Obamacare- Yay or Nay?

Possibly the biggest polictical debate currently overshadowing the United states is the topic of Healthcare and how President Obama plans to change things for the better and to help his country. Because that's what President's do, right? Well, not according to some. Obama's Healthcare Reform is, in some American's eyes, a plan to turn America into a Socialist country that will inevitably end up like (gasp) the USSR. In many of the propaganda videos that have been made, original USSR propaganda footage has been used to compare and to really drive home the message that what Obama is doing is wrong.

My first website is from the news channel CNN and is against the Healthcare Reform and lists five reasons why.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/24/news/economy/health_care_reform_obama.fortune/

What is possibly the most interesting point about this website is the comments at the end. Real American's who are not in front of a camera or are trying to push their opinions on millions of people. They are sharing their points of view about Obama's new policy. There are mixed views but it is obvious that the majority have been brainwashed by the media (thank you, Fox News) and are scared of the 'tyranny' that will obviously follow should this bill be passed. What this website focuses on is what American's are most afraid of loosing; their freedom. The first amendment of the Constitution is possibly the most precious and what their ancestors fought for. Take that away, and what does America stand for?

This YouTube video is in relation to another video that is posted which poses the argument as to why Universal Healthcare is wrong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPq6_7AFsp4&feature=related


My second website is a Pro Healthcare Reform Website

http://www.americanhealthcarereform.org/index.html

This website is full of information including the lies and the real truth's surrounding the reforms, news items, video clips, an FAQ and it even includes letters that are pleaing with members of Congress to say yes to the changes. One letter included is from a retired Doctor from Preston who is outraged at the way the NHS is misrepresnted in the States! It just goes to show how powerful this debate is and who it's really effecting. However, with the recent findings in an Essex hospital this week, it is just giving the people who are opposed to this more ammunition, and is neither helping the cause or putting us in a good light. I really enjoyed looking at this website and I found it interesting to see how invested people are in this cause and all the information they are willing to gather to get more people on board.

And here's a little video that I found on You Tube. It breaks down what the Government is trying to do, in the simplest terms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfZfgkX6uEk


I am in two minds on this. I can see from an American's point of view why Universal Healthcare would be a threat. The Government is feared in the US and people are afraid that they will not receive the same treatment as they do now. For example, if you are rich and can afford great insurance, then you can pick the cream of the crop to treat you. If Universal Healthcare kicks in, there's every chance that you will have to slum it with the rest of us and get treated by whatever Doctor happens to be free, unless you want to deal with the deductable in your private health insurance. However, if I was sick, and I couldn't afford great insurance, I would want to know that I would be seen by a Doctor. The thought that a Doctor would refuse to treat me because they could earn more if it cost them less really scares me.

After watching Sicko, for the first time, I was glad to be British. I'm the only one in our class to have previously watched the film, but it's meaning isn't any less poignant and it's effect any less dramatic. It really hit home how lucky we are to live in a country where we only have to pay for medicine between the ages of 18 and 60 and we are exempt if there are various other factors including pregnancy or income support. My Mom recently suffered a very serious and life threatening illness which required specialist surgery and she is now on several different types of medication and requires support from health carers, which in America, would have cost us hundreds of thousands of Dollars because as she already suffers from several other pre-existing conditions that had nothing to do with this illness. Yet because she has these pre-existing conditions, she would not be insured. Neither would my Dad because he has a pre-exsisting condition and wouldn't be accepted because of that and his BMI and I probably wouldn't because of my BMI and my 'pre exsisiting condition' which is nothing compared to my parents- mine is that I have 'Shin Splints', a small condition in the shins which, I am told, was basically caused because I shot up like a bamboo shoot as a child. It's insignificant little things like this that we take for granted, but can and does kill millions of people in the US. As we saw in the film, so many people died just because of get out clauses in their insurance that the companies use to make money. What's wrong with America's current 'Healthcare' system? It is run more like a bank than a hospital. And that costs lives.