Last week the Mayor of Tallahassee, Florida, Andrew Gillum, an African American seeking to make history by succeeding Governor Rick Scott as the first African-American Governor of Florida, proposed an interesting state Constitutional Amendment. Gillum proposed the amendment which voters would vote on in an ensuing general election would make healthcare a right for Floridians.
Being cognizant of the volatile political divide in Florida over the provision of government backed healthcare, Gillum’s proposal could have difficulty advancing to the state ballot. However, already there’s support for his proposal that providing residents with affordable healthcare should be a right.
Maybe the Founding Fathers did include healthcare in the Declaration of Independence as a right for Americans when they declared “…… all people are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
How can people have unalienable rights to life, without access to healthcare? Humans need competent, affordable healthcare from birth to live a healthy life, enjoy liberty and pursue happiness. There isn’t much liberty or happiness for individuals unable to afford healthcare to treat cancers, HIV/Aids, Parkinson Diseases, Alzheimer’s and other serious illnesses.
Assuming it’s an implied right in the American Constitution, for Americans to have affordable healthcare to support life, liberty and pursue happiness it, therefore, emerges that it’s blatantly wrong for the provision of a federal or statewide healthcare policy to be determined by politics.
Long before President Obama and Democrats in Congress succeeded in providing Americans with the Affordable Care Act in 2010, every president and Congress before failed in this mission because of the political divide.
The provision of a national healthcare policy failed because politicians were unable to overcome barriers placed by doctors, insurance companies, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies bent on inflating their bank balances on the back of Americans ill-health. Really, when Obama garnered the support of a significant percentage of the medical industry to support the ACA it was tantamount to a modern-day miracle.
Similarly, when President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law in the mid-1960s it was regarded as a miracle. Johnson’s political opponents also swore to repeal and replace these laws just as the opponents of Obama’s ACA are attempting.
Irrespective of the strong opposition, up to this day Medicare and Medicaid have neither been replaced nor repealed. And, neither will Obamacare.
Basically, the effort among Republicans in Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare could turn out to be a colossal waste of time and taxpayer’s money. Republicans in both chambers are divided into too many ideological groups to bring consensus around a healthcare law. These divisions will very likely prohibit Republicans passing a uniform bill. This is the reason why no Republican administration in history succeeded in the passage of an affordable healthcare law.
But while Republicans are frustrating themselves trying to replace and repeal Obamacare, they are also despicably trying to sabotage and destroy Obamacare. By consistently claiming Obamacare is failing, they are alienating health insurance companies from participating in the program and prompting those that remain to increase their premium rates. Of course, if insurance companies continue to leave the program and premiums continue to increase, the program will be weakened.
Healthcare must be a right to every American of whatever age. It is wrong for the establishment to allow any American to suffer and die because they cannot afford to visit a doctor or to stay in a hospital. It is immoral for the provision of affordable healthcare to continue as a political issue. Democrats, Republicans, Independents all need access to affordable healthcare when they’re sick.
A bipartisan approach is urged in Congress.
Democrats in Congress have a responsibility to push for bi-partisan collaboration to fix the flaws apparent in Obamacare despite the stance of their Republican peers. Democrats will also be at fault if they allow Americans to be deprived of the right to affordable healthcare. Sitting and watching Republican efforts implode isn’t the answer. Healthcare must stop being a political issue. Americans cannot enjoy the right to life, liberty, and pursue happiness without affordable healthcare.
Copyright 2017 – Caribbean National Weekly News
