The Ideology Embedded in Americans Regarding Anti-Obamacare

picture from ObamacareFacts

Recently, I learned that lots of Americans don’t like the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which is also known as Obamacare, and this fact was immensely astounding to me. I come from Taiwan that is known for its “world’s best” healthcare system. In Taiwan, the health insurance is required to everyone, in other words, the Taiwanese government provides universal health insurance. Patients paying little fees are able to get multiple choices of hospitals as well as professional medical treatment. Or, in the late 1800’s, the American government had also tried to promote the universal government-funded health care, which had lasted for nearly a century; yet, the American government faced defeat eventually. To me, it seems like Obamacare is working on moving to this direction, but why would people disagree with the government’s subsidies?

After digging into the issue, I found that there are numerous reasons, such as: taxes might go higher so as to provide subsidies to people who are under the poverty line, the United States would have much more debt, or people just don’t like it. These reasons relating with numbers, statistics are comparatively objective, however, there is one reason that makes me start to contemplate how ideologies affect people. Some Americans don’t like Obamacare because it is violating the Constitution that endows Americans with freedom. 

Of course it is a big deal, violating the Constitution, but I want to indicate that Americans put paramount emphasis on their freedom of choice. ”What is freedom? Freedom is the right to choose: the right to create for oneself the alternatives of choice.” said Archibald MacLeish. By “freedom of choice” I mean that Americans will buy the health insurance out of their own decision, rather than “the government” requires them to do so. It is a prevailing ideology of at least every American individual that the Constitution has endowed them with freedom. Leaving aside whether Obamacare has good intentions for Americans or not, people tend to prioritize their freedom. Also, Americans believe the ideal government should be in small scale and keep out of individual affairs. On the contrary, Taiwanese people are dependent on the government’s assistance. Ideologically speaking, Taiwanese are socially conservative while Americans are much more socially liberal. Taiwanese people rely on big government conducting every function of the society.

I am not defining which is right or wrong because there’s no point to do so. It is just the fact that ideologies are more deeply embedded in individuals than I could imagine. Civic literacy and their relationship with the nation are not only determined by how much social welfare as well as community service can its government provide but how can they rationally and maturely say no to the benefit of welfare if they think it would have harm the country in the long-term. That is, once the government starts to intervene people’s choices, they will keep doing it in the future.