Changes to the Affordable Care Act shows how one action can affect many

Date: 3/16/2017

My parents were interesting people.  They subscribed to “Organic Gardening” magazine decades before the designation “organic” had much meaning to most folks.

My dad, especially, was fascinated by the idea of being as self-reliant as possible. I’m willing to bet that he was in the minority of subscribers to “Mother Earth News” as he was a middle-aged career Air Force officer. He ate up, though, articles on solar power and living off the land in a responsible manner.

The idea back in the 1970s, at least, is that there was much a person could do to disconnect from the grid, so to speak – a phrase that hadn’t been invented as yet.

The connected nature of society didn’t have to come through the structure of government as much as it could derive through community and shared purpose.

Ah, the salad days.

Fast forward 45 years and people are still talking about “disconnecting,” but perhaps in a different way. “Community” and “down-sizing” are certainly buzzwords of our times.

Yet, as I grow older I see our positions as dominoes in a long line seems to be more apparent. An action ahead of our place in line can certainly affect us, regardless if we had any hand in it.

So much for being disconnected. It’s much more difficult now than it was when my dad designed a solar system for our home in Granby, when such things were considered a novelty of a counter-culture.

Consider for a moment the measures that are being discussed in Washington. D.C. What would be the effects if the Republican changes to healthcare are approved and implemented?  That’s one falling domino that will affect about 22 million other dominoes.

I think that I don’t have to tell you – but I will anyways – the terrible consequences an illness or accident can have on the average American, even the ones with insurance of some sort. Take a look at various crowdsourcing sites on the Web to see how many fund-raising efforts are to help people who have a health emergency. Think about the number of local events sponsored by families or friends that are conducted to help someone.

There is a real need that must be addressed.

We can’t get around it: the Affordable Care Act (ACA), just like our own state effort that preceded it, may not be perfect, but it is an important start of a conversation about universal healthcare.

The Republican plan has big insurers and hospitals worried, according to a report in the Washington Post. The American Medical Association and AARP don’t support it either.

Members of Congress, for the most part, are not in the business of providing healthcare to people. I think it is safe to say the majority of them are not experts.

They are experts on their own ideology, which for many see the idea of government programs such as this one as an additional intrusion of “big government.”

The irony that the ACA was modeled on the Massachusetts program, which was the prime accomplishment of Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, apparently is lost on his fellow party members in Congress.

That falling domino represented by the potential changes to the ACA will be felt by millions of American and not just those whose insurance is either lost or altered. It will affect our health infrastructure – hospitals and insurance – in a very significant way.

The impact could certainly be on jobs and productivity as well, and for an administration that is now taking credit for job figures before it has even introduced a jobs bill, one would think any action that altered employment would be out of consideration.

Fixing elements of the ACA to prevent that falling of dominoes – the destruction of many lives in this country – makes common sense.

I’d love to hear your opinion. Send me a letter at news@thereminder.com. As always these are my opnions and not necessarily those of the publishers or advertisers of this newspaper.