Health Care Reform

In order to make insurance affordable to all there were extensive private health insurance regulatory reforms, particularly in the small group and non-group markets, there were tax credits offered to the smallest lowest-wage employers for the purchase of health insurance, there were reductions in cost-sharing associated with recommended preventive care. For example if you signed up with a fitness center you can get a 50% discount on your insurance. The market exchange was established for the purchase of private coverage plus subsidies for the individual purchase of coverage and for the cost-sharing of the modest income. “The affordable care act also expanded the eligibility for the Medicaid program to all non-elderly with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level ($23,000 to $32,000 for a family of four in 2012) starting in 2014, which helped phase out the Medicare prescription drug benefit coverage gap, a.k.a. the “doughnut hole”.” To make sure that everyone is complying with the rule of everyone needs to have healthcare coverage there was a penalty set up for those that failed to comply. The penalty was if you did not have insurance by the set date you will receive a tax penalty that you will have to pay when filling your taxes. There are financial requirements that large- and medium sized

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act may negatively impact some employees; if an employee has coverage through its employer the insurance premium must be less than 9.5% of their income. For example if the employee premium is $3600 a year and the 20% share of the premium is $720 and the employee makes $45,000 a year; $45,000 x 9.5%= $4275 which is greater than $720. Therefore this coverage would be deemed affordable. However if this particular employee has a family of four the premium for the family would be an additional $7500 a year. In this case this individual would be eligible for tax credits to help afford the health insurance coverage if their employer did not provide health coverage (Lee, 2013).

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that is most commonly called Affordable Care Act is a federal statute of United States that was signed to become a law on March 23, 2010 by President Barack Obama. On June 28, 2012 the Supreme Court gave the decision to confirmed Affordable Care Act (HHS, 2014). Again in June 2015 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Affordable Care Act in a 6-3 decision (CNN, 2015). Some of the important features of Affordable Care Act include that no one can be denied health insurance based on pre-existing conditions such as health problems, pregnancy, etc also men and women would be charged the same amount for their health insurance (HHS, 2014). Other features include that if the health insurance plans covers children then people can add or keep their children on their insurance plan till the age of 26; these children can be included irrespective of them being married, living or not living with their parents, attending school, not financially dependent on their parents, and if they are eligible to enroll in their employer’s plan. After these children turn 26 they are eligible to enroll in a special enrollment period, which allows them to enroll for health insurance outside of the open enrollment period (HHS, 2014).

The Affordable Care Act is the new health reform law that was signed into action on March 23, 2010. The Affordable Care Act attempts to reform the healthcare system by providing Americans with affordable health insurance. It helps put individuals, businesses, and families in control of their own healthcare. By the sound of it, it really looks like this is something that will positively impact the lives of Americans, and make it easier for individuals to obtain health insurance. Unfortunately, what many Americans are unaware of is that there are so many underlying issues that make the Affordable Care Act not so affordable. Issues such as penalties and taxes that certainly rack up the cost on individuals, businesses and even hospitals that make it difficult for people and businesses to be in “control” of their health care.

In conclusion, the Affordable Care Act had a positive impact on the American people and health care. It reduced the cost of health care, allowing for more people to be able to afford insurance. The ACA also created more equality in the health insurance system. It required that no one be denied or charged more due to any condition or gender. It also required that screenings and some tests be covered by the insurance. President Barack Obama said in a speech, “Because of the Affordable Care Act, more than 100 million Americans have gotten free preventive care like mammograms and contraceptive care with no copays.” The ACA also allowed for many areas of the healthcare industry to prosper. It created customers for the insurers and it reduced the

Conclusion: The Obamacare has its very good points it does benefit the economy in ways that are meant to take the economy out of debt. But they do cause side effects that may not have been thought of.

obamacare Americans will be forced to buy health insurance or pay a penalty to the

In 2014, almost everyone will be required to purchase health insurance or face a $695 annual fine. There are some exceptions for low-income people, but if employers do not offer health insurance, individuals will be required to purchase health care insurance on their own (Wolfe, 2012).

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) was signed into law on March 23, 2010, and generated much controversy as a regard of the effects that people believed it was going to have on the U.S. The media world has gotten actively involved in discussing the act and while some support its principal ideas, others lobby with regard to how it is going to seriously destabilize the health care system. From an act meant to guarantee that more people in the U.S. have access to health care, the Obamacare act has grown into a topic that created a series of disputes and that even emphasized a Republican attempt to shut down the Government in order to block the act.

According to the healthcare.gov, this year’s penalty went up from 2% to 2.5% of your yearly household income. Anyone who can afford health insurance as determined by your yearly income, but chooses not to buy it, will have to pay a penalty.

Healthcare is a fundamental human right, and you should not get more or less depending on your ability to pay for it. Most employers offer health insurance coverage as a benefit with employment. With insurance rates rising consistently, now companies are trying to offset costs by having the employee’s pay a portion of healthcare costs with a guaranteed issue. With the Affordable Care Act, people who have healthcare insurance is experiencing changes in coverage, rate hikes and making them pay more for a plan equivalent to what they had before. Not all employers offer health insurance to their employees, so they must search for health

Some businesses may address their employee strategies by choosing to pay the mandatory penalty instead of complying with the law to save money in the short term. However, the cost of those penalties will increase as a function of increasing premiums. More importantly,

One of the basis for Obamacare is to provide insurance all year around, however, for those that are uninsured, they can risk the possibility of being fined.

The reality is cost controls in the health care industry are complicated; regardless, efforts like, creating a competitive insurance market for the consumers is needed, instead of insurance companies avoiding the sickest individuals and encouraging enrollment of well individuals. Consumers should be demanding the best coverage for the lowest cost, but sadly, they don’t know any better and those that do are most likely too frail to fight on capitol hill. Employer-provided insurance plans that do not control cost should be taxed. Think about it, the average employer, like Genesis Health Care offers health insurance, paying more than 70% of our premiums; it’s all tax free, but employees do not know what the insurance really costs and so don’t

The Cadillac tax is a popular name for the highly controversial excise tax on applicable high cost employer sponsored-insurance (ESI) coverage imposed under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) (Gravelle, 2015). Great debate ensued following the proposal of this tax, which was initially set to be implemented in 2013, however differences in opinion between the House of Representatives and the Senate culminated in the delay in the implementation of this tax until 2018 (Herring, 2011). It is a “nondeductible 40% excise tax on the value of applicable employer-sponsored health coverage” that exceeds a determined threshold (Lowry, 2015). The tax targets employer sponsored health coverage plans that are considered to be overly generous or have relatively low cost-sharing requirements in an effort to raise revenue to offset the costs of implementing other ACA provisions, as well as encourage a reduction in the growing expenditure and costs of national health care and offset some of the effects of the income tax exclusion for ESI (Lowry, 2015).