When you looked past the ginned-up numbers, the now-bloated Medicaid rolls, and the class warfare, it was clear to a lot of people that the Affordable Care Act was a mess. Whether you liked parts of it or none of it at all, you couldn't honestly ignore the crumbling state exchanges, the skyrocketing premiums on the young and middle-aged, or the fact that many people could no longer get the care they wanted from the provider they preferred.
Is anyone really ready to look the public in eye and say President Barack Obama's signature legislation was a success?
Any American - and my millennial generation, in particular - should be disgusted the way the government tried to twist its failure into success by counting people who had to drop off of coverage they liked and get Medicaid as newly insured people.
And do any people, my age or otherwise, really like the idea of the federal government forcing all of us to buy a product? Now, granted, this goes on in various forms throughout the country; but are we OK with that? Really?
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This is not to say the Republican's proposed replacement - the American Health Care Act, or AHCA - is perfect. It's not. But everyone who owns a flat-screen TV or a laptop should be excited about the direction the national conversation on health care can now take.
What do I mean? Anyone remember plasma televisions? When they first came out they were extremely expensive, and the quality simply wasn't the same. If you left the screen on too long, the picture could burn into the screen permanently. Remember that? Nowadays, we have flat-screen TVs with awesome picture quality that are super affordable, to the point that nearly everyone, even those who most Americans consider poor, can own one. Why? Because choice, that's why. The market was open to many brands which tried to make the best quality TVs at an affordable price.
If there is one thing that my generation agrees on, it's that we want choice. You will never get choice and great prices from a centralized health care bureaucracy. It simply doesn't happen. Even supposedly "free" health care comes with major downsides, including waiting for care, sky-high taxes, and economies where the current U.S. employment rate looks like the golden land of plenty.
This is why I'm excited about AHCA: Not because it is perfect, but because now we can start talking about choice and cost in health care.
I have kids. I'm trying to get my life started. And I want others, as well as my family, to thrive and to dream big. I want the same things for everyone in the country. Choice is the answer, the freedom to pay who you want, when you want, and how you want - just like with any other product.
Health care is a touchy issue, but we can do better than a centralized bureaucracy. And we will. I thank Congress for getting the conversation started.
Jacob T. Giese lives in Gilbert.
