The Obama Care bill should NOT have been passed

Good luck, and welcome to DDO! ------------ I will begin by breaking down my opponent's main points: 1. The bill was politically motivated and rushed through. 2. This bill will not cover every single American. 3. This bill provides the government with yet another control over American lives. 4. This bill will affect doctor's jobs far more than it affects insurance companies. 5. This bill provides too many special exceptions, even some not related to health care. 6. This bill takes over the entire health insurance industry. ------------- I will now answer each of these points in the order in which they appear: 1. The bill was politically motivated (a) and rushed through (b). a) Nearly all bills are politically motivated. This in itself is not a problem. If Pro would like to go further in depth to explain why politicians should not vote on a bill based on their political ideology I would be happy to discuss this point. As it stands, however, I do not see a problem with congressmen voting by their political ideology. b) My opponent claims that this bill was "rushed through" the legislative process. Looking closely on this point we will see that the bill was anything but rushed through (even though some Democrats may have attempted to rush it). Health care was one of the first issues that the Obama Aministration and the current congress addressed. The debate over health care began in the spring of 2009 and did not pass until the end of March 2010. Congress and the nation as a whole has been debating this issue for over a year now. This hardly constitutes "rushing" it through. 2. This bill will not cover every single American. The only people who will not be covered are illegal immigrants and Americans who avoid the "individual mandate. " Therefore, the only American citizens who are not covered are those who choose to not be covered (with the resulting penalty for not being covered). . http://www.csmonitor.com... 3. This bill provides the government with yet another control over American lives. I ask that my opponent expand upon this point. In what ways does it expand control over American lives? I cannot respond to this point if I don't know exactly what controls he objects to. 4. This bill will affect doctors' jobs far more than it affects insurance companies. My opponent is wrong on this point. Certainly the new regulations placed on insurance companies means that the affect on them will be considerable. This would mean that the affect on doctors' jobs will be similarly considerable. I fail to see how this bill will come to this result. This bill does not take over hospitals or doctors' jobs. These institutions and jobs will remain as they are currently. The only change that I foresee is an increase in the number of patients. Individual doctors will either see an increase in patients or there will be an increase in the number of doctors (or both). Neither of these seems troubling to me. In fact, this is precisely what we are hoping for - expanded access to health care. 5. This bill provides too many special exceptions, even some not related to health care. Certainly this bill provides many special exceptions. However, it is a good starting place. As the years go by and we notice problems arising from these special exceptions we can take steps to correct them. In short, the exceptions are not enough, by themselves, to warrant not passing this essential piece of legislation. If they cause problems in the future we can fix them. If there are any special exceptions that Pro finds particularly concerning, I invite him to bring them up. I hope that he will explain why special exceptions generally (or specific exceptions) warrant not passing the bill. 6. This bill takes over the entire health insurance industry. This is just completely untrue. Certainly it creates a number of regulations on private insurance companies that were not there before. However, these regulations have been needed for a long time. I see no evidence that private insurance companies will be taken over by the government. If Pro has such evidence, I hope that he will present it in the next round. --------- Due to space constraints I was unable to make my own case. I will do so in the second round. Good luck to Pro in Round Two.