By Duke Staff
Remember in high school when a trip to the nurse for a headache led to TUMS and pretzels? Or how sometimes “healthcare” in college only consists of DayQuil and sleeping through your 9:25 a.m. class? Well, if the Republican administration’s new health care act is passed, entering the real world will only make finding proper medical treatment even harder.
The new bill – called the American Healthcare Act and nicknamed by some as “Trumpcare” or “Republicare” – will attempt to replace the Affordable Healthcare Act in order to cover more individuals at a lower cost, or so its proponents claim. According to the Congressional Budget Office, as well as a leaked analysis from the White House, Republicare will actually lead to anywhere between 24 to 26 million Americans being totally uninsured by 2027.
This will make the total number of uninsured individuals in the nation 54 million by the end of the decade, the White House report revealed, twice the number projected under the current health care law. In sum, the spike will come from decreased subsidies that eventually raise insurance prices too high for low-income, sick and old customers to purchase.
One of the only good things for young people about Republicare is that parents can still claim their kids until the age of 26. So Duquesne students and recent graduates might be safe – unless their parents lose their insurance, of course.
This is a legitimate worry since most college students have parents reaching the upper end of their middle-ages. A lot of them have already retired and are getting more and more susceptible to ailments each year. So their need for insurance is increasing, and their only option to keep it might be to buy their insurance out of pocket or get it from a government program.
Because of this, older individuals are very likely to lose their insurance under the new health care act, which means that many college students and new workers will also lose their insurance, if being claimed.
That could leave many young people stranded, especially since, under the proposed AHA, insurance costs will be so high that most Americans in their early 20s will be unable to afford it if it’s not provided by an employer.
For example, an analysis by the Wall Street Journal found that a 62-year-old in Nebraska who makes $18,000 and pays $760 for insurance per year will suddenly have to pay $20,000 under Republicare. Just imagine how things will be for a student making $10,000 or a recent graduate making $30,000.
The answer is bad.
So be wary of the dangers of the new plan, for it will also affect you. And when you’re in need of future medical attention, you’ll certainly want to be able to afford more treatment than just pretzels and TUMS.
