Last week, a federal judge in Florida ruled that the health care reform bill is unconstitutional because it requires all Americans to either purchase health care by 2014 or face monetary consequences.

But American’s must not ignore that the health care bill has more pros than cons and room for improvement.

According to CNN, President Barack Obama’s response to the ruling was that, “All we’ve said is, everybody has to get some basic insurance so that we’re not paying for you when you get sick.”

As of 2010, 50.7 million Americans were uninsured, according to the Census Bureau. Private insurance companies could refuse to cover someone with a pre-existing condition and premiums could skyrocket if a user got diagnosed with a disease – circumstances out of their control.

The bill bans insurance companies from canceling coverage if one of their users gets sick and also places a cap on the amount of health expenses that one pays throughout the year, allowing Americans to stop worrying about high premiums and denied coverage when they need it the most.

Furthermore, the new legislation allows young adults to stay on their parents’ plan until they turn 26.

Americans’ view of health care reform is shrouded by politics. It seems that both parties merely wish to oppose the other party without making any real solutions.

The GOP-controlled House of Representatives tried to repeal the health care bill last month, but the Democrat-controlled Senate blocked their move last week.

Obama made a clear stand for bipartisanship and offered fixes to the bill to move it forward. Yet, according to webmd.com, Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana said that Republicans would only work with the president if he abandons the bill in its entirety and negotiates with their priorities.

Senate Democrats have joined Republicans to eliminate a rule from the bill that allows businesses to issue tax breaks to individuals or corporations from which they buy more than $600 in goods or services a year, according to CNN.

If Democrats are willing to tweak the law and work together, why can’t the GOP do the same?

It’s hard to ignore that the U.S. may be one of the few developed countries lacking a fair health care system to protect its citizens.

One may argue that patients can receive immediate free treatment in emergency rooms, but if the bill is not paid later they could end up with thousands of dollars in unpaid debts and poor credit.

All politicians need to put America first and their agendas to the side.

Zahira Babwani is a senior majoring in biomedical sciences.