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Law and Public Policy

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Law and Public Policy Public policy is very important, as it sets the stage for many different laws and regulations (Cohen, 2012). The law addressed here is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, more commonly known as "Obamacare." The law is designed to ensure that everyone in the United States has healthcare coverage, but it also requires the vast majority of people to have that coverage (Patient, 2010). There are many supporters of the law, since it gives those with pre-existing medical conditions a chance to get healthcare at reasonable rates. However, there are also many people who are against the new law because they feel they should not be forced to buy insurance or anything else from the government. The US government is calling Obamacare a "tax," in order to get around provisions that state the government cannot require citizens to buy products or services from the government. Not everyone is happy about the way the healthcare law has been created or enacted, but regardless of any of that there are many public policy issues that surround the healthcare law. The law comes from public policy regarding healthcare and welfare. In other words, many people in the United States were (and still are) on government assistance healthcare (commonly called Medicaid). This is not the same as Medicare, which is designed to be used by people who are of retirement age. Medicaid can be used by older people, but also by younger people who are low-income (Patient,

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