In January 2014 a revolutionary new milestone in healthcare was put into effect. It was the Affordable Care Act or more commonly known as  Obamacare. Among many other things Obamacare will expand medicaid to the poorest in order to cover uninsured people and their families. This expansion will also increase eligibility levels to 138% of the poverty line, have uniform eligibility requirements, pay 100% of expansion costs for the first 3 years, and provide health insurance for almost half of our nations uninsured. But while this sounds like a pretty good deal there are those who not only don't like it but in fact oppose it openly. A lobbying group called the NFIB took the Affordable Care Act to the supreme court in an attempt to repeal it. Because of this the Medicaid expansion requirement was overturned allowing states to opt-out of the expansion, ultimately leaving millions without access to health insurance.
    Arguments against the Affordable Care Act include limited access to health care, low-end quality healthcare and coverage and low doctor payouts. Currently, 24 states have chosen to not expand Medicaid. Texas is one of those states. It is estimated that 25% of Texas' population is uninsured. Statistics show that all the states that are not expanding medicaid are resulting in an accumulated 5.7 million uninsured Americans.
    I have done some research on this topic, but am willing to admit that I may not know everything on the subject. But from what I have read it sure seems like the Affordable Care Act is a pretty good deal. For example if, under the Medicaid Expansion, we are covering more uninsured people they will stop costing hospitals billions in unpaid hospital bills, which ultimately fall to the tax payers. Another sweet deal is that legal residents who earn less than $15,302 for individuals and $31,155 for a families of four can receive Medicaid under Medicaid Expansion.
    There are many more benefits and statistics, but one thing that I wanted to point out that bothers me on the subject of states denying the expansion is how many innocent people are hurting because of it. It seems to me that the whole point of this expansion is to help the poor, the people who really could use a helping hand. From a humanitarian point of view this seems like a great thing and definitely a step in the right direction. I mean isn't the point of being in a position where you represent people to take care of said people. Giving people healthcare sure seems like it would be part of taking care of your people. When did money become a bigger priority than the welfare of people? I understand that there are probably more business, political, and money issues surrounding this subject, but since the very nature of this topic is about helping people medically, shouldn't our first concern be the people and everything second.