Recently, I was written a ticket for four hundred dollars because I was driving without insurance. For second time offenders the ticket is $1000 and for each offense afterwards you pay $1000. Hypothetically, let's say I decide I'm a safe driver and don't want to pay for insurance (this was not why I was uninsured). Let's also say that I get pulled over once every other month. Since it's my first time, that's $400 plus $5000 for the other five times I'm pulled over during one year. That's much more than the premium for one vehicle for one year. Say I don't get pulled over at all, but I get in a wreck. On top of the damage or replacement of my car that will have to come out of pocket, what about the damage to the other car and/passengers? And the fines on top of the traffic violations? Is that worth not having insurance?
The way that "free market" health insurance is set up now is to provide health care to healthy people who can afford it. One would think health care should be for the unhealthy, but that's not the case. Unless you work for someone who has group insurance, pre-exsisting conditions make it impossible to have affordable private insurance. And even if you do have group insurance, the price for health care continues to rise, causing employers to cut benefits and raise deductibles leaving you with hardly any coverage at all.
If you are a cancer survivor who lost work due to your illness, and you can't afford Cobra, you will never be able to receive (or afford) private insurance. People don't choose to have cancer, arthritis, or any other "pre-existing condition". So why should the free market decide they should just suffer or die? Why is that their call?
Those who oppose health care reform have never experienced first hand the difficulties and stress of not "qualifying" for insurance. Eating right and exercising can't prevent cancer, arthritis, alzheimer's, or damage done in a car crash. Those things aren't preventable.
Those opposed to helping care for others because "it's their health and their responsibility" pay very small amounts in medicare and social security taxes that go to help those who can't help themselves. How is that any different? They say that the penalty for not having health insurance is a tax. The four hundred dollars I paid for the ticket was not a tax, and isn't it the same thing? How is the government mandating health insurance any different than mandating liability auto insurance?
If the government provides an affordable alternative to private or group insurance and says everyone must have it, that is no different from being required by law to have car insurance other than the government is helping you get insurance when you are denied. Currently, insurance companies can deny claims after you get sick. Under the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies would no longer be able to do that.
Most religions teach charity and compassion for the unfortunate. So why do so many insist on being selfish, judgmental, and insensitive to those less fortunate than them, victims of circumstance who want the same opportunities as those who take them for granted?
If it wasn't for the Affordable Care Act, my wife and I would not have insurance, along with thousands of Americans across the country. We are not free loaders of the system. My wife and I work two jobs each while I finish school. Even if my wife could qualify for insurance, we can't afford it. Before the Affordable Care Act we had to pay out of pocket for prescriptions and doctor's visits. We were only making about $18,000 a year combined, so those expenses added up to a large percentage of our income. For now, we have insurance, and are very grateful for it. I can only hope now that the Supreme Court can see that it has helped thousands of people like us across America. Sure, the Act as it now stands is far from perfect, but it's a step in the right direction.
Our inalienable rights are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. When someone dies because they can't afford insurance or pay hospital bills, the government has taken those rights from them.
If you are a cancer survivor who lost work due to your illness, and you can't afford Cobra, you will never be able to receive (or afford) private insurance. People don't choose to have cancer, arthritis, or any other "pre-existing condition". So why should the free market decide they should just suffer or die? Why is that their call?
Those who oppose health care reform have never experienced first hand the difficulties and stress of not "qualifying" for insurance. Eating right and exercising can't prevent cancer, arthritis, alzheimer's, or damage done in a car crash. Those things aren't preventable.
If the government provides an affordable alternative to private or group insurance and says everyone must have it, that is no different from being required by law to have car insurance other than the government is helping you get insurance when you are denied. Currently, insurance companies can deny claims after you get sick. Under the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies would no longer be able to do that.
Most religions teach charity and compassion for the unfortunate. So why do so many insist on being selfish, judgmental, and insensitive to those less fortunate than them, victims of circumstance who want the same opportunities as those who take them for granted?
If it wasn't for the Affordable Care Act, my wife and I would not have insurance, along with thousands of Americans across the country. We are not free loaders of the system. My wife and I work two jobs each while I finish school. Even if my wife could qualify for insurance, we can't afford it. Before the Affordable Care Act we had to pay out of pocket for prescriptions and doctor's visits. We were only making about $18,000 a year combined, so those expenses added up to a large percentage of our income. For now, we have insurance, and are very grateful for it. I can only hope now that the Supreme Court can see that it has helped thousands of people like us across America. Sure, the Act as it now stands is far from perfect, but it's a step in the right direction.
Our inalienable rights are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. When someone dies because they can't afford insurance or pay hospital bills, the government has taken those rights from them.
