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Why Is Universal Health Care Important?

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Currently in the United States, Health Care is a hot button topic. Health Care has always been a bit of a touchy subject, but it is for good reason. When President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law it wasn't something a lot of individuals wanted. The main reason being that US citizens were being forced to purchase health insurance from private companies even if they couldn't afford it, and then being charged a fine if they didn’t purchase coverage. Since the Affordable Care Act was implemented in March of 2010, many have been able to get access to insurance due to the expansion of Medicaid, and the use of tax credits when purchasing plans through the health care exchange. This all sounds great until you realize most of the …show more content…
President Barack Obama tried by making an insurance mandate, but even then the US still wasn’t meeting the international law of healthcare being a human right under the United Nations. All members of the UN have pledged to promote health and human rights. To further stress the importance, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was adopted in 1948, and applies to all members of the UN, it ensures that health care is part of the right to an adequate standard of living. (McGill and MacNaughton) While Obamacare made it a law that no one can be denied coverage for a pre-existing medical condition, allowed for children to be on their parents insurance until the age of 26 and made it illegal to charge women more for health insurance then men it has some big problems. The law had a provision that made the states expand Medicaid coverage for poor and working class families, but a Supreme Court ruling in 2012 struck down this provision. The court decided states could choose not to participate in the expansion, which left many that previously didn’t qualify for Medicaid having to pay for private insurance that they can’t afford. Interestingly enough, those that should qualify for Medicaid under the Medicaid expansion, aren’t eligible for the government subsidies that are given to qualified individuals and families to use to obtain affordable insurance from the healthcare exchange. Another problem is that many insurance companies are leaving the healthcare exchange because fewer people than anticipated are signing up which raises the cost for insurance, and causes more people not to sign up because the cost is too high. The government subsidies for the majority of middle class are too small to have them enroll in healthcare exchange plans. (“Why Is Obamacare so

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