Yoga Tuesdays: Enraged Over Health Care

Hi everyone! I know my blog has not been a platform for much political thought. However, on this particular Monday-Tuesday, my love for politics and yoga pants combined into this particular thread. I know my fashion page is wayy lagging but that's because well, my interests have been vested elsewhere. Yoga Tuesdays is going to basically continue those Tuesday musings that sort of died out. I am taking a class of government/econ and it's giving me new things to enraged about. Gov is my new biology this year. I don't know if you guys remember all those bio posts but now I'll post all about the problems of government. If this isn't your cup of tea, I suggest you skip over it! But for the sake of our country, I do hope you'll put on a pair of yoga pants and sit for the show. This week's issue is Health Care (I promise they won't all be political...)
I am a student who is learning these things just like you (probably), so don't expect everything I say to be right. A lot of the research I've done could be skewed and inaccurate. I don't mean to tell you that everything you believe in is wrong but rather give you insight into my opinion and why I am upset.

So this week, we tackle Health Care. Currently the government is looking at a possible shut down because of Health Care. The House has somehow linked the debt issue to health care, which are supposed to be argued separately. The Senate refuses to compromise especially since the House doesn't want to give ANY money to the Affordable Care Act and Obamacare. The House basically spent a lot of time saying how Obamacare is bad but won't come up with an alternative or put anything up for serious debate. Instead, they threaten government shut down. There is a serious problem in the US if government shutdown is serious leverage. The function of the government is supposed to protect the interests of the PEOPLE, thanks John Locke. So time is ticking down as the House tries to come up with something to cover for their huge mistake. If the US defaults on the debt (because the debt ceiling wasn't raised) or the government shuts down (because of the House), I will directly be blaming Congress.

There's a little bit of a super current event. Health care on a whole has been a huge problem in this country. 45,000 people die on average EVERY YEAR because of lack of access. These people have health care but their insurance companies aren't providing for them. Why? Because the US is the only country with profit motivated health care. Insurance companies are doing WHATEVER they can to not pay for the needs of its clients. Health care companies are directly linked to Wall Street and if Wall Street sees that profits are down, the CEO is cut. To avoid this, insurance companies look for every single loop hole to push you through. It's disgusting that this can go on and no one will debate it in Congress. You may be asking how this can happen but it's simple: there's no competition in health care. When only a few companies control the whole market, they don't need customers' input on prices, coverage, etc. They can do whatever they want which is deny people health care. Perhaps this is capitalism but what kind of country runs it's government principles 100% based on capitalism? The US is not the ONLY capitalistic country in the world, but it's the only country with health care like this. Health care in the US is the most expensive out of any other country. It's fair to say that there are some serious issues here. I could go more in depth but I feel like the point is made.

What do I think we should do? I don't think that Obamacare is perfect. I don't think that it's a good idea to have private companies mandated to pay their employees' health care. Sure in the long term this will help the US but right now it's not feasible. I do think that something should be done about the 45,000 death rate that lack of health care access (these people have health care but no actual care). Competition in the health industry would be a very good thing.

The legislative branch should be able to debate this without being SO STUBBORN. Sure the GOP doesn't want Obamacare and yes Obama doesn't want to limit his program, but a middle ground NEEDS to be reached. It's not just this issue either. How many effective bills have been passed thus far? The US is unable to do anything about gun regulation, the energy crisis (although Obama has done a lot for this!!), social security, etc. This standoff is caused because Congress, Senate, and the President cannot compromise. Congress won't even put this bill on the table to be debated. What the heck is going on with government? We will see national parks closing, the deterioration of the education system, etc because Congress thinks government shutdown is a practical source of leverage.

I am here so angry at government. Where are the days when Congressmen and women could put aside their differences to make peoples' lives better? It seems like politics is room full of children saying "I'm right", "no, i'm right", "no", "yes", "no", "yes", "I'm not going to play with you anymore".  I'll be interested to see what Congress does next. They can't threaten government shutdown forever. Maybe I'll write an angry letter or two in the meantime, while wearing you guessed it, yoga pants.