On September 17, 2009, President Barack Obama proposed a new plan for healthcare, known as the Affordable Care Act, and on March 23, 2010, the new plan was signed into law, making health insurance a requirement (United States Department of Health and Human Services). The Affordable Care Act was proposed with the intent to lower the costs of health care, making it more available to everyone. The law also aims to improve coverage and prohibit insurance companies from dropping customers or denying coverage to people with pre-existing health conditions. The Affordable Care Act requires almost every U.S. citizen to either seek coverage or pay a fine. The law expands Medicaid in an effort to help the uninsured become insured as well. At first, …show more content…
The idea of affordable healthcare for everyone was exciting to them. However, it did not take very long for people to realize that the promises that had been made were not completely honest.
Before Obama proposed the Affordable Care Act, he stated, "No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what. My view is that health care reform should be guided by a simple principle: fix what’s broken and build on what works.” (Barack H. Obama Address to the annual meeting of the American Medical Association, June 15, 2009). Now that the act has been passed, however, this is not the case. If you had a non-grandfathered plan (enrolled after March 23, 2010) that met the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, you were able to keep it. You were also able to keep your plan if it was grandfathered in (enrolled on or
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This is where Congress’ power to tax comes in. Article 1 Section 8 of the US Constitution states that, “the Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imports, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imports, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States”. Although it is not upheld that Congress can use its power to require that everyone buy health insurance, it was agreed on by majority vote that the penalty imposed on those who do not buy a healthcare plan is a tax that Congress can impose by using its power to tax. With this, it is understandable that while Obama cannot make anyone buy insurance, he can penalize them for it in the form of a tax. According to the U.S. government, since the Affordable Care Act was passed, 16.4 million Americans have gained health insurance. However, 13% of adult Americans still lack coverage (Patient’s Rights Council). Many people are actually choosing to pay the tax rather than spend a large amount of money for insurance that they do not want, but there is another problem with that option. Although the tax is only $95 (or 1% of the family income, whichever is greater) after a year of having not enrolled in a healthcare plan, the penalty rises to $325 (or 2% the family income) the next year and $695
President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010. This law puts in place widespread health insurance reforms that expanded out over the last 4 years and continues to change the lives of many Americans today. Health care reform has been an extensively debated topic for multiple years, and the ACA is the first effective attempt at passing a law aiming to make health care not only affordable, but accessible for all individuals. The law impacts many Americans including, children, employers, government programs which includes federal and state, health plans and private insurers, health care coverage, health care cost, and the quality of care received. The main goal of the law is to expand health care coverage, broaden Medicaid eligibility, minimize and regulate health care cost, and improve the health care delivery system. In order to improve the health care delivery there have been new consumer protections established and an increase access to affordable care.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) was signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. While the act is directed at addressing one of the country's most pressing problems, it generated much controversy as a consequence of the ethical dilemmas that it brings on. The act provides individuals with a wider range of choices and control over their health coverage. It provides a series of benefits such as people getting lower costs on coverage, several important health benefits being covered in the Marketplace, more help in local areas, and pre-existing conditions being covered. However, it also involves a legislation claiming that most people have to have health coverage by 2014, with those who do not have it having to pay a fee.
In order for the central idea behind“Obamacare” to work, people who were previously uninsured would need to still pay their monthly premiums. Unfortunately, that is not the case as according to CNNMoney, “Around one in five”, people who signed up for their new coverage
The affordable care act was signed into law by president Obama in the year 2010. The aim of the act is to ensure Americans get access to quality health care and at the same time, reform the health care system in order to manage costs. The act has different sections that explicitly explain how this aim would be realized.
