Introduction to American Politics – West: Ch ONE continued

I’m trying to learn for my Political Science class and I’m stuck. Can you help?

Please reply to the question and comment constructively on a classmates’ posting.

West: Ch ONE continued…

o Bush and the War on Terror 21

o The Obama Years 27

o Shock and Awe under Trump 31

Again, read and reply thoughtfully. Cite pages, as always

(the page # might different since I have a different version of book)

Here is classmate’s posting from question. Please reply in 1st person point of view.

Classmate’s post

There were several things mentioned in the Obama years that people didn’t agree with and one of them was the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare. Seeing as how health care has been a sensitive topic for quite some time, I thought I would dig a little further to understand why we were so torn in deciding if it was a good or bad thing to have.

On the surface, hearing Affordable Care Act sounds rather appealing and to question it would seem unnecessary at first. I mean, who wouldn’t want affordable health care right? The ACA though, put a underlying requirement for all Americans that forced everyone to have health insurance or pay a tax. According to an article from The Balance, “there were 46.5 million uninsured nonelderly Americans in 2010″, that is a lot of people that could be negatively impacted by this. The reason for such a high number of uninsured, either because their employer didn’t offer health care, the employer did and employee refused to purchase because it was too high or simply because they didn’t have a job. No one wants to be forced into doing anything especially when there are financial obligations that come with it and like West states in his book peoples perception of the ACA “would destroy individual choice in health care” (West, pg30). I think it especially hurt those that didn’t have a job and now having to pay for something that they were willing to take a risk on, the choice was no longer theirs to make. But let’s look at it from the other side, for those that didn’t have insurance and sought medical attention for whatever condition they had, were they actually going to pay for that hospital or office visit? Some do an some don’t but let’s talk about the ones that don’t. If they don’t pay then who does? That debt is charged to an emergency Medicaid plan which raises the cost for everyone. So if I’m understanding that correctly, I am essentially being penalized by my health care cost going up to cover those that don’t have it. Obama didn’t just put the ACA together and say “here, figure out how your going to pay for it now that I made it mandatory”, he made it affordable. But then again, what is affordable? What I consider affordable might not be for someone else?

There were a lot of good and bad surrounding the Affordable Care Act. Having 2 kids of my own, the Act allowed me to keep my children covered under my medical plan up to the age of 26, being a woman, wellness and pregnancy exams were made free, and I think most importantly for me I couldn’t be denied coverage due to a pre-existing medical condition. The down side of ACA as I mentioned above was a penalty for those that didn’t get coverage, some employers opted to pay the fine rather than keep their current health plan because in the end it was cheaper just to pay the tax and also raised the income tax rate.

In speaking for myself and myself only, the Affordable Care Act has my support and I think it did more good than harm for my personal situation when it was passed. It’s easy for me to say that because I was not negatively impacted by the con’s to this ACT like I know most people did so I am truly sympathetic. I guess this all stems back to what we’ve been discussing for the last 2 weeks and the division we have. Had my circumstances been different during that time I might’ve opposed it and fought against it but that was not my case back in 2010. How do you feel about the Obamacare? What are your thoughts about it both good and bad?

Work Cited

“Obamacare: Simple Enough To Explain To Your Kids”. The Balance,

WEST, DARRELL M. DIVIDED POLITICS, DIVIDED NATION. BROOKINGS INSTITUTION PR, 2020.