greatly, make health care more affordable, and protect consumers from unfair insurance practices. They propose that with this reform the nations debt by $100 billion by 2020 and by $1 trillion by 2030. President Obama said that tens of thousands of uninsured Americans with preexisting conditions will finally be able to purchase health care. The people who do not like the new reform say that it is a "socialist" and "unconstitutional" takeover of health care that will be raising the cost of health care and decreasing the quality of the health care we would get. Also, they say that over a ten year span this new bill will cost more than $2.5 trillion and will put the United States deeper into debt. They say there are a lot of questions that are unanswered that are very important for America to know. I think that health care should be a personal thing. I do not think that everyone should have the same health care because some people are poor and others are not. I also do not think that you should punish the people who have good health care because they have money and give them not so good health care just because they can not afford it.





Sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-6Pht8HdO8
http://healthcarereform.procon.org/
http://www.google.com/

Reflection Assignment

Republicans are rising to power and are winning the battle against the new healthcare law. In Wisconsin there was a major change in their political ideology. They went from being highly democratic with liberal views and being a front runner in wanting to carry out the new federal health care law and using it to regulate and change the medical delivery system, to being very republican and conservative by electing in a new republican governor and having all of the progress they made in getting the new health care law to pass to a halt. The new governor's name is Scott Walker. He said that on the first day of his term he will put all the progress of getting the new law to pass to a halt and he will have Wisconsin join the multistate lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of the new law. Since this happened, the public opinion of Wisconsin's people has changed to oppose the bill rather than supporting it. The public opinion of the United States is really unknown because most people have litttle knowledge on what the new law will do.They have become a state of no enthusiasm or with somewhat of a moderate view of things. I don't think that the are many political cleavages in this event because it treats all people the same way. The bill is trying to give all people the same health care so there is really no differences in it. The political elite who oppose this new law are having million dollar campaigns that are national, to try to oppose this law. An example of someone doing this would be Rick Scott, the governor of Florida, who used to be a hospital chain executive who spent 5 million dollars on a national campaign against this new democratic health care law. Mr. Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, said that he thinks that when the government gets too involved it messes up the marketplace and just makes the costs go up, which is an example of political socialization because i think he probably said this because of something he witnessed during his life. "Now on you are going to see a very cautious Wisconsin", said State Senator Alberta Darling. All the progress they made at getting this new law established has gone down the drain and has had the breaks put on. I really do not know what to think on this because I don' t pay for my health care but my parents do and I have listened to what they have said. This is political sociology by the way. They have had questions like " what happens to people who get health care from their employers" and " who's going to pay for it" and that made me think that I really don't like this new law because there is so much uncertainty involved. I predict that the new law will not be passed and will not go through because 82% of people rate their healthcare as excellent or good, which I think means that if people think that their healthcare is good enough and they are satisfied they will not want change. Another reason I don't think that the new law will pass because 61% of people prefer a private healthcare and only 34% want a government run system for healthcare.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_socialization
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/us/politics/19wisconsin.html?_r=2&ref=politics
http://www.youtube.com/
http://www.gallup.com/poll/144869/Americans-Ratings-Own-Healthcare-Quality-Remain-High.aspx
http://www.gallup.com/poll/144839/Split-Whether-Gov-Ensure-Healthcare.aspx