The Necessity of ObamaCare in the United States Essay Example for Free

The Necessity of ObamaCare in the United States Essay The United States is heavily watched around the world in terms of politics or any other action as it is one of the leading countries of the world. Recently, the United States caught the eye of the world in its recent debate of the health care reform. Most commonly referred to as â€Å"ObamaCare† the official name is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) or for short, the Affordable Care Act (ACA). President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010 signed the Affordability Care Act into law to reform the health care industry and it was later upheld by the supreme court on June 28th, 2012. â€Å"The goal of ObamaCare is to give more Americans access to affordable, quality health insurance, and to reduce the growth in health care spending in the U. S. † (ObamaCare Facts n. d). The debate is centred around the Republican Partys actions of trying to stop the implementation of this law. However, I believe the Republican Party has no right to prevent the implementation of the health care reform in the United States as it undermines â€Å"the three elements of democracy – liberty, equality and solidarity† (Brodie,Rein;Smith p. 36). It does this as it is withholding affordable healthcare of the expansion of Medicaid and Medicare and offering cost assistance through healthcare insurance marketplaces to around 44 million Americans who are unable to get health insurance with the majority of uninsured being poor working families and those who simply cannot afford health insurance. Therefore, going against democracys free form of always including those not yet involved (Brodie,ReinSmith p. 38) which therefore directly mocks the idea of solidarity and its sense of belonging or acceptance. In order to fully grasp the concept of the argument a few key terms needs to be defined. â€Å"Democracy is any form of government in which the rules of society are decided by the people who will be bound by them† (Brodie,ReinSmith p. 32). Equality is a term conveying the idea that all citizens should have the same access to the political sphere, the rule of and social entitlements. Solidarity is a term that refers to a kind of membership in the political community, and feelings of belonging associated with the acceptance by that community. The healthcare reform gives us a chance to rethink equality via solidarity where it is an equality of opportunity instead of equality of chance where everyone is granted the opportunity and are able to have health insurance via the Affordable Care Act. The sense of solidarity is therefore highlighted in the benefits of ObamaCare. The benefits of ObamaCare definitely outweigh the cons without a doubt. Before the law you could be denied coverage or treatment because you had been sick in the past, be charged more because you were a woman, be dropped mid-treatment for making a simple mistake on your application, and had little or no way to fight insurance company appeals. Today all Americans have access to a large number of unprecedented new benefits, rights and protections. The major ones outlined by the healthcare reform are there are many of uninsured persons who will get access to affordable quality health insurance through the marketplace, thus 82% of uninsured adults will qualify for free or low cost insurance. Insurance companies are not allowed to dismiss you when you are sick or if you make a mistake on your application. Neither can you be denied coverage or charged more for pre-existing conditions such as being sick. Another benefit is that young adults are able to stay on their parents plan until the age of 26. Also there is better care and protections for seniors and â€Å"essential health benefits like emergency care, hospitalization,prescription drugs, and maternity and newborn care must be included on all non-grandfathered plans at no out-of-pocket limit† (ObamaCare Facts n. d). Additionally, you cannot be charged more based on health or gender. ObamaCare helps to curb the growth in healthcare spending with reforms to the health industry to cut wasteful spending. Seeing all of these benefits, it shows the irrationality of Republicans refusal of the healthcare reform as these provisions encompass solidarity in terms of those who were unable to have health insurance will be able to which brings out the equality of opportunity and linking to solidarity, are now able to have a sense of membership into the political and healthcare community as they are now able to enjoy the benefits of healthcare as the majority did before. After all, everyone deserves the right to healthcare. However, the Republicans knowing what the Affordability Act entailed did as much as they could to refute it and thus caused the United States to become the focus of the world because of the government shutdown due to their actions. One of the Republicans many attempts to refute ObamaCare ended up in a shutdown of the United States government beginning from October 1st, 2013 and it lasted up to 2 weeks. It was time for the spending bills to be passed and the Republicans insisted any new spending bill include provisions to hinder ObamaCare. They therefore, passed two spending bill amendments, one that would delay ObamaCare for a year and one that would repeal the ObamaCares medical device tax. However, the health care law isnt directly tied to funding the government, but its being used as a bargaining chip. The Senate rejected this proposal, which prompted the House to approve another spending plan that would remove the Obamacare individual mandate. The Senate rejected that as well thus resulting in the government shutdown. It should be noted that , â€Å"democracy privileges solidarity over ego† (Brodie,Rein;Smith p. 41) and the Republicans actions stemmed from their ego thus there is no justification for their actions. Furthermore, the article â€Å" Health Reform 2010: The Missing Philosophical Premises in the Long- Running Health Care Debate† by Theodore R. Marmor, puts forth a comparison of the healthcare systems of Germany, Canada, England, Japan, and France to the United States. â€Å"Each, as distinct from the United States, has created a universal health care program fundamentally based on the idea that medical care is a merit, not a market good. The equal access standard does not, of course, mean ideal practice, but care is more equally distributed as a result† (Marmor p. 569). This is now what ObamaCare seeks to do by imposing on the health care system that is seen to be run by private-profit companies, whose bottom line is money and not health. This idea of medical care being a â€Å"merit† and having more equally distributed care are two factors entailed in ObamaCare. This is where the elements of democracy freedom, equality and solidarity once again come into play. Healthcare becoming more equally distributed directly deals with equality which is directly linked to solidarity and the sense of belonging or acceptance as those previously without healthcare are now in the mix. Consequently, I have shown that the Republicans would like to see ObamaCare repealed. If it is repealed then millions of Americans will be without proper health coverage, and insurance companies will continue to be able to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. Without healthcare reform America will continue to suffer the consequences of a health care system controlled by private for-profit companies, whose bottom line is money and not health. Debates in the US press detract from the fact that healthcare is about shared humanity and solidarity, not ideology. The Republicans actions are not justified as it is seen to be stemmed from ego while the Affordability Care Act with its many benefits encompass the idea of the elements of democracy – freedom, equality and solidarity.

