Last month, the American Healthcare Act was rejected by House Republicans before it had even been put to a vote, which is good news for both Democrats and Republicans alike. The AHCA was a mediocre attempt at best at solving the complex issues of healthcare in repealing and replacing Obamacare. Regardless of your politics, most people agree that healthcare is a difficult issue and cannot be solved with a poorly written document. The AHCA was championed as being the answer to Obamacare but did not address any of the significant quandaries faced by Obamacare--but rather created even more problems.

To begin with, the AHCA was an attempt to try and shift healthcare from a more public, government-funded institution into a private one. Its attempt was to give more power to healthcare companies with less regulations and subsequently remove roughly 24 million Americans from access to healthcare in less than ten years. This alone highlights the flaws of the bill: something that would effectively deny healthcare access to a significant portion of the population.

In addition, the AHCA proposed replacing government-funded direct aid with government tax credits that would be based on age. This means that someone like Bill Gates would pay less in healthcare than a millennial who has just entered the job market. The logic behind this is that those who are older generally have more healthcare issues and likewise need more coverage. However, factors like income would not be evaluated, creating a significant inequality divide across the board. This system becomes problematic because it would create a society in which the older persons are more favored than the younger. There would arise situations in which those who are poor and in have little to no access will be continually denied healthcare or will not be able to afford it based on these tax credits.

Finally, and arguably most important, the AHCA ultimately champions to be the replacement to Obamacare. It, however, fails to address the biggest issue Americans have had in the wake of Obamacare: high premiums and healthcare costs. Under the AHCA, premiums for most people would be lower; however the amount of money that people would need to pay out of pocket would increase significantly. How does this work? Under the AHCA, insurers will provide less coverage than what was mandated, meaning that more procedures would come from the person recieving said healthcare. Full coverage options will decrease as premiums decrease. In short, although monthly premiums would decrease, healthcare costs on average would have been expected to increase per household instead.