What's going to happen with Health Care Plan ?

Among all the recent debates, people are starting to question: “what is going to happen with Obamacare?”. During the campaign, President Trump mentioned that he would repeal it very soon after he takes office. However, he is in office now, and his answer is that it is going to take a year from now for the new health care law to be proposed. The Editorial Board of USA Today expresses their opinion on this matter in the article “Repair and retain Obamacare: Our view". USA Today has a policy not to show bias toward any candidate for the United States Presidency or any other state or federal political office. Therefore, the Editorial Board’s opinion on this topic is credible. The article is worth reading because it talked about the problem with Obamacare, and what the government needs to do with health care insurance in general.

They state that “Republicans know they would pay a huge political price if they kill Obamacare and leave millions of people without health coverage, including for addiction treatment in the midst of an opioid epidemic. To avoid that, the Republicans should adopt a new mantra. Rather than ‘repeal and replace,’ they should preach ‘retain and repair’”. It is not a good idea to remove Obamacare completely because there are millions of people in the U.S. who rely on it. The Editorial Board suggests that the government should find a way to repair Obamacare, and to fix things which work against it rather than repeal it. For instance, the government should be concerned that not everyone sign up for healthcare. In some areas, there are too many unhealthy people versus  too few young people signing up. This causes the insurance companies to raise the premium otherwise they will lose money.  The Trump administration suggests that they would raise the the cost a little for people who near retirement, and lowering the cost for young people. This way young people would be more willing to sign up.  In addition, the government would cut back some grace periods “that insurance companies say are being gamed by savvy customers”. The Editorial Board concluded that “Obamacare — or whatever it is to be called going forward — has many things going for it. If Republicans want to show they can govern, their best course is to fix the things that are working against it”.

I agree with the article. People are concerned about how they are going to take care of their medical bills. It is important that the new Trump administration have a good, affordable healthcare plan for the people. It is essential that Obamacare either be fixed or if repealed, there must be another health care plan in place

Besty DeVos confirmed as secretary of education.

Besty DeVos was confirmed to be the nation’s education secretary on Tuesday with the help of Vice President Mike Pence in breaking the tie between votes supporting her and votes opposing her. According to the New York Times, “it was the first time a vice president has been summoned to the Capitol to break a tie on a cabinet nomination”. The result upsets a lot of people. They believe that Besty DeVos is not suitable for the position which controls the national education system.

“Senators and education advocates from both sides of the aisle also expressed concern after Ms. DeVos, during her Jan. 17 confirmation hearing, confused core responsibilities of the department.”- The New York Times

Besty DeVos comes from a wealthy background. Neither she nor her children attended public schools. She is unfamiliar with the public school system, and she does not have enough knowledge to know what will be effective for public schools and what will not. Ms. DeVos’ main focus is expanding funds for charter schools and vouchers, which allow students to use taxpayer dollars to pay tuition at private, religious and for-profit schools. However, expanding the funds will require the reallocation of federal education money. Many people fear that she could take away the money needed for public schools in need of federal funding. Moreover, the poor performance of Detroit’s charter schools which Besty DeVos championed has created distrust in her abilities to do the job. The teacher association, which strongly opposed to her, have said they “would continue to fight her as she serves”.

This article is important to a lot of students because the issue has a direct affect on anyone who is in school, particularly in the rural areas that do not have private schools or charter schools available. Most private schools and charter schools are in the urban areas. Therefore,  students in rural areas must attend public schools. If funding for public schools is cut, then the schools will continue to get worse. It is worth reading because the article provides details about Besty DeVos’ background, her prior interests, and her lack of experience in dealing with public education, all of which affect her ability to be the secretary of education.