Dems-passed health care reform raises concerns among Arizonans
Parisa Amini
The health care reform bill passed in the House of Representatives with mixed reviews, and Arizona residents felt the same. The bill passed with a 219-212 vote after more than a year of partisan debate. Ultimately, the democratic majority in the House passed the bill as all 178 republicans opposed it, along with 34 democrats.
The debate did not stay in the House as Phoenix residents also had opposing views.
With bill provisions such making health insurance mandatory for most Americans, some were left concerned. Such was the case for musician and drum teacher Brian Merkel, 27.
“Making anything mandatory is…ridiculous,” Merkel said.
Mike Fink, 27, an IT senior analyst, differed in his view. He felt positive about requiring insurance, but not for everyone.
“I am for mandatory insurance for U.S. citizens,” Fink said. “Not necessarily for non-citizens.”
Concerns stretched beyond mandatory coverage. Fine art major Christine Miller, 28, felt uneasy about the bill being passed so quickly.
“There’s too much written into the health bill that’s ambiguous language. It makes me wonder,” Miller said. “Because of the language, when they wrote (the bill) did they intentionally leave loopholes to gain favorable votes?”
Despite being passed by such a narrow margin, Miller was pleased by a stipulation in the bill.
“It’s nice to know subsidies are going to be available to people who can’t afford health insurance,” she said.
With the passing of the new bill, by 2019 nearly 32 million Americans, who previously had no insurance, would gain access to health coverage.
Also, the bill would ban insurers from denying people and putting a limit on coverage based on gender or any pre-existing conditions.
The bill is extensive. It would make significant changes to health insurance laws since the addition of Medicare and Medicaid nearly four decades ago.
Even with major provisions to come, there were positive views.
“I think overall I am for the bill,” Fink said.
Questions arose as the bill still left much up in the air for U.S. citizens.
“I still have some questions,” Fink said. “How will it affect health care companies, in the sense of will they cut jobs because the government is now a health care provider?”
With unanswered questions, only time would tell how the bill will ultimately affect the United States.
