The Big Conversation: ObamaCare

In the past years many Americans followed the news for the Patient Protection and the Affordable Care Act, that was signed into law in early 2010. The steps to enacting it completely are taken slowly until 2022. While many people oppose the idea of it, others are glad to get more medical support.

The Texas Tribune article “TheBrief: Texas Political News for Sept. 17, 2013, The Big Conversation” by David Mutto, describes Texas governor Rick Perry's newly taken steps to his opposition to ObamaCare. In a letter Perry stated that “Texas will not expand Medicaid under ObamaCare”. Furthermore he said that investing amounts of money into the problem, as the federal government does, won't help it to go away. The plan for Medicaid is to reform it without “federal approval”, and to keep on the testing who is eligible for it. People are supposed to be responsible and at the same time more independent from the government. Also, Perry wants the costs of Medicaid to be steady, thus he wants to improve its organization. Texas is one of many republican states that wants to expand Medicaid instead of ObamaCare. Since according to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius, negotiations with the Obama administration haven't started yet, it remains unknown whether Texas' request will be accepted.

Health insurance is a topic that probably all of us will have to care about at some point, especially due to the fact that almost all Americans have to get insurance in early 2014. However the way people will deal with it depends a lot on peoples' history concerning medical conditions, their political views and the state they live in. This article reflects the way Texas plans to deal with the topic of health care in the future. Since at some point, we will all be affected by ObamaCare, or here in Texas to the changes of Medicare, it is interesting and maybe even helpful to know how our state of residency deals with the topic of healthcare.