Trying to put broken pieces of a puzzle together.  

Obamacare has rooted problems and how to repair these unintended damages is a current dilemma that our government faces.

The health care debate was set in place to discuss the future of Obamacare. Two different solutions were brought forward from four debaters. Out of the two, the Republican Party’s proposal has been projected as a failure.

When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed in 2010 by Barack Obama, the main goals of the act were to decrease health insurance costs and to increase the number of Americans insured. Although statistics show that more Americans are insured now than there were seven years ago, Obamacare has proven to be more expensive than it was originally thought out to be.

Obama’s initial prediction in 2010 of the ACA’s cost over the next decade was $940 billion. However, two years later, the Congressional Budget Office predicted a cost of $1.76 trillion for the preceding decade. Obamacare has increased the overall costs of health care, calling for a change. Both democrats and republicans can agree that the ACA is inefficient, but what to replace it with is the issue.

Senators Lindsey Graham, Bill Cassidy, Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar joined together at a bilateral debate Sep. 25 regarding the controversial topic of Obamacare. Sanders presented his “Medicare for All” health care bill. Graham and Cassidy, who are representatives of the GOP (Republican Party), brought their Graham-Cassidy Bill to the discussion.

“Medicare for All” is a universal health care system that would insure all Americans health insurance no matter the household income, patients age or their socioeconomic status. Sanders does not want to completely abandon the ACA, instead he wants to build onto it. This bill would cut $6 trillion off of health care costs every decade and will only cost $1.38 trillion every year compared to the current $3 trillion the United States is spending. This plan would be completely paid for by taxes, uniquely dispersed among citizens.

For the people specifically, “Medicare for All” will completely separate health insurance from employers. Workers will no longer have to worry about losing health insurance when switching jobs and by having one health insurance option that covers everything, it will bring a “peace of mind” to all citizens. There will be no more copays and no more deductibles. Middle class families have the potential to save over five thousand dollars on this plan and businesses could cut their health insurance expenses by more than one half.

The Graham-Cassidy Bill will do the exact opposite of Sanders’ bill. Graham-Cassidy will repeal Obamacare, make severe cuts to Medicaid, decrease protections for citizens with pre-existing medical conditions and depending on population, each state will be given a different sum of money to create their own health care system.

Changes are continuously being made to the Graham-Cassidy Bill, making it hard for senators to fully support the bill and vote for it. This bill has Trump’s support, but if the bill does not receive at least 50 votes from the Senate, this will be the fourth failed attempt from the GOP to repeal Obamacare since the beginning of summer.  

“It took 18 months for them [democrats] to pass Obamacare, it’s gonna take us a while for us to replace it,” said Graham.

The effects that “Medicare for All” will have are set in stone, but the constant adjustment to what makes up the Graham-Cassidy Bill creates an unsafe projected future, which makes the bill impractical.