The Many Problems of Obamacare

It is no secret that the cost of American healthcare is becoming increasingly more expensive. However, the issue of the rising cost of healthcare and its severity needs to be recognized as a major problem. Health prices are steadily increasing in the United States, and there is no sign of it stopping. Since 1970, spending on American health care has grown 9.8%, which is a rate that is growing faster than the economy (“New Technology”.) Furthermore, health insurance premiums are also increasing at a rate five times faster than American salaries, which makes it difficult for families to afford health care coverage (Zuckerman 28). Therefore, it has become an obligation to address why the cost of American health care is soaring and to seek out a solution to lower the cost. Many would jump to the conclusion that the United States simply charges too much for their medical services, but there are deeper influences that need to be analyzed. The causes of the rising cost of health care are people not using preventive health care, the development of modern technology, and the treatments being overprescribed. A possible solution is to have preventive health care services available in clinics of low-income areas.

In the United States, Americans have been given the opportunity to obtain affordable insurance. Everyone in the world would like to be able to go to the doctor and receive quality and affordable healthcare, and be able to purchase the things the physician say you need in order to stay healthy. Many people in America with different medical diagnosis are not covered by their insurance company even under the new health care reform law, because their medical need does not fit the medical necessity criteria for covered health care services. The current health care reform have various positive results, but the Act have many negative concerns that need restructuring when it comes to defining what medical necessities are.

Recently the Untied States top priority has been to provide accessible and affordable health care to every American. Those that lack access to coverage find it much more difficult to seek proper treatment and when they do they maybe left with astronomical medical bills. The CommanWealth Fund found that one-third or thirty three percent of Americans forgo health care because of costs and one-fifth or twenty percent are thus left with medical bills that have problems being able to pay. The federal government, through the Affordable Care Act (2010), has mandated that every person have health coverage in order

“The amount people pay for health insurance increased 30 percent from 2001 to 2005, while income for the same period of time only increased 3 percent.” (Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). The rising cost of healthcare is a huge problem in America today. In this paper I will analyze the different issues and causes for the increase in cost.

According to David Nather, the bill also plans to set up something called a health exchange. A health care exchange is a virtual marketplace where you can purchase health insurance. It is “Expedia for health care” essentially(page 71). The exchanges were created for small businesses and for people who cannot obtain employer based insurance or they do not want insurance from their employer. Health insurance cannot refuse coverage for pre-existing conditions. The new standards organize the plans into one of four categories. These categories are as follows: bronze, silver, gold and platinum. According to Nather, bronze covers 60% of all health care costs; silver covers 70% of all costs; gold covers 80% and the platinum plan covers 90% of all health care costs. All these values are averages so coverage will vