my thoughts on Obamacare

a year ago I was under the misunderstanding that Obamacare was, in fact, free healthcare. and I assumed (like many Christians) that it would definitely support and/or fund abortion on demand. well, it's been a year now and I now understand more of what the Affordable Care Act is. for the purpose of this blog, I will focus mainly on Obamacare's relationship with abortion. first of all, Obamacare is an expansion of Medicaid. I used to object to the individual mandate (and it still makes me uncomfortable). but over time I realized it is a blending of capitalism and liberalism. the fact that there is an individual mandate is what preserves the capitalistic aspect of it. it allows people to choose their own insurance, be it private or with Medicaid (Obamacare). however, if there was no mandate then it would be a free healthcare market and pretty soon it would eliminate all other competition. so the mandate preserves capitalism. but it is also liberal in the sense that it expands the power of government to offer healthcare and to control the healthcare market. for many people that is enough to be against it. but I'm not so sure. if the mandate ensures that there is still a capitalistic aspect to it, then it's not a complete loss for Republicans.

my primary objection to Obamacare used to be that it would fund abortions. but what I learned from Factcheck.org was that it only funds abortions in the case of rape, incest, or where the life of the mother is at stake. this is the same criteria that Medicaid has. remember, we all pay into Medicaid if we have jobs and we do our taxes. in order to escape this you'd have to move to another country or go completely off grid, stop paying taxes, and live in the woods somewhere away from society and stop using a social security card. which is probably what most Americans are not going to do anytime soon. so once I realized this about Obamacare my concerns were somewhat alleviated. I'm still against abortion in the case of incest or rape, but as long as we are having to pay into Medicaid by law then I have very little choice in the matter. maybe one day we will have a libertarian president that will offer reform in the Medicaid industry. I don't know. we can pray.

another pro for Obamacare is that studies have shown that in regions where free contraceptives are available that the number of abortions decreases. Obamacare will offer free contraception with no co-pay, so this seems to be a strong advantage. but others have pointed out that some of the more popular contraceptives known as IUDs are in fact abortifacients (meaning that they cause abortions in many cases). so that is a negative towards the argument for free contraception.

then there is the argument that in advanced societies where free healthcare is available that abortion rates have radically reduced. T. R. Reid from the Washington Post says, "All the other advanced, free-market democracies provide health-care coverage for everybody. And all of them have lower rates of abortion than does the United States. This is not a coincidence. There’s a direct connection between greater health coverage and lower abortion rates." this is confirmed by the World Heatlh Organization which shows statistics of abortions in European countries. so this argument actually favors free healthcare (as opposed to the Affordable Care Act, which is a moderate blending of Republican and Democratic concepts) which is a radically liberal position. and maybe the radical liberals are right about free healthcare. maybe that is favorable. I am beginning to lean in that direction.

so my feelings about Obamacare are mixed. on the one hand, I'm excited about the possibility of more people having access to affordable healthcare, but I don't think it should cover contraception that causes abortions. I think those goals are counterproductive. and I'm not entirely convinced either way about a so-called free healthcare market. it could be good for society...or it could give the government control that we don't want it to have. so I could see Obamacare succeeding, and I could see it failing. time will tell. that's why I'm on the fence about it. but I do believe there is no sin in joining Obamacare. just as Jesus told his disciples to pay Ceasar what is Ceasar's there is no sin in paying what is virtually a healthcare tax. it's what we have to do to not to offend authorities or cause penalties (unless we are lucky enough to have a job with benefits or we are living totally off grid and supporting ourselves off of our own garden and/or rodent farm).  I am definitely not against anyone signing up for it. my ambivalence is about its benefits in the long run. it's just too soon to tell.