The Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act, sometimes known as Obamacare, is a law enacted by the federal government of the United States under President Barack Obama. The president signed the measure into law on March 23, 2010, with the goal of transforming the United States' health system by providing access to quality and affordable health care. It was designed to save citizens of the United States money on health-care services while also safeguarding them from insurance companies' exploitation (Marcovici, 2013). In addition to regulating the activities of the insurance business, the law moved in to extend both public and private insurance coverage. Since its full inception, the law has been a subjected to a number of controversies by the political class, professionals in the healthcare and insurance industries as well the American citizens. The debates have over-shadowed the real facts regarding the law.
How the Affordable Care Act works
The Act calls for all American citizens to gain access to health insurance as opposed to pay tax in regards to their health care services. The process involves registration through signing up procedures that are easy to understand. The signing process can be undertaken through an insurance broker, health insurance marketplace or through a direct healthcare service provider. The system offers cost subsidies to the middle class citizens as well as small businesses by imposing tax on the high income earners and health care benefactors (Tate, 2013). Based on their level of income, individuals are called upon to make a monthly payment plan that can either be platinum, gold, silver or bronze. Platinum is the highest premium rate while the lowest rate provides at least ten health care rights as well as protections. As a result, the higher premium rates will lead into less out of pocket health care expenses and access to many health care service providers.
Obamacare's Benefits
Obamacare has resulted into so many benefits to the American citizens and it is very unfortunate that some people are not fully aware of these benefits. Since the bill was signed into law, it has been a subject of numerous political debates with the Republicans members of the Congress vowing to repeal it on grounds that it is disastrous. Many negative messages regarding Obamacare have overridden the positive messages. President Donald Trump tried to repeal it but the bill was brought down by the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, on grounds that it did not marshal enough support from the Republican legislators especially those of the Freedom Caucus. As a result, Affordable Health Care will be in operation into the foreseeable future.
Pros of Obamacare
Obamacare has made health care services to be easily accessible and affordable to most Americans. Millions of citizens have benefited from the plan since it calls for health insurance plan to cover many rights and benefits. One of the main benefits of Obamacare is the fact that it has greatly lowered the overall costs of healthcare provision. This is attained by the fact that it offers health insurance to many people across the United States as well as making preventive care free (Dawes, 2016). As a result, the citizens are able to gain treatment before they call for expensive emergency room services in the healthcare facilities. It is recorded that in the year 2015, the nation had a 0.5% increase in the cost of annual health which was a major decline from the previous years before Obamacare was initiated.
Obamacare allows children to be on the health insurance plans of their parents until they have attained the age of 26. By the year 2012, three million young citizen who were previously not insured were added to the plan thus increasing accessibility to healthcare among young people. As a result, the insurance companies have been able to register increased profits since they are able to obtain more premiums from the health individuals who are mainly the young people. In addition to insuring many young people, Obamacare has been able to do away with lifetime as well as annual coverage limits that were previously reducing the number of people insured.
Affordable Health Care calls for all insurance plans in the United States to cover the ten essential health benefits such as treatment for addiction, mental health and chronic disease. Costs are then passed to the Medicaid and then to the taxpayers hence not entirely to the individual suffering from such conditions. The insurance companies can therefore not be in a position to deny anyone coverage for the pre-existing conditions. They are not allowed to either drop or raise premiums for the people who get sick from such conditions. There are many protections that are found under Obamacare that ensures that one can never be dropped from the coverage whenever they fall sick or encounter an honest mistake in their application process. One cannot be charged more irrespective of their gender hence women are not charged more than men. It further ensures that one has the right to a rapid appeal in regards to the roles of insurance companies.
The healthcare plan allows for tax credits for small businesses that have less than 25 full-time employees up to about 50% of the health insurance premium costs of their employees. According to the employer mandate, it is indicated that in the beginning of financial year 2015/2016, companies with more than 50 full-time employees will have to provide healthcare coverage for their employees.
Cons of Obamacare
The controversies surrounding the Affordable Care Act are situated around the conservatives' objection to the tax increases as well as the high insurance premiums that are needed in order to support Obamacare. Some of the healthcare service providers are critical of the Act on grounds that it has resulted into additional workload as well as costs that it places on them (Tate, 2013). Some are of the view that the Act has resulted in the deterioration of the quality of health care.
One of the major limitations of Obamacare is that the insurance companies must cover all the sick people leading to an increase in the cost of everyone's insurance. In order to ensure that people do not acquire coverage only when they need it, majority are forced to acquire it by making monthly payments (Pipes, 2010). The coverage under Obamacare can only be assessed during annual open enrollment periods and that complicates matters when an individual forgets to pay their premiums since they will be unable to obtain any coverage until their next open enrollment for the same. Hence the plan does not favor people who are healthy and have never had any pre-existing conditions because they have to pay premiums.
After the introduction of Obamacare, many people who were previously insured under company-sponsored healthcare plans had to lose them since they did not meet the ten essential benefits of the plan. The ACA incorporates many services that most people do not need such as the maternity care. This increases unnecessary burden for the people. Many businesses have found it easy to pay penalties and letting their employees to acquire insurance plans on the exchanges leading to many people losing their company-sponsored healthcare programs. Some state managed healthcare plans have emerged to be more beneficial for small businesses than Obamacare. The working Americans will continue to pay more under Obamacare since most middle-class Americans have full-time jobs and are able to access healthcare insurance through their employers.
Personal analysis
In line with the above mentioned facts on Obamacare, I am in full support of the Affordable Care Act and I firmly believe that it is a sustainable solution for the improvement as well as provision of quality health care for the low and middle class citizens. It favors both the young and the older members of the American society. Despite the fact that the Republican legislators enjoys a majority membership in both chambers of the Congress, they could not agree on repealing Obamacare which simply means that most of them have seen its benefits but they do not want to admit that in the public domain for political reasons (Pipes, 2010). Obamacare is not 100% effective but that does not mean that it has to be entirely repealed. The only thing that need to be done is to amend some sections of the plan that are not working well but not to repeal the entire plan. The politics surrounding Obamacare should be ignored and the legislators should focus their attention to the people they are representing.
Conclusion
The affordable care act has benefitted most Americans who initially could not access health insurance. Lawmakers should work to improve the law and repeal it as nothing can ever be perfect in its entirety. The outlined benefits of Obamacare overrides the limitations hence it should continue to save the life of Americans.
References
Dawes, D. E. (2016). 150 years of Obamacare.
Marcovici, M. (2013). The Obamacare Case: Where will the new Healthcare system lead to ?. Norderstedt: Books on Demand.
Pipes, S. (2010). The truth about Obamacare. Washington, DC: Regnery Pub.
Tate, N. J. (2013). Obamacare survival guide.
