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 If it is repealed, lawmakers will need to act quickly to ensure that millions of people will have the coverage they need to stay healthy.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.