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
Health care has been a controversial topic of discussion for all Americans since it was put in effect many years ago. Currently the biggest debate of Healthcare up to date is Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is a Health care Reform that is a governmental attempt to make basic health care easily obtainable. However, there are no benefits without cost in situations like this, and upon that are different viewpoints on the subject thus creating political debates discussing if it is ethically correct. The overall goal that Obamacare hopes to accomplish is that through specific changes through insurance companies, industry standards, and patient guarantees a healthier America will be produced. Obamacare has its ups and downs for both the generally agreeing democratic viewpoints and the opposing republican side. Both viewpoints have their own beliefs about how Health care works and Obamacare is somewhat in between on this. Most arguments on Obamacare deal with Medicaid being constitutional and if Obamacare truly reduces the total cost of health care for individuals and in the government.
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.
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
One of our nation’s most controversial topics since the year 2009, and still continues to affect our country, is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) also known as Obamacare. The Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The Law was designed to extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans and protect patients from abuse or discrimination. The Affordable Care Act affects, all Americans, either in a positive or negative way. It is an issue that has come to separated our congress, it has divided the republican and democratic parties, to the point where the Government was shut down.
Purpose of the Policy or Program: ObamaCare, or also known as the Affortable Care Act, is a primarily known United States healthcare reform law that expands and truly aims to improve access to care and spending through the economies regulations and taxes for the countries citizens. The primary and main focus of the Affortable Care Act is to provide assistance for more and more Americans with access to adequate, good, and affordable health insurance, this is where improving the quality not quantity of health care is aimed by the health insurance, and reducing the health care spending within the United States of America. So known, to many Americans, there is a crisis, or even we can say it’s an epidemic in a way where many Americans are
To help the insurance companies the government under Obamacare mandate that every individual has to buy health insurance, if they do not get their insurance from work they have to get insurance from the companies under the Obamacare. This is how the insurance companies get their extra revenue to cover for the other two stipulations in which they lose money. The people that have insurance and never go to see their doctor in essence are paying for the ones that are always sick. If people cannot afford to buy health insurance they will receive subsidies; for example if you have a family of four and go over the threshold the government is going to pay a portion depending on your salary. The money has to come from somewhere in this case rich people. This is the part that many wealthy people are not happy about it. The idea that a healthy person have to buy health insurance is being around since the Clinton administration, and it was oppose by the Republican Congress, since no one should be force to buy something that they do not need. The main thing about Health Care reform, is that in order for the reform to work the individual mandate has to be there.
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 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.
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
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
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 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 is a another name for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and it's goal and purpose was to restructure and reform the healthcare system and health insurance industries of the United States. The main goal of the act was to provide affordable health insurance to millions of uninsured citizens in the country. The Act is also aimed to increase the access to healthcare as well as provide more efficient means of delivering healthcare to individuals were given a right to see their own medical records and have a more hands on approach when it comes to their health and well-being. In order to convince individuals who were skeptical about participating and cooperating with the new law, financial penalties were created to penalize
Obamacare, officially called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Plan, is reforming the healthcare industry and the American health care system: Even though this reform was developed to give America and more rights and protections within the healthcare system, many are saying it is taking their rights within the healthcare system away. The healthcare reform is said it will help tens of millions who are uninsured but many Americans are seeing Obamacare as a threat related to having the government force them into purchasing insurance or paying a penalty for not having insurance. “The law requires all Americans have health insurance by 2014 (or pay a per month fee for each month without minimum essential coverage). Although this shared responsibility provision is unofficially called an individual mandate, it was ruled to be in fact a tax and not a mandate by the June 28, 2012 Supreme court ruling.” (http://obamacarefacts.com/obamahealthcare-summary/, 2015). A total of 54% of Americans in a recent poll say they are against