Theory Post

Despite the passing of the health care reform bill, there is still much argument over the issue. Republicans and Democrats are still not agreeing on what is best for our country. Ezra Klein, an opinionated blog writer, addresses some of the issues that are still being discussed. He claims that all Republicans are only seeing the faults in the health care bill. Peter Suderman, a columnist for the Washington Post, states that the new health care bill does nothing for Medicare. In fact, it does but Medicare double-counts some of its savings in its public statements. Klein describes the differing views of people on the health care bill by saying, “Most of the people who support the bill are something like 70:30 for the bill -- it makes things better, but there's a lot in there they'd like to be different. The bill's opponents speak as if they're closer to 100% against the bill: Everything is bad, it'll destroy American health care, none of the cost controls will work, [and] all the promises are lies.”
Bob Samuels, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, says that the bill is good in working with people who have pre-existing conditions. However, insurance companies will be the real winners because they will be insuring more people and be able to pass on the increased prices to those insured by raising premiums. Samuels claims that a totally different plan is needed because this one will not be affordable.
The issue on health care is so controversial in the first place because it is going to affect everyone. Everyone has to have health insurance by law. There is no easy answer to ending the debate. I do not think that everyone will ever be 100 percent happy with the health care bill. People weren’t happy with the one we had and it was clear that reform was needed. I think the only way to bring an end to this debate is compromise. Obviously, the bill will never please everyone, but we have to realize what is best for the majority of our country.