Anai Aguilar
Guest Writer
Editor’s note: The following is a guest op-ed submitted by a student in POL 355, a course on policy formation.
How can we trust a system that is so broken and unorganized? Affordable health care and importantly Medicaid has been a questionable source. Low income healthcare has been a serious issue for many years and continues to be till this day. There may be wider access to health care for the low income and immigrant families, but it still becomes a problem when certain circumstances are involved. James Langevin has made many changes to these issues in his time in office. Although the affordable care act was made under his time, the low income and the immigrant population still struggle today. Health care is important to all people of the community and should all benefit from covered health care equally.
In the year of 2022 the Cover All Kids bill was introduced in the state of Rhode Island. This covers healthcare for all low-income children under the age of 18 regardless of immigration status. This is a perfect example of a step the government should continue to take. Covered health care is now accessible to all children in Rhode Island, but this should be only the first step. It is important to recognize all of the hard working people of our communities and their necessities also. Many people all over struggle with injuries at work, covering medication costs, and just trying to reach out to a doctor in general. This should not be any issue a person should have to worry about. They are a person as much as anyone else and deserve the same care regardless of where they come from.
Although it might not be an issue to others, In Rhode Island only there has been an extreme decline in healthcare access, “perceptions about healthcare access have fallen. It was one of the largest drops in scores for core cities, down 7 points to 64 since 2019, and it was the largest five-year decline for younger adults”. In addition to this, how can we trust a system that is so unorganized? After the pandemic, recently in 2023, many people have been kicked out of medicaid due to shifts in federal policy and errors in the computer systems. Besides this, the slightest bit of increase of income has left many people without health care covered.
As we spoke to Rep. Langevin in class, he covered the topic of the Affordable Care Act. He explained that the bill was introduced to give affordable health care to help low income families be accessed to a greater quality of healthcare. From my understanding, the bill was introduced to reduce the payments and create an accessible form of health care to many communities all over. Specifically tho, Langevin explained that he believes there needs to be an improvement on the health attention that is given. He also cares about the situation in these present days because he believes everyone should be allowed equal access to health care, and finds it unfair that once a certain income is reached it is taken away from them.
Access to health care does not meet the needs of every person. Neither does it allow every person to receive the same treatment equally. There needs to become a stronger health system that can treat these patients as one. It is important that all communities regardless of color,income, legal status, get the same treatment because after all they are human. Hard working humans who are trying to make ends meet with their families and provide a safe and healthy environment. We cannot continue to trust a system that is broken and unfair. It is time that all people living in the United States get the same treatment regardless of where they come from.
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