Obamacare Comes Up in History Class

I had a fascinating and illustrative occurrence regarding the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) issue in one of my community college History classes on Wednesday this week.  I have never seen this effect in a class before. 

The lesson was actually on the early Federalist period, that is the administrations of George Washington and John Adams.  The point was about Alexander Hamilton, one of the main movers of the Constitutional Convention and the first Secretary of the Treasury.  At the Convention he pushed for the establishment of a government with strong powers, and got most of what he wanted in that regard.  As Treasury Secretary he also pushed for decisive action, successfully advocating for a National Bank, among other things.  From nearly the beginning, his ideas and plans ran into opposition from another prominent cabinet member, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who held to the view that, "That government is best which governs least." 

I mentioned that the fundamental difference in perspective between the Hamiltonian Federalists and the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans is the same philosophical debate that has formed the basis of the American political divide from those early days until the present.  Students were quick to see that Hamilton's view corresponds in general more closely to the Democratic Party of today and Jefferson's to the Republicans.  It wasn't long before people began turning to the current U. S. government shutdown and the controversy at the heart of it, the dispute over Obamacare.

People had various comments to make, some in favor and some opposed.  It was good to see the students relating historical precedents to contemporary issues.  I was about to end the discussion; after all this was a History class and we needed to move on with more matters of the 1790's.  But a new hand up caught my eye.  It was Irene, a young woman who had never spoken up in class before.  Intrigued, I called on her.

Irene said she had gone to the federal website, Healthcare.gov, and coveredca.com, the California exchange, the previous night.  It was the first day the exchanges had opened, October 1.  She had this to share: "Our family of four has been paying almost $600 a month for health insurance.  I found a silver-level plan that looked very good for us.  With the tax credit, it will cost us $68 a month.  We'll be saving $500 a month.  This is wonderful!"     

You could have heard a pin drop.  Every hand went down as the class of 55 students went into dead silence.  There was nothing more to say.  We went back to Chapter 7 on the Washington and Adams administrations in office.  When class was dismissed, probably two dozen people headed immediately toward Irene to ask her how to find these sites.  Sometimes it's people who don't talk a lot who have some of the most  interesting things to say.