Reina Werth, Staff writer
In 2017, congressional Republicans introduced two health care bills, with the goal of repealing and replacing Obamacare.
The major points of both bills were to stop penalizing people for not having health insurance, not require insurance companies to insure people with pre-existing conditions, and severely reduce federal funding given to states in the name of health care.
Neither passed, due to reports that well over 21 million people would lose health care coverage. Supporters of those bills say that the number is inaccurate, but regardless of its possible inaccuracy, citizens lost faith in the bill, which lead to lawmakers pulling their support from it.
“The attempts to repeal and replace Obamacare have good intentions, as repealing Obamacare relieves a lot of new government spending. But we need to compromise and figure out a different medical plan that we can all agree on,” said Indian Trail High School & Academy Medical Sciences senior Mac Maedke.
Recent polling on Obamacare, also known as The Affordable Care Act, is only available up through late fall of 2017, when a nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation poll was reported in The Washington Times. Results showed 69 percent of Americans felt it was extremely or very important to stabilize Obamacare’s insurance markets and 47 percent want the law repealed and replaced. In July 2017, 6 in 10 voters responded they wanted to keep Obamacare, but make it better, according to a July 2017 Fox News poll. Thirty-three percent of voters called for throwing out the law and starting over completely.
“I think that people should be allowed to pick what level of health care they receive, and for those who struggle to afford healthcare, that should be included in the help they receive through healthcare,” said Madison Taylor, an Indian Trail General Studies senior.
However, with a poll showing that 52 percent of people dislike the Graham-Cassidy bill, the latter of the two bills, the public doesn’t feel this is the way to go about the reform.
“The ideal health care plan should help the majority in the middle class by basing the plans on age more than income. Although income should still be accounted for, it should not be the only thing that determines one’s eligibility for health insurance,” Maedke said.
Those who support the bill feel that decreasing the amount of money given to the states increases the states’ freedom to cover their citizens as necessary.
In addition to the amount of people who would lose coverage, people turned against both bills because they would not require insurance companies to cover those with pre-existing conditions.
“Everyone should be allowed to get insurance, and the insurance companies should not be allowed to take that right away,” said Maedke.