Obamacare: The Great Debate The Obama Presidency is known for many things: two wars, economy crashes, government shutdowns and, yes, the infamous Obamacare. Throughout the last six years, President Obama’s agenda was set towards passing a major healthcare reform bill: The Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA), more commonly known as Obamacare. Passed on March 23, 2010 under considerable opposition, ACA is widely considered to be the landmark achievement of Obama’s presidency, and his hopeful legacy for historians long afterward. The law has since survived multiple challenges regarding its legality, but its impact on the intended (original) goal of reducing medical costs is still unclear. Affordable healthcare for all …show more content…
Its size and complexity makes it is very difficult to implement and even more difficult to understand. Even Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Speaker of the House, echoed this air of uncertainty while advocating for passage of the bill in 2010 when stating “But we have to pass the bill to learn what is in it.” Once the bill became law, arguments arose when discussion began on the specific details, regulations, and strategy for implementation. There are endless angles to approach this law, each with a mix of fact, bias, and prediction. Most viewpoints agree with the primary goal of Obamacare, to make healthcare affordable for everyone, but differ on the balance between the roles that government and private insurance companies should play in the solution. All the ifs, ands, or buts can cause chaos, as nothing of this size has ever been passed before. No matter the opinion or bias, it all comes down to the age-old battle over power and money. SUBSIDIES Obamacare, in its original form, was intended to function primarily at a state level. The deal was that each state would set up an online exchange where US citizens could log in to their state’s “exchange” to select a government-sanctioned healthcare insurance plan that was right as well as affordable. The Federal government raised taxes and worked Obamacare into its budget, figuring to disperse money to the states for funding of the program; this money is called a subsidy. The subsidies would be sent to the
Obamacare serves the purpose of expanding health insurance access, protect patients against arbitrary actions by insurance companies, and reduce overall costs. As discussed in the above section, evidence shows that there are many issues in the current healthcare system that warrants a change. These changes will more or less take years to establish in full swing but it is important to start supporting this change now. These changes will pursue an overall improvement of the current healthcare system to the possibility of a sustainable system while ensuring a healthier nation.
Obama care or better known as the “The Affordable Health Care Act” (Heritage Foundation, 1) is a federal law for Health Insurance by our 44th President Barack Obama. For decades, politicians have been considering the topic of healthcare, which is one major reason Obama was so adamant about Obamacare. “[Obamacare] requires all insurance plans to cover essential health benefits including treatment for mental health, addiction and chronic disease.” An Insurance policy cannot deny coverage for “pre-existing conditions…drop them…or raise premium” (The Balance, 2).
The new health care reform law in America, Obamacare, increases the quality, availability, and affordability of private and public health insurance to 44 million uninsured. It also is working to curb the growth in healthcare spending in the U.S. which has been rising at an unsustainable rate. Obamacare was passed in the senate on December 24, 2009, and passed in the house on March 21, 2010. It was signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010, and upheld in the supreme court on June 28, 2012. The concept behind Obamacare was the individual mandate, which requires that most Americans obtain health insurance by the end of 2014 or they will have to pay a tax penalty. This concept was first brought about by The Heritage Foundation as an alternative for the single-payer initiative, “Medicare”. This reform wasn’t proposed or expanded until it was implemented in Massachusetts by Governor Romney. During the 2008 elections, healthcare was a booming subject for the Democratic party.
“Obamacare”, or the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), was a law developed to help provide affordable, quality healthcare insurance to everyone and reduce spending on healthcare by the general public (ObamacareFacts, n.d., (5)). Healthcare costs and coverage has been an ongoing struggle in the United States. It came with many new sub-laws affecting healthcare insurance providers and consumers, as well as new benefits to affect current and future healthcare insurances. Obamacare is currently still in effect.
The new law being passed is causing hardship to the people, it’s government and it’s causing stress in the community. The healthcare congress is trying to build is incompatible with the consumers and free market of today. The first stages of the plan spread a flood of controversial rules, regulations and guidelines that affected millions of lives in America. The people felt that the administration had the upper hand in the healthcare because they were knowledgeable about the system and were more than likely to receive exemptions than the less fortunate. In simple terms, it allowed the Health and Human Services to determine whom wins and who losses. The bill was supposed to improve or reform the healthcare issue in America, but Obamacare seems to be doing the opposite. It’s causing a riot to the public because it seems like it’s taking more money away from the people and categorizing them on what care they should be receiving. Repealing the Act is what congress needs to do, according to
Since June 6, 2009, President Barack Obama has told the American public numerous times, “If you like your health care plan, you 'll be able to keep your health care plan.” The public later found out that this was not the case. If your health care plan did not satisfy the minimum federal requirements, then you will disinherit your plan and, you must find another one. House republicans have tried to repeal the bill almost 40 times because they claim it is a major threat to the economic health of the nation. Despite all of the political rhetoric about Obamacare over the past few years, a majority of Americans do not know what it is and how it affects them. While Obamacare does attempt to amend some of the
The Affordable Care Act, often referred to as the ObamaCare was signed into law on March 23, 2010. It has created a lot of controversy since its debut. The Healthcare reform will affect all Americans. The issue has many Americans believing it is a great thing for our country while others believe it is a terrible idea and then of course there are those who don’t know what to think. By Jan 1, 2014 Americans will be required to purchase a health care policy or will have to pay a penalty. Ready or not it’s happening. First you would have to understand the background information of the program. As with all things there are pros and cons to the Affordable Care Act. Because it is a new law it is not flawless there is room for changes and recommendations.
