I’m never going to be one to give an unqualified endorsement to the Affordable Care Act (a name I find preferable to “Obamacare”). Anything that falls short of guaranteed universal health care is not something I’m going to fully embrace. (America remains the only industrialized nation without universal health care.) That said, ACA is nothing if not a step (and only a step) in the right direction, which is slowly plugging some of the most egregious holes in the American health care system.
As of August 1st, the quality of care guaranteed to women increased significantly. This is key for the detection and prevention of conditions such as breast cancer. If we can guarantee the women in our lives access to basic preventive care…well, what about that screams “SOCIALISM!!!”? What about that says someone’s getting something for nothing? Why can we not look at preventive medicine as an up-front investment in protecting the long-term health of the distaff half of the American populace? In pure dollars-and-cents term, every dollar spent for preventive care saves multiples of that amount down the road.
And how cruel and heartless do you have to be to see providing health care to women as evidence that Barack Obama hates America?
It seems the idiocracy I’ve feared is already upon us.
For reasons no one seems to be able to make an informed, intelligent, and/or cogent argument for, one side remains determined to take away the progress visited upon the American health care system. One side seems determined to prove the primacy of ideology over people. One side remains resolute in their conviction that waging war on women is a legitimate policy objective and a way to prevent Socialism from washing over America. I can’t begin to explain the astonishing lack of humanity displayed by those in Congress and the Radical Right determined to repeal ACA. Evidently none of their constituents require health care.
