OPINION: Trumpcare pulled, what’s next?

By: Casandra Battisti

President Donald Trump stressed during his campaign that in his first weeks in office that his administration would repeal and replace the Affordable Care act known as “Obamacare” and he tried doing so with the American Health Care Act, the GOP’s replacement for Obamacare on March 6.

Democrats and Republicans alike all had concerns once the bill was brought before Congress. AHCA, nicknamed “Trumpcare”, was going to continue to allow people to stay on their parents’ insurance until the age of 26 and was going to keep insurers from denying anyone due to pre-existing health conditions.

Trumpcare, however, was going to halt the funds of Medicaid and cut Planned Parenthood completely.

It’s no surprise President Trump wants to cut funding to Planned Parenthood due to his view on abortion, but Planned Parenthood also provides millions of Americans with other services. House Speaker Paul Ryan told CNN that tax payer money shouldn’t be providing women the means to abortion, which is understandable considering many Americans don’t agree with it. But Planned Parenthood provides breast exams, contraception and STD screening among other things. Cutting funding completely would do a lot more than lawmakers against abortion would care to admit.

AHCA never even made it off the ground; the bill was pulled Friday. Without full support from the party Republican leaders did the right thing by waiting.

Why put forward a bill that had no chance of surviving in your own party?

The bill getting pulled doesn’t mean Obamacare is perfect and doesn’t have it’s issues. Since Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, premiums have increased and employers have cut employee’s hours to avoid having to provide health insurance. Obamacare also required heavy taxes on the wealthy in order to keep money flowing into Obamacare. The wealthy are helping to pay for not only a health care for the poor but health care they aren’t using.

Both plans have certain aspects that will benefit Americans and the economy, but both plans need improvement. Replacing one broken health care system with another isn’t going to solve anything.

We all have a natural born right to be provided with health care, however, it will take time, cooperation from both parties and an open-mindedness to achieve such a goal.