What Happens if ObamaCare is Scrapped, as John Boehner Wants
U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said recently that the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, should be scrapped:
“The only way to fully protect the American people is to scrap this law once and for all. There is no way to fix this.”
Isn’t this what Republicans, especially in the House of Representatives, have been trying to do all along, which is scrap the health care law that was passed into law by both houses of Congress, signed by the president and then passed as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court? In fact, so far, the U.S. House of Representatives, which John Boehner presides over, has tried repealing the law 46 times. So yes, I am sure that would please Boehner immensely.
What John Boehner and those who agree with him does not seem to care about is what would happen if they were to succeed and actually managed to “scrap” ObamaCare, or repeal it in other words. Does it not matter to them that we would be back to square one and again, tens of millions of Americans would be without health care and many more would be at the mercy of the health insurance industry that only cares about their profits, not the health care of those they supposed to serve.
People like me, who are the working poor, would be back to waiting until we got really sick before heading off to the emergency room for care, sometimes too late to stop a cancer or some other disease from destroying our bodies to the point of death. Then we would be faced with possibly thousands of dollars for medical care, those of us who can least afford it.
Then there is all those who have pre-existing conditions and who need health care the most, they would again be denied coverage because they are too sick to guarantee a profit for the for-profit health insurance companies.
The Expanded Medicaid, which has opened the door for millions of Americans who cannot afford health care at all, would be dropped from Medicaid and thrown back out into the world without health care
Many college-age young people, who are able to stay on their parent’s health insurance thanks to the Affordable Care Act, would no longer be able to continue being covered and if they needed or wanted health insurance, even when they least could afford it, while going to college, would have to buy insurance on their own.
Again, health insurance companies would be able to decide whom they wanted to cover and whom they wanted to deny. Caps on how much coverage is allowed under certain plans would again be allowed and those who found themselves facing a major illness or a serious medical crisis in their lives, could be cut off at a certain point. Americans would again face bankruptcy, thanks to a health crisis in their lives and lose their homes and their livelihoods.
The cost of health care would continue to rise as millions of Americans would wait until they are in an accident or they face a serious illness before finally seeking care and then leaving the cost to be placed on hospitals and doctors, who in turn would pass the cost on to those who have health insurance. How long would it be before health insurance would become a luxury that only the wealthiest could afford, because there is nothing to stop the cost of health care to continue to rise out of control?
Republican lawmakers would love to “scrap” the Affordable Care Act yet they have nothing to replace it with and they care not one single bit of the consequences of their actions if they did “scrap” ObamaCare. They themselves have excellent health care through the government, and it does not matter to them that the end of ObamaCare would mean going back to a broken health care system that was before, slowly destroying millions of American lives through inefficiency and run-away cost.
I am fully confident that Republicans like John Boehner would not succeed in their effort to “scrap” ObamaCare but just the very thought is chilling. That is because no matter how difficult the website, healthcare.gov has been and no matter how many problems that needs to be fixed with the Affordable Care Act, nothing compares to the horrific health care system we had before, which not only caused great harm to so many lives but also to America’s economy and the well-being of us all. ObamaCare is here now, and it must be here to stay. We cannot go back to a failed health care system that left out so many and yet cost the nation as a whole, so much.
