preview

Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act

Best Essays

H.R. 3590 (111th): Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

When president Obama was a candidate in the 2008 election he promised wide scale health care reform that would increase the availability and affordability of medical insurance for a large portion of the American population. At the time of his campaign, millions of low-income Americans were stuck in the Medicaid gap – where they could not afford health insurance, but also were not eligible for the joint state and federal government Medicaid program. This promise eventually became the bill later named the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that was passed by the senate on December 24, 2010. The bill’s policy seeks to expand health care coverage to low-income families …show more content…

Of those people many were considered below the poverty threshold, however due to strict state regulations these individuals or families did not qualify for insurance through Medicaid. As a result, when these Americans needed to be seen by doctors, insured tax paying American’s would be stuck with their bills. In order to alleviate this problem, president Obama decided to lead a major campaign to increase the affordability of health care. Through draft bills in the house and senate, the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obama Care, covers a large portion of Americans who before it became a law would be left without insurance. The bill has two main parts – making healthcare affordable to low income families and increasing the scope of Medicaid eligibility. Before ObamaCare, families and individuals who were not covered by employers for healthcare had to seek out insurance on their own. This task proved very difficult as insurance providers charged steep prices for coverage. In short, health care coverage was not affordable to a large portion of the population. The law seeks to cover Americans who are between 138% and 400% of the Federal Poverty Level. They can sign up for Health Care via a government run website, which will allow them to choose a plan that best suits their needs. A formula will then decide based on their state how much a plan will cost for them as well as how much of their health care is

Get Access