Ever since announcing his candidacy for the presidency, the now President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, emerged as an anti-Obama regime leader. He vowed that he would scrap off most of the changes that Obama had made when in the presidency (Rovner & Terhune). Some of this included the same-sex marriage legislation and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which is popularly known as Obamacare. The Obamacare is a policy that had benefited a lot of people in the United States, especially those in the middle and lower class factions of the society. They managed to obtain insurance and were able to access medical care despite the increased costs in service provision. However, President Trump did not completely do away with the ACA but
On March 23, 2010 President Barack Obama introduced a new healthcare system because various Congress representatives and Obama believed our country needed a change. This new healthcare system was called the Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare. It is now 2016, and it is time for more changes. With a new president coming into office, Donald Trump, we can expect changes to Obamacare or an entirely new healthcare system altogether. Obamacare is costing Americans more than it was intended to (Galen Institute). This essay will explain why Obamacare needs to be improved and how to improve this healthcare system. Obamacare has two types of supporters. The first type of supporters believe there is nothing that can be done to make this healthcare system better, while the second type think there should be changes to reinforce this health care system. Opponents believe Obamacare needs to be changed or ended altogether because they claim it is not helping the American citizens. Going forward, Trump should make changes to Obamacare in order to make it stronger instead of scrapping it altogether.
Obamacare is an unofficial name for the Patient Protection and ACA (Affordable Care Act) which was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010. The White House announced that in the first month, more than 100,000 Americans successfully enrolled in new insurance plans (The New America). That’s not even close to a quarter of the United States population. There have been problems with the website when it crashed. This prevented many Americans from completing the enrollment process. Which put a big hurt on the AC. But there is no question that there is a real demand for quality, affordable health insurance. In the first month, nearly a million people successfully completed an application for themselves or their families. An estimated amount 396,000 citizens have the ability to gain access to Medicaid under the Affordable Care
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also known as the Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare,” is a federal law that forever changed America on March 23, 2010. The intention of this law is to provide millions of American citizens who are uninsured or underinsured with reasonable and affordable healthcare coverage. Unfortunately, the law has failed to do so in several ways and has actually created hardship for millions of Americans – some of which were fully covered before the law was put into effect. The name of the legislative act is a mouthful, but its name is nothing compared its 2,700 pages of content that congress “read” before they passed it into law. This law continues to divide the nation and both sides are strong in their beliefs, creating heated discussions and bitter arguments. Proponents of the law feel it is the nation’s duty to grant everybody coverage whereas those that oppose the bill are alarmed at the fiscal implications it brings. Some people have signed up for Medicaid and consigned to a lifetime of poor health care. Others have obtained access to subsidized exchanges, but will find it harder to find employment and make enough to support themselves as a result. Ironically, the most affected population are citizens that already have insurance and paying thousands of dollars per year that will now be squeezed even harder by this
The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as “Obamacare”, has drastically altered healthcare in America. The goal of this act was to give Americans access to affordable, high quality insurance while simultaneously decreasing overall healthcare spending. The ACA had intended to maximize health care coverage throughout the United States, but this lofty ambition resulted in staggeringly huge financial and human costs.
Obamacare may be one of the most debatable topics at the moment ever since 2010. For those who are still confused on what Obamacare is and how it works is understandable and common amongst Americans. Obamacare is also known as the Affordable Care Act. It can be summed up as a law that ensures every American has access to health insurance that is affordable and within their budget. This is done by offering people discounts on government-sponsored health insurance plans, and by expanding the Medicaid assistance program so they include more people who can’t afford health care. In order for someone to qualify for Obamacare they must have an insurance plan that covers at least ten essential services that pertain
The Affordable Care Act is one of America’s many insurance plans to attempt to lower costs and provide a wider coverage for citizens all over the country. It is a widely controversial topic in America; especially within the past year. Although there are some people out there who support it, there are also those who base their campaigns on getting it repealed; Donald Trump is a prime example of this. When instituting this policy, Obama had very good intentions, but he was far from fulfilling his intended purpose. Today, the ACA has many flaws that affect Americans both as a whole and individually. Obamacare has raised costs for individuals, contributed even more money to America’s debt, is the complete opposite of what President Obama said it would be, it takes away civil liberties, and puts new standards on patients.
In 2010 President Barack Obama was on his first term as president and the senate was controlled by the democratic party, together they made the most significant transformation to the American healthcare system to date. They enacted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care, which would become universally known as Obamacare. Up until this point in American history, the only two government enacted healthcare reforms were Medicare and Medicaid which provide healthcare insurance to qualifying elderly citizens and low-income families (Dye and Gaddie 650). Citizens could be covered by private insurance companies by either paying for them or being provided health insurance through their employer. However, insurance premiums soared after the financial crisis hit and many employers stopped offering their employees insurance (Obama, whitehouse.gov). According to the