We need lawyers to understand contracts, economists to understand the economy, brokers to understand the stock market, yet our healthcare system is the only system to be misunderstood in its most basic terms. Perhaps for increasing profit? The “Affordable Care Act” (ACA) is the first health care legislation drafted during the Obama Administration and passed into law stating, “a pre-existing condition will not be the discriminatory criteria for receiving healthcare.”
The fundamental practice of basic health care is a right, not a privilege. How did we get here? The best explanation can be found by author Charles Mills in what he calls the “Epistemology of Ignorance,” which “serves to marginalize types of knowledge and erase or simply make invisible what was once made available.” Even basic healthcare rights apply.
It’s been studied that “vulnerable populations” have higher rates of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and infant mortality. as well as lower death outcomes across their life span.
Republicans oppose the ACA and have attempted to repeal the legislation 62 times. Should MAGA Republicans win the House & Senate majority, the ACA will no longer exist! Forty-five million Americans will have no health care coverage, and the discriminatory practice of denying coverage for anyone with a pre-existing condition will be enacted, and health care for most Americans will be lost.
Ignorance will marginalize “vulnerable populations” and make invisible the right to receive basic health care.
—Robert J.Egan, Jr. MA
roberteganthemiddleway@gmail.com