Interviews

Jamie's Interview and Reflection:

For my interview about the affordable healthcare act I interviewed my sister.  She is a year older than me and does not quite understand the act.  However, her boyfriend is someone who does not have health insurance so she is vaguely familiar as he is in the process of applying for health care.  Talking to her, my view on the act sort of changed.  Because I heard of the struggle that her boyfriend was going through, it made me feel bad for all the others who have never been able to afford healthcare options.  My sisters name is Jenna and she is a student at Mass College of Pharmacy.  Being in the healthcare field, she should have probably known a little more about this topic, however, she was not too informed about it.  After talking briefly about the act, she told me that she thinks it is very important.  Her boyfriend has been without healthcare for the past several years.  He was never able to afford it, even though he worked full time.  It has been difficult for him to get doctors appointments and he hasn't been to a dentist in  years because he does not have one because of not having insurance.  Now that the affordable healthcare act has been passed, her boyfriend can now have insurance and feel safe in case of an emergency.  This puts my sister at ease, as well as him.She is definitely for this act.  She believes that it is a good thing for people who are struggling to afford health insurance and that everyone should have a chance to have insurance.  She strongly believes that every person should have a fair chance to having the best healthcare that they can have. After talking with her, I realized that its not just lazy people who don't have health insura nce.  There are just some jobs that don't offer insurance and hard workers may not be able to get it that easily.  With this act, an affordable insurance is made for each and every person.

Lexi's Interview and Reflection: 

Name of person interviewed: Matt (my boyfriend) who works in the health care industry.

Interview:

Q: Is this an issue you think is important? Why?

A:Yes, because it provides everyone a chance to receive affordable health care.

Q: Do you think others in our community think this is an important issue? Why/ why not?

A: No because Massachusetts already has an alternative solution for affordable health care, Mass Health. 

Q: What are the advantages of this policy?

A: People can save money on health care and it allows for the larger population to have health care that is affordable for them.

Q: What are the disadvantages of this policy?

A: The Affordable Care Act is going to effect insurance companies, it is going to take away members because they may be offered a cheaper solution with the Affordable Care Act. If employees do not select the package their employer is offering the employer will lose money. On top of that every American is paying into the Affordable Care Act even if they are not insured under it. 

Q: What disagreements, if any, exists in this community?

A: Many people are probably wondering why we should have to pay into this insurance act when Massachusetts already has affordable health insurance.

Reflection: Matt made several good points about companies loosing money if employees chose the Affordable Care Act over they company policy. It also worries me that with the Affordable Care Act lowering insurance prices, they are hoping it will cause private insurance companies to lower their prices as well and could that mean loss of jobs for people in the health care industry? I agree that it is hard to think about that fact that every American will be paying into this act even if we are privately insured. Although I am for this act, I feel that we really will not know the actual advantages and disadvantages until a few years from now when this act has been in place for a little longer. 

 

Affordable Healthcare Act

What is the Affordable Care Act?

The Affordable Care Act is the new health care reform law in America. The affordable care act attempts to reform the healthcare system by providing more Americans with affordable quality health insurance and by curbing the growth in healthcare spending in the U.S. Some things the Affordable Care Act addresses is: Quality, affordable health care for all Americans, the role of public programs, improving the quality and efficiency of health care, preventing chronic diseases, improving public health, and improving access to innovative medical therapies.

This law will make insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history, reducing premium and out-of-pocket costs for tens of millions of families and small business owners. This will help over 32 million Americans afford halth care who do not get it today. Under this plan 95% of Americans will be insured. It will end discrimination against with pre-existing conditions and puts our budget and economy on a more stable path. 

Why should you care about the Affordable Care Act? Because not only could you one day find yourself insured by this act but also because this plan hopes to level the playing field by forcing private health insurance companies lower their costs to help them compete with the Affordable Care Act. 

Jamie's View

I think that the Affordable care act is unfair to our country and our citizens because it gives health insurance to people who don't have jobs and don't work and makes taxes for families like mine to go up.  I think that my family, along with many other middle class citizens, are hard workers and work extremely hard to get our health insurance and not cheat the system.  I think that individuals who are lazy and are capable of working and don't should not benefit from something that working class citizens do.  However, at the same time, I think that this health care act is good for the individuals who cannot work because of health reasons but need health insurance.  This act crosses a fine line, for me, between good and bad.  I could argue either way but think that it is more on the negative side for society.

Lexi's View

Trying to navigate your way around the Affordable Healthcare Act is daunting. There are so many articles out there that are for and against the healthcare act, it is hard to keep up, and even harder to actually learn about the bill. After reading the actual Affordable Healthcare Act and a helpful article that laid out the advantages and disadvantages I am for affordable healthcare. For so long so many people have gone without health insurance because the private companies are too expensive. A few years ago Massachusetts created affordable healthcare for those who could not afford private insurance and required everyone in the state to be insured. While it was a relief to some, it is still fairly impossible to be accepted into the health plan. The Affordable Healthcare Act accepts all parties and creates a payment plan based on your income. Many people are worried about the disadvantages of affordable healthcare, one worry being that although everyone will now be insured, that prices will increase due to unknown issues someone might realize they have when they go to their first preventative doctors visit after not seeing a doctor for several years. Although this could happen, it would not be an increase that would continue to grow. Once everyone becomes insured and begins to have routine checkups, need to expensive hospital visits will decrease because people will see a doctor sooner, and many issues can be resolved before they become so bad someone might be hospitalized. The price of private health insurance has consistently gone up over the past several years because of this very reason. The Affordable Healthcare Act will bring these prices down.