As an employee at an accounting firm, I get to see first-hand the havoc that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) wreaks on the average American.

According to the IRS, a 2.5 percent penalty on total household income is charged to those who choose not to pay or register for health insurance.

Every single client at the firm must sign a letter clearly stating that they understand the requirements and documentation required to avoid paying the fine. Should Americans really have to shell out a shared responsibility payment for something they can freely opt out of?

Repealing the ACA is a good first step on the path to a more effective public health care system. If it is repealed, lawmakers will need to act quickly to ensure that millions of people will have the coverage they need to stay healthy.

Although many Americans cannot afford private sector insurance, getting a public institution involved in something like private health care is completely inappropriate. I would venture to say that this “shared responsibility” stinks of socialism.

Whose business is it that I do or don’t want to have health insurance? If I don’t want to pay exorbitant prices for a service I don’t feel I need, what gives the government the right to force me to purchase a private sector service?

With a current national debt of almost $20 trillion, spending tax money on required health care that could be better used to pay off loans to other countries doesn’t seem too fiscally responsible.

The country is already neck-deep in debt from foreign wars, social security payouts, and veteran care. Adding health care onto all of this will cost taxpayers more in the long run and bury our leaders in even more debt to dig our country out of.

Yes, the government is making you spend your money on something. They are forcing you to spend your hard-earned money on a privately-managed service in order to avoid paying a 2.5 percent penalty.

The government is requiring that individuals purchase private sector health care or file for public health care that is heavily intertwined in private businesses.

The care available to those on an Obamacare Plan is mediocre at best. Doctors are not top-tier like those available to people with non-federal plans.
In order to qualify for public health care, your income has to be incredibly low, and nearing the poverty line (a total household income of about $11,700 is reqired, according to the IRS).

If your income is low enough, you get a very limited list of doctors and hospitals that will take your insurance. Often, care providers will not accept ACA coverage, and if they do, copays are incurred. For a typical private plan, there is no copay for a doctor’s visit. For a visit under the ACA, a copay is at least $35.

Keeping the ACA around will require hundreds of hours spent re-writing and trying to pass complicated legislation. By the time all of this work is done, it would be best to simply repeal the ACA and start with a clean slate.

James Keller is a Copy Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.

For most Americans, getting surgery to fix a health concern is not the scary part of being in the hospital. The scary part is the massive bill that they will have to face after they wake up from the effects of the anesthesia.

In 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, into law. It requires Americans to have health insurance, and if they cannot afford to purchase their own health insurance, they can then file to receive Obamacare.

President Donald Trump has promised the American people that he will repeal and replace Obamacare, and he is currently working to make this happen. Even though Trump is committed to repealing Obamacare, he currently has no plan on how he will be replacing it, which is extremely concerning and problematic.

While Obamacare does currently have a few fundamental problems, completely repealing it is not a smart decision. According to Bloomberg, 32 million people are insured through Obamacare, and repealing it would leave all of them without health insurance. Obamacare should not be repealed or replaced. Instead, it needs to be improved upon.

The main problem is the economic and financial side of it. Although everyone is getting healthcare, the taxes implemented to pay for Obamacare have increased each year, according to Obama Care Facts. For it to work, obviously taxes will be present, but in order to make it more financially effective, the various Obamacare tax rates needs to go down significantly.

Trump should work to improve upon the current aspects of Obamacare rather than completely revoking the Act. The complete removal would cause chaos in the nation as millions of people would be losing the health care they have had for the past seven years. Trump should work to decrease the number of multiple taxes for Obamacare and increase the taxes put on high earning people, business owners, and the health industry in order to make Obamacare more financially responsible.

Obamacare basically forces Americans to get health insurance, and if you do not want Obamacare, you have to pay the individual mandate.
This aspect of the ACA is a positive thing because it provides the health insurance that many Americans need, whether they are aware that they need it or not. For the most part, people cannot help if they need to see a therapist because they developed depression or if they need surgery after a terrible car accident. Life happens, and sadly, people are faced with unexpected health concerns. Thanks to Obamacare, people have secure health insurance, which protects people from the unexpected.

It is in the best interest of the American people to offer health care, which Obamacare does. It has been able to help people get affordable health insurance and protects them from high medical bills. Repealing and replacing Obamacare would cause more issues than simply improving it.

Adriana Guidi is a Perspectives Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.