Comparison Of Benjamin Franklin and Frederick Douglass Essay -- Compar

Comparison Of Benjamin Franklin and Frederick Douglass America, a land with shimmering soil where golden dust flew and a days rain of money could last you through eternity. Come, You Will make it in America. That was the common theme of those who would remove to America. It is the common hymn, the classic American rags-to-riches myth, and writers such as Benjamin Franklin and Frederick Douglass had successfully embraced it in their works.Franklin and Douglass are two writers who have quite symmetrical styles and imitative chronology of events in their life narratives. They both approached their story with a "rags-to-riches" idea. In addition, we must realize that both Franklin and Douglass are powerful writers. In that sense, I mean that Franklin was a "well-educated" man in which he filled his life with bountiful knowledge through reading and productive dialogues with peers. On the other hand, Douglass mode of writing, like ones of William Lloyd Garrison's is sentimental and contains compelling language.In The Autobiography by Franklin and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Douglass, both narrations are generally composed of series of life events and encounters with hardship that eventually brought them success. I shall put forth some parallel ideas of both the authors have in common. In Franklin's Autobiography, his chapters of life events and improvements are symbolized by his travels, especially on the boat. His first travel signifies his "new beginning" and it caused great hardship. He was "cut so a miserable fi gure" when he started out. (Franklin, 1771:196). However, Franklin was quick to gain ground. His move to another city or country signified his advancement and his prologue to his success to come are in his description of his boat travels. By this I mean that, Franklin intentionally gave the details of his boat travels to prepare the reader for the kind of successes or failure that he was going to face in the next chapter of his life. For example, he described his first travel as an unpleasant one, and nevertheless his first move to another city was a struggle. In Franklin's later travels, he spoke of being around some prominent figures such as Governor Hamilton and nonetheless, he landed with a successful job at a famous Printing House in Bartholomew. With this characteristic in mind, Douglass's narration ... ...nt of maturity. In addition, both authors think that matured readers in general are harder to persuade compared to younger readers (those at the of 16 to 18). This is why both Franklin and Douglass intentionally set their "rebellion stage" at the age of 17. This is to encourage the "less stable" teenage readers to dare do something different and to not compromise with normality. This less-stableness would enable these teenage readers to be more receptive to radical ideas. With this thought in mind and armed with Americans vulnerability in believing the rags-to-riches myth, Franklin and Douglass are able generated effective and persuasive narrations.With such effective writing prose, the authors created well-fabricate compositions which modeled upon the "rags-to-riches" chronology.These are the myths, Americans live by them and the country survives with them. Thus, it is the American Dream. Works Cited: Douglas, Frederick. Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (The Harper Single Volume American Literature 3rd edition) 1845:p.1017-1081 Franklin, Benjamin. Autobiography. (The Harper Single Volume American Literature 3rd edition) 1776: p.282-284.

Adolescence and Moral Development Essay

Two major reasons exist for studying moral development during adolescence. First, cognitive changes that occur during adolescence are related to moral development. Formal operational thinking allows the adolescent to interpret the social environment in new and different ways. Second, because adolescents are capable of devising new and idealistic social orders to which all are expected to conform, we may view them as moral philosophers. A number of researchers have noted other changes in moral development that point to the importance of adolescence as a transition stage in moral development. Unlike children, the adolescent is concerned with what is right as opposed to what is wrong. Also, adolescents become more preoccupied with personal and social moral codes. As they gain the competency to understand alternative points of view, they see that the moral codes are relative, not absolute. The above changes result in some conflict between moral conduct and moral thinking during adolescence. Early writing in the area of moral development was left to philosophers, who evolved three major doctrines of morality, each of which is represented in contemporary psychological theorizing. The â€Å"doctrine of the original sin† assumed that parental intervention was necessary to save the child’s soul. Current-day vestiges of this viewpoint may be found in theories of personality structure and the development of the conscience, or superego, which argue that the child internalizes parental standards of right and wrong. See more:  Perseverance essay The â€Å"doctrine of innate purity† argued that the child is basically moral, or pure, and that society, especially adults, are corrupting influences. This view is represented in the theorizing of Piaget, who argues that morality develops from the acquisition of autonomy emerging from the need to get along with peers. Moral thinking develops through peer-to-peer interactions that lead to an understanding of rules, according to Piaget. He also believes that parents do not allow autonomous thinking to develop because parent-child relationships are basically heteronomous, that is, the child is ruled by the parents. Therefore, the parents retard moral development. The last philosophical doctrine is the â€Å"tabula rasa† notion, which assumes that the child is neither innately pure nor corrupt but the product of environmental influences. The current-day representatives of this position are the learning theorists, who believe that development is the result of reinforcement and imitation  mechanisms. In addition to these differing philosophical and theoretical views regarding the origin of morality, we must keep in mind the distinctions between three concepts: systems of morality, moral behavior and moral character. Systems of morality are evidenced in the rules that guide social and interpersonal behavior. That includes rules that are written down and those that are not. This broad definition includes all types of social behaviors, not just those we consider moral behavior. Moral behaviors are those behaviors that are consistent with rules of morality. Like moral systems, moral behaviors include social behaviors of all types. This definition of moral behavior also includes behavior contrary to that expressed in moral code. Immoral behavior is simply a subclass of moral behavior. Moral character is a much more difficult concept to define. It is mostly hard to define due to the fact it involves an individual’s motives for behaving in a particular way. The basic problem in defining moral character is to determine those personality dimensions that determine it and vary as a function of it. Moral knowledge , socialization, empathy, autonomy, and moral judgement are the major concepts defining moral character. In order to have successful peer and adult relationships, the adolescent must learn the rules of the society and act in accordance to these rules. Individuals who successfully master these tasks are said to possess moral character. Among psychologists, the writings of Freud and Piaget have had the greatest impact on research in moral development. Following their early works, there was little written about moral development. In the last two or three decades, there has been considerable research and theorizing about the process underlying moral development. According to the principles of psychoanalytic theory, morality is part of the individual’s conscience, or superego. The acquisition of morality is explained by the information of the superego, which results from resolution of the Oedipal complex and identification with the same-sex parent. Society ensures its survival through this identification process by imposing its cultural standards, as represented by the parents’ behaviors, attitudes, aspirations, on the individual. Although the exact basis is unclear, Freud’s theorizing has stimulated considerable research into the effects of parental behavior on the child’s moral development. The major research concerns have centered on moral character , the consistency of moral behavior across situations, and the role of parental disciplinary techniques in shaping moral behavior.

Speeches by 6 American Authors as Informational Texts