Anti-Obamacare

The anti-Obamacare video that I have looked at is a parody advertisement, detailing the main problems with the new healthcare system set up by the President. ‘More than a Glitch’ pokes fun at the heartwarming, family-orientated videos that were released around the time of both of Obama’s elections by featuring a diverse selection of people that would be affected, as well as a diverse selection of problems they will encounter.

The tagline that the video uses is that Americans think they will be “covered,” but, as the voiceover explains, this is not quite true. There is a clear agenda that “your doctor will be chosen for you,” a problem that has been fiercely debated, and that once one has been chosen for you, the waiting list will go on for an unknown period of time as these waiting lists are “unavailable for an extended period of time.” The video even shows a man in a waiting room and invites him to “make himself comfortable.”

When the website was launched, it crashed almost immediately, adding fire to anti-Obamacare campaigns like this one. It repeatedly shows a screen that is not responding to people inquiring into the plan; while this is a problem that has now been fixed, it is an easy joke for a Republicans to aim at them.

The video is suggesting that the people behind Obamacare are not responsible for fulfilling any of the “hopes and dreams” or medical procedures needed by users of the site, however this seems a strange accusation when private practices are only responsible when huge sums of money are included.

When a list of reasons of what is wrong with Obamacare are rattled off at the end, they seem to be based on imagination rather than fact. Long waiting lists and low quality care are cited as damaging factors, however this has not appeared to be a problem in Europe where a similar health care is used. The reason that sticks out on the list is “loss of money,” which would affect the top 1% of earners in the USA, but would benefit the larger proportion of the country who struggle to avoid care. The following reasons of frustration, anger and hopelessness are poor grounds for scrapping plan. Overall the main problem seems to be long waiting lists, unfamiliar doctors and a loss of money, yet anyone who has done research of foreign countries with similar plans would surely not have these worries.