How the 2012 Election Will Affect the Future of Health Care

Over the past few weeks, I have been closely following the 2012 presidential debates. Now personally, I am a huge fan of Obama and his policies. He is a powerful, convincing speaker who addresses pertinent issues while maintaining the best interest of American citizens. But in the first presidential debate in Denver earlier this month, Romney took the cake while Obama floundered like a fish out of water. Having recently turned 18, I am eligible to vote. And while voting is a privilege, it is also an extremely important process, one that requires careful decision-making when choosing the man (or woman) that will lead and carry the nation through four more years in a way that serves the best interests of the American people. For me, one of the most important factors to look for in both Obama and Romney are their policies on health care.

Romney's plan for America's health care is to issue and executive order that will allow the federal government to send Obamacare waivers to each state. Soon after the waivers are distributed, Romney will work with Congress to repeal Obamacare as quickly as he can. In place of a unified health care system, Romney is proposing that each individual state create health care reform plans that best suit the needs of its citizens. Romney believes that by allowing each state to determine its own health care standards, competition between states will arise, which will supposedly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the health care system. While it is understandable that Romney's main goal of this plan is to drive prices of health care down, it seems unreasonable to allow every state to have a different system of care. A few questions came to my mind: What if I am injured or need to seek medical treatment while vacationing in another state? Will my home-state insurance policies cover me in a different state? Will I be able to recieve the same treatment for the same cost at both a public hospital and a private hospital? To me, Romney's plan seems muddled. With so many questions left unanswered, it seems more like a scam to make money than a plan to improve health for millions of Americans.

As for Obama, he has taken a much different approach. Rather than reverse previously implemented policies, Obama is working to further strengthen Obamacare. In his health care plan, Obama hopes to reform three major issues that plague the American health care system:

1. End insurance company abuses
2. Strengthening Medicare
3. Putting women in control of their health 

There are many additional goals Obama hopes to achieve with Obamacare that will help make care more affordable.Obama's health care plan fits perfectly with his 2012 campaign slogan "Forward." While Romney's policies will most likely make America take a step backwards, Obama knows what's best for the American people. After all, he's brought the U.S. out of the hard times that President Bush had left Obama   to deal with after leaving office.





http://www.barackobama.com/health-care?source=primary-nav
http://www.mittromney.com/issues/health-care

All About Me

My name is Erika Grad, and this is my first blog post of the season. Perhaps you're one of my family members, my close friend, or just a random person who has happened to stumble across this blog. No matter how you managed to find this, I'd like all of you to know just a few things about me.

Me with students at Victory Academy in Meru, Kenya

If there's one thing anyone should know about me, it's that I love doing international service. My most recent endeavor took me to Kenya, East Africa. I traveled to the impoverished nation with a non-profit called Matanya's Hope, which is a program dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty in Kenya by offering educational sponsorship to children who would otherwise have none and by assisting with projects critical to their survival. Now, my intention of going to Kenya was not to caravan through the game parks to see animals, but rather an opportunity to expand my own global perspective and help people in desperate need. I wanted the real experience of living in a third world nation for three weeks. I lived with the Mugo family in the tiny village of Matanya (where the program was founded and the name originates) in their "luxury" (by Kenyan standards) three room house with corrugated tin walls and roofing, and a concrete floor. Food was cooked in a makeshift kitchen located behind the house. Breakfast and dinner were the only two meals of the day. Goat that made me gag, beans with the consistency and thickness of cement that I had to choke down, and kale that was bitter were all painstakingly prepared over a coal fire that also served as the house's only heating unit and light source. No electricity, no running water, no toilets, no contact with the outside world for three weeks. And much to my surprise, it was the best three weeks of my life. 

In rural Kenya I met Kisui, a boy with one of the worst cases
of Scoliosis, and who is unable to access or afford a surgical
 procedure that will improve and prolong the quality of his life. 

But my work began by traveling around the country to various boarding schools and villages to deliver school supplies, shoes, and medical supplies. For Americans, it's difficult to imagine what a life without shoes is like, but it is much harder to picture a life either without access healthcare at all (for most Kenyans) or without affordable healthcare (for many Americans) .Witnessing firsthand how needy many Kenyans were inspired me, in part, to create this blog in order to bring to light the reality of global healthcare and the vast inequalities that plague the healthcare system. Over the course of the next several months, I will be examining the healthcare systems of various nations, and hopefully, provide insight and answer questions about: why so many people are dying, the costs of care and how it affects lives, tax hikes and its effects on medicare, how the recession is impacting American healthcare, and how the upcoming election will impact the future of American healthcare.


  
Click the link below for more about Matanya's Hope and how you can help save lives one child at a time.
 http://www.matanyashope.org/