Friday, August 10, 2012

ObamaCare -- polarization in a name

I recently ran across Wendell Potter's piece for the Center for Public Integrity (read it here:  http://www.natlawreview.com/article/analysis-obamacare-label-sticking).  Even though he wrote the article in Sept. 2011, I believe the principles still apply:  Americans generally have no idea what the Affordable Care Act does, and they have been inundated with false claims and negative publicity about "ObamaCare" that they have become ignorantly polarized.  Now that the Supreme Court has issued its opinion on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act's Individual Mandate and Medicaid Expansion, and now that the Presidential election is getting closer, it seems that health care has come even more into focus while it still remains out-of-focus with regards to clarity.  To put it another way, with the political race going on, there is a lot of talk about health care, but it is mostly wrong and meant to scare people into voting a certain way.  Heck, I've been reading state governors' responses to whether they will expand Medicaid in their states, and over half of them seem not to have a clue about what the program does for their state.  The Obama Administration needs to get CMS and HHS to put together a massive education campaign about what the Affordable Care Act has done, is doing, and will do.  Fear is a strong motivator, and people are being fed fear right now.  Listening to an NPR broadcast, I heard an interview from an older man who said that he really like the Massachusetts health care plan (he had friends and family there), but he didn't like the Affordable Care Act plan because it was a tax.  It's essentially the same thing!  Moreover, the "tax" classification was merely a constitutionality hook, just as used to uphold Social Security. 

So, to avoid being someone who critiques without taking action to remedy the situation, I am pledging to write President Obama and Secretary Sebilius about the need for education about the Affordable Care Act.  What will you do?

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