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Tag Archives: New Deal

On the Affordable Care Act

17 Tuesday Jan 2017

Posted by michelinewalker in Just Society, United States

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Affordable Care Act, Declaration of Independence, Mitch McConnell, New Deal, The Civil War, the United States

1024px-declaration_independence

Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull depicting the Committee of Five presenting their draft to the Congress on June 28, 1776 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Declaration of Independence

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (The Declaration of Independence)

President Obama was correct when he stated, in his farewell address, that the United States had to catch up with the ideals of its Founding Fathers. Listed in the Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, is an unalienable right: the unalienable right to Life. Americans have a right to Life, and it is this right the Affordable Care Act addressed. It was “the most significant overhaul in the U.S. healthcare system since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.” (See Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Wikipedia.)

President Franklin D. Roosevelt
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
President Barack Obama
President Barack Obama

 

The Modernization of Medicine

Times have changed. Medical tests are now performed using sophisticated tools that often cost a fortune. Such innovations and other changes have made the cost of healthcare prohibitive. Consequently, it is no longer possible for most individuals to pay health bills out-of-pocket. The rising cost of healthcare has also led to the unaffordable premiums demanded by Insurance Companies and to aberrations such as refusing benefits to the victims of a catastrophic disease. Diseases such as cancer are viewed as pre-existing and therefore uninsurable conditions.

Insurance and Pharmaceutical Companies

Insurance companies are businesses and, as businesses, their main objective is to make a profit. They therefore adjust rules and raise premiums accordingly. The same is true of pharmaceutical companies. Medications are priced so pharmaceutical companies make money. It is not possible to make America “great again” by ignoring so obvious a fact as costly advancements in medicine.

A large number of societies, in Europe for instance, have recognized that individuals cannot afford today the healthcare they could afford fifty years ago. Therefore, governments around the world have relieved citizens by funding healthcare, thereby keeping up with the times and ensuring the safety of citizens. The United States has been slow to modify its social contract. But on 23 August 2010, the Affordable Care Act was voted into law.

Life as Privilege

The rules started to change after World War II. Governments around the world, beginning to my knowledge with the Scandinavian countries, set about putting into place, social programmes that protected the people. In the United States, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt‘s New Deal brought relief to impoverished Americans. As for the Affordable Care Act, it is also a new deal that has made it possible for millions of Americans to see a doctor. However, unconscionable and somewhat petty Republican Senators seem bent on destroying it and letting people die, women first. A Republican Senate, led by Mitch McConnell, is therefore making it abundantly clear that life is not a right, but a privilege, the privilege of those who can pay. What will they do if they fall on hard times?

The Affordable Care Act is essential legislation and it cannot be taken away from United States citizens unless Senate has something better to propose and to implement. Societies must face reality. Healthcare is too expensive for individuals to protect themselves. Even those who have health insurance are denied the care they require. Nations therefore need a health plan. Besides, a new administration has nothing to gain by picking up its rifles and shooting at the former administration.

The American Civil War is over and, according to the Declaration of Independence, one has a right to Life.

Love to everyone  ♥

mitch_mcconnell_portrait_2016

Senator Mitch McConnell

© Micheline Walker
17 January 2017
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Nationhood: Watching the United States

11 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

1964 Civil Rights Act, Great Society, Lyndon Baines Johnson, New Deal, President Obama, Republican, United States, Voting Rights Act

The White House

As you know, I watch the US.  Canadians share a long border with the United States and our economies are too closely linked for me not to put in a word or two regarding the forthcoming presidential election. 

What I have been hearing from members of the Republican party is alarming as it could further divide the country into two groups: the rich and the poor.  Allow me, therefore to take you back to the presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), in office from 1963 to 1969.

The “Great Society”

President Johnson (LBJ) escalated the war in Vietnam, which was a huge mistake.  However, according to Wikipedia’s entry on Lyndon Baines Johnson, “he was responsible for designing the “Great Society” legislation that included laws that upheld civil rights, public broadcasting, Medicare, Medicaid, environmental protection, aid to education, and his “War on Poverty.”  The “Great Society” was an expression of nationhood.

Top left: The Tennessee Valley Authority, part of the New Deal, being signed into law in 1933.
Top right: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was responsible for initiatives and programs collectively known as the New Deal.
Bottom: A public mural from one of the artists employed by the New Deal.

Civil Rights

Matters have improved.  The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed segregation and the Voting Rights Act 1965 made it clear that African-Americans could vote.  However, legislation does not necessarily reach the subconscious.  Discrimination has survived, particularly among members of the Republican Party.

For instance, voter suppression was/is discrimination against people of colour.  It is a recent event, carried out by members of the Republican party.  I hope it is over, but  given so objectionable a breach of both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, one has reason to suspect that, come November 4th, we could be witnesses to vigorous efforts to keep people of colour away from the voting polls.  Moreover, two attendees at the Republican Convention in Tampa, a recent event, threw nuts at a colored CNN camerawoman saying “This is how we feed the animals.” (The Huffington Post)

This, dear friends, is blatant racism.

Medicare

During the October 3rd Denver debate, Mr Romney said he would abolish so-called “Obamacare.”

Where health care is concerned, as you already know, the privatization scenario unfolds as follows. Individuals pay an enormous amount of money to a private company whose goal is profit, big profit, not to mention the huge bonus the CEO takes home at Christmas.

Now, as the narrative continues, having paid his or her premiums, an insured  individual is suddenly diagnosed with cancer and told that he or she is suffering from a pre-existing condition.  Cancer is not a pre-existing condition.  He or she is therefore denied benefits.  That individual will either lose everything in order to pay astronomical medical bills or he or she will simply die in pain.

Medicaid

The same applies to pharmaceutical companies.  They are businesses and therefore want to make a profit, a big profit.  Although one is told that the company has to pay for the research that led to the development of the medication one has to take, such as insulin for the diabetics, just how long does it take to pay for such research: thirty years?

It is altogether objectionable to deny a person the medication he or she needs.  For example, people suffering from diabetes need their insulin.  In fact, even if a person suffers from mere migraines, these can be the source of excruciating and ultimately debilitating pain.  Patients should therefore be provided with the necessary medication at a reasonable cost.

Privatization works for the rich only. They need not fear they will be denied benefits because their illness is considered  a pre-existing condition.  In fact, they do not even need health insurance as they can afford the appropriate treatment and medication.

Taxes

Everyone should pay their fair share of taxes, including and especially the rich.  Taxes provide the money the government requires to provide social programs, defend the nation, etc.  Allow me to quote jurist Oliver Wendel Holmes, Jr. (8 March 1841 – 6 March, 1935) whom I have quoted elsewhere: “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society” in Compañia General de Tabacos de Flipinas vs. Collector of Internal Revenue, 275 U.S. 87, 100 (1927). (Wikipedia)

Conclusion

Lyndon Baines Johnson’s “Great Society” may not be my best example of nationhood, but it is nationhood.  It may have been better for me to look further back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” enacted between 1933 and 1936.  But the New Deal was a beginning.  “Historians argue that Johnson’s presidency marked the peak of modern liberalism in the United States after the New Deal era.” (LBJ, Wikipedia).

However, there can be no doubt that electing into the office of President of the United States a person who does not think in terms of such a concept as the “Great Society” is extremely dangerous.  Seeking the presidency so the rich get tax cuts does not translate into a sense of nationhood.

This is where I stop.  Americans are the voters.  But I have written the few words I wanted to write and have expressed what I believe to be the truth.

Micheline Walker©
October 10th, 2012
WordPress
 

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