Healthcare is such an intrinsically complex issue because it is reflective of the United States's fundamental ideological divide. Its arguments transcend the mere details of healthcare itself. The question is this: do we believe in providing every citizen with the resources to survive, or do we adhere to a more survival-of-the-fittest mentality? I don't say this to demonize anyone on any side of this debate. You can believe that healthcare is a privilege and that a well-run privatized insurance market can most benefit everyone. However, I am on the side that says healthcare is a fundamental right . I think that every American ought to be equipped with something as simple and as necessary as healthcare rather than spend immeasurable amounts of money, anxiety, and make irreparable life changes in order to attain it. Cultivating decent single-payer, public healthcare and establishing this as something we no longer need to worry about constantly, will allow all of us to spend our time and money on innovation, entrepreneurship, and our own ambitions. Subsistence-level healthcare and American living is not enough. Quality of life ought to be the highest possible but in order for this to happen, every single person should be entitled to equal healthcare. Particularly, women should not be charged more and have lesser access to healthcare because they are women . The AHCA reminds me of the fifteenth amendment, in that it mandates that discrimination explicitly based on gender is prohibited, but it protects nothing else. The fifteenth amendment states that discrimination based upon race is illegal, but says nothing about the myriad of loopholes this offers; specific socioeconomic factors are exploited to restrict the voting rights of particular demographics. Maternity, menstrual irregularities, domestic violence and sexual assault , are all considered pre-existing conditions under the AHCA, all of which are clearly "conditions" targeted towards women . It is unacceptable, cruel, and disingenuous for a political party to attempt to paint over their inadequacies in the name of partisan loyalty.
