My New America
My New America Part One: Health Care
Health Care in My New America is one of the topics tackled in the latest PalacioMagazine.com project with the Political Science classes of Professor Som Chounlamountry at California State University, Long Beach. This is the third partnership with the Professor and his students.
In My New America, we wanted to discover as many voices surrounding three important issues: Health Care and the Affordable Care Act, Jobs and the Economy, and Immigration. Eighteen students across three classes participated in the three-month long project. The students were tasked with writing an essay about the topic and conducting interviews. A fourth team produced a series of mini-podcast on each of the topics.
Health Care in My New America
Political Science student Isidro Morales led the team addressing Health Care, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and H.R.1628 – American Health Care Act of 2017. This is their essay.
With the election of Donald Trump, many Americans began to fear their healthcare would soon disappear. During the campaign, Trump had called the Affordable Care Act a “complete and utter disaster,” and promised that he would repeal it, “including the mandate!” This simplistic repeal promise left many Americans fearful for the future of their healthcare and ability to receive treatment for their families. The introduction of the 2017 American Health Care Act, nicknamed “Trumpcare,” the replacement proposed by the red saturated congress to replace the ACA, was no conciliation to Americans who would see their premiums hiked and benefits destroyed. PalacioMagazine.com interviewed several people about their thoughts on Healthcare.
Teresa, a 28-year-old student at CSULB, who received insurance just last year as a result of the Affordable Care Act, spoke to us about her experiences. Just three days before her effective date, she woke up with a fever she knew wasn’t going to go away on its own. She knew “I had go to urgent care.” She then experienced the pains of being an American without health care, outrageous charges for seeing a doctor for a simple medical visit. Teresa paid “close to 500 dollars” for the one doctor’s visit. Such high payments make having insurance essential and necessary to be affordable. Teresa’s premium is around 35 dollars a month, but with an expected 22% increase in premium projected by Healthcare.gov, affording health insurance is going to become a little more challenging.
While Teresa is not planning on canceling her insurance, she does recognize that things might get a little tight if premiums go up as projected. She was disappointed by the movement to replace the ACA with the American Healthcare Act. She explained, “Obamacare, it’s not great but it’s a start, and Trumpcare would erase all that.”
For individuals like Teresa, the benefits of keeping the Affordable Care Act outweigh the minor issues that it has. Without it, Teresa would not have any insurance and would still be paying outrageous fees to see a doctor or, more likely, would not be receiving any healthcare at all.
Justin Levitt, a Professor of Political Science at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) weighed in on our discussion of the ACA and American Health Care Act. Levitt argued that the biggest issue to the rejected bill was “they [Republicans] wrote something [the bill] very haphazardly, because they needed something to present to the press.” The failure of Trumpcare was also reflective of the ideological tension within the Republican party. Different parts of the ACA are so popular that they are impossible to repeal now, for example, not being able to reject someone for a pre-existing condition. While Professor Levitt believes that a Single Payer system is not going to happen in the near future, he does agree that a full repeal of the ACA is not realistic at this time.
Team member David Garibay interviewed Professor Levitt about the challenges facing any overhaul of Health Care in America.
As of this writing, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed an updated version of the first failed bill on repealing the Affordable Care Act. You can read more about H.R.1628 – American Health Care Act of 2017 HERE. The bill has been sent to the United States Senate where it faces an uncertain future.
The Health Care Team Podcast
The Health Care team leader sat down with the Podcast team, Mark Morettini and Kyari Cail for a debrief on the project.
Kyari Cail
Mark Morettini
The Health Care Team
Isidro Morales is Team Leader and a senior at Cal State Long Beach majoring in political science. He’s originally from San Diego and hopes to move back after grad school. Morales plans on becoming a history teacher, but he’s still open to the idea of working in media. He began his education career studying broadcast journalism and has interned for news organizations. Morales would like to explore the production side of journalism and mainly focus on storytelling.
Victoria Duffy is a Political Science and English literature major at CSULB. She hopes to continue her education to a law degrees and practice insurance law. Duffy aspires to one run for office and in order to make our country a safer, more accepting place to live.
Nathen Cruz is a political science major. His goals are to serve as an elected official in the long term and work in policy analysis in the short term. The My New America project is his opportunity to better understand the people he will one day serve in office. Simultaneously, it allows him the opportunity to how policy affects everyday people. On a more personal level, this project will allow him to connect to his Hispanic roots and learn more about that part of himself.
Brianna Meloche is a junior at CSULB majoring in Political Science. She hopes to continue on to her Masters. In the future, she sees herself working on campaigns and potentially holding office. Meloche wants to use her influence and knowledge to elect more women and minorities into office and fight for people who don’t have a voice.
David Garibay hopes to graduate college with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a minor in Business Entrepreneurship. After college, he intends continue onto law school. Garibay wants to help the poor who cannot afford proper representation and been have been wrongfully convicted. Another goal is to become a businessman to generate the money that he can use to support his social justice efforts.