President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, into law on March 23rd 2010. Congress had tried for decades to pass health care reform, beginning with President Franklin Roosevelt. “Following President Obama’s inauguration, he used Democrat control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate to enact health care reform legislation, and granted the federal government control of over 16% of our nations economy” (Taylor 3). The law states that every American citizen is mandated to purchase health insurance. “If you choose not to obtain Health Insurance by January 2014, you will be penalized $95, or 1% of your income-whichever is greater” (Taylor 5). “The penalty rate for non-compliance will
Tinkering with a health insurance system built on outdated assumptions is at the root of dissatisfaction with the Affordable Care Act. We don’t need reform, we need a restart. How we got here is worth examining.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a very controversial topic that I never quite understood until I got to read the supplemental chapter untitled “The Affordable Care Act: A Brief History, Assessment, and Future Challenges.” Throughout this paper, I will be answering five questions about the ACA. The first question has to do with listing and explaining three demographics that contributed to disparities in health insurance coverage prior to the ACA. There were many demographics that contributed to disparities in health insurance coverage in America prior to the adaption of the Affordable Care Act. Some of those demographics had to do with race, age, citizenship, or region of the country. One of them had to do with racial demographics, which
One of the most controversial policies implemented by President Obama and the Democratic Party was the Affordable Care Act of 2010. The Affordable Care Act aimed to cut the rate of uninsured Americans and increase the quality of healthcare that they were receiving. While this has been somewhat effective in its own regard, there is much more room for improvement. Now that insurance companies have to cover a broader scope of people, including those with pre-existing conditions, many Americans that previously had health insurance have witnessed a spike in their premium rates. This, along with an increase in new taxes on products such as medical devices and pharmaceuticals, subsidizes the costs of the Affordable Care Act; those with high incomes also received a higher tax rates.
The Affordable Care Act (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act), commonly called "Obamacare," is a federal statute that was signed into law in March of 2010 (PDF, n.d.; Van de Water, 2011). It basically requires the vast majority of people in the United States who do not have insurance coverage to acquire that coverage or face penalties. People who already have insurance through their employers or on their own will not be asked to change companies. Additionally, anyone who is on federally-funded insurance such as Medicaid or Medicare and still qualifies for those programs will not be removed from their insurance. They will still be covered and protected. In order to find out more about the Act and really understand its main points and principles, however, it is very important to be aware of how it became a law and any changes that have taken place to it from its inception all the way through where it is today. Only then can a person have a clear understanding of the Act and form an opinion as to the value it may (or may not) provide to the American public. There is still much speculation and a great deal of misunderstanding about the Act and what it involves.
The signing of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 was a big step forward in fixing the broken healthcare system in the United States. Unfortunately the law did not do enough to help a large segment of the population achieve its named goal. Due to high deductibles and other cost sharing in lower tier plans, healthcare continues to be unaffordable to many.
Everyone in America should have health care. Nobody wants to have to pay the full price of medical costs when they visit the doctor or have a hospital emergency. This is why the Affordable Care Act should be put into action because doing so would enforce people who do not have health care to get the health care they need. Some people do not believe they need health care because they do not plan on getting hurt or sick, and if they do, they do not need a doctor. As much as we would all like to believe that, we are human and cannot always stay healthy.
There are Currently 32 million people without health insurance in the United States. This means that roughly 83 per cent of citizens have to live day by day hoping they won’t get sick. For this reason, President Obama signed the U.S health reform bill into law. The health reform will make health care more affordable for citizens. Employers with more than 50 employees will be forced to provide coverage for all, or they will have to pay a fine. It will also make health insures more responsible. For example, health insurance carriers are forbidden from placing lifetime dollar limits on policies, from denying coverage to children because of pre-existing conditions, and from canceling policies because someone gets sick. It will also expand
The ACA requires insurers to accept all applicants, cover certain conditions, and charge the same rates despite one 's sex or pre-existing health status. There are ten provisions that make up the ACA which were to be implemented over time, from 2010 through 2020. The first provision is individual insurance, which prohibits insurers to deny coverage based on one 's pre existing health conditions. States were also required to make insurance available to children who are not insured through their families. Medicaid was also expanded to include individuals and families with an average income of thirty thousand dollars a year. This mandate will not cover those who are illegal immigrants, eligible individuals who choose to not be enrolled in medicaid, those who choose to pay the penalty, individuals whose insurance would cost more than 8% of their income, and those who live in states that opt out of the medicaid expansion.
The affordable Care Act implemented in March of 2010 by president Obama reform the way health care was previously run in the United States. The law went into effect, which allowed many Americans who did not currently have insurance and health care coverage to the ability to purchase coverage and access to health care. “ According to the CDC “ the affordable care act of 2010 is designed to provide access to coverage for previously uninsured Americans “ Center of Disease Control (2014).
Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century the United States has always had a realization that there was a problem with obtaining affordable health insurance. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) also known as Obamacare, was signed into law in March 2010. This law enables people who were unable to afford healthcare the ability to obtain a healthcare plan at an affordable rate. In 2009 a survey was taken as to the amount of people in the United States that carried health insurance. In table one below you can see over 50 million people in the United States did not have any type of insurance, which is close to 17 percent of the population (see table 1 below). “According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, “32%