The political process is often maddening to everyone involved. On many occasions a correlation exists between the effectiveness of a congress and the politics of the country. The recent battle on the shutdown and the Affordable Care Act is merely the newest of the political battles which has shown that America’s political process is not working. The ACA is different from many political struggles as it is a fight that has been much longer than many. But this struggle must end, and Congress needs to focus on fixing the law rather than try to kill it.
The Obamacare fight is one which has lasted over four years and counting. Reactions to the bill have spawned at least one massive grassroots movement, two if you count the Occupy movement. But one thing has been left out of this process—the want to make The Affordable Care Act ready for work and ready to be in place. In fact, Republicans have tied funding for Obamacare to funding the government itself, which led to the shutdown that began Oct. 1.
In the past three years, the House of Representatives has voted more than three dozen times to repeal all or part of Obamacare. Notes about insanity aside, that is far too many times for nothing to happen. Republicans claim Democrats are unwilling to compromise. But it’s hard to take them seriously when everyone knows their ultimate goal is to kill rather than improve it. Plus Democrats know delaying any mandates will come after yet another election season, and that could itself be problematic. The law, like many things Congress has made, is by no means infallible. There are a lot of holes that need to be filled, and Congress could help mend them by accepting the reality that President Barack Obama will not sign anything that will kill the ACA.
It’s too bad Republicans are chipping away at the law instead of trying to improve it. Because in all reality, the law has some problems that need to be fixed. Rather than destroying the national political process, there are many things Congress could do to make this far-from-perfect act more viable. As the L.A. Times points out on Oct. 2, “They [Congress] could start by clearing up the uncertainties that have put some federal rules under a legal cloud — for example, by clarifying that Americans in every state can qualify for premium subsidies, not just those in the 16 states that are operating their own insurance-buying exchanges. They could also look for ways to make the mandate to obtain coverage more effective. The financial penalties in the law are so low, many people would save money by paying the fine instead of signing up for coverage. That’s particularly true of the younger, healthier people whose participation is key to holding down premiums. One step that would help on that front — allowing people over age 30 to sign up for less expensive plans with higher deductibles and out-of-pocket costs.” However, rather than improve this bill, many have just decided to give up on it.
The Affordable Care Act rightfully tries to fix the healthcare system ranked 38th in the world, according to the World Health Organization. Any major overhaul takes time to implement and good judgment to make it work. The ACA is here to stay, whether House Republicans like it or not. Wouldn’t it be better to face that fact and get on board with making this imperfect law work? Unfortunately, it appears they would rather see it go away than improve the state of healthcare.