"The Fight for Obesity"

In Jonathan Ninh's post, "The Fight for Obesity", he does a short, yet solid analysis of obesity today in America. Americans have tried to address the problem, but it is too late for this generation. Eating habits are formed as people grow up. In all honesty, it should not be up to our government, it is up to the families that make up our society to teach their children healthy eating habits. The only way our government can try and help the issue is by either requiring elementary schools to offer health courses or to include it in the physical education courses they already offer. Otherwise, the American public is in charge of its own eating habits.

Obamacare, will it hurt us more than it will help us?

When first looking at Obama's Affordable Care Act, it seems like it would be a good idea. It will get rid of the limits on your coverage, it will cover young adults on their parents plan until their 26th birthday and it will stop insurance companies from discriminationing against children who have existing conditions. The Act also has implemented a new Patient's Bill of Rights to prevent insurance companies from continuing on with bad practices. Sounds good, right? Let's take a closer look at it.

There are some flaws in his "universal" health care plan. First off, it's not really a universal plan. Obama is allowing people to either choose a private insurance company or to choose the national health care plan. That defeats the purpose of having the national health care plan because if the private insurance companies lower their rates, then the national health isurance loses its purpose.

Another issue with the health care plan is the funding. Obama plans on taxing the wealthy Americans and using the emergency funds from the states that would have otherwise been used to cover the cost of the uninsured's medical coverage. Now without these funds, people without insurance will be forced to purchase insurance whether they can afford it or not. Back to the taxes, it's not just the wealthy individuals who will be taxed, but also big businesses. Honestly, with the way our economy is right now, relying of these taxes to fund the program is not the best idea.

Continuing on with funding, even families that are considered to be of the wealthier class can not always afford these taxes. It's expensive to provide for a family and when one is heavily taxed upon that, it can be almost impossible to make ends meet. Same goes for smaller businesses, once the rest of the bill goes into effect in 2014, it is going to cause some workers to lose their jobs because the business owners who will be included in the taxes are going to be hit hard with the new taxes. Most small businesses do not provide health insurance for their workers so they will be hit with an extra tax penalty for not providing a health care plan.

A universal health care plan can work and be very successful, but Obama's plan is not the one. It is inadequate, much work needs to be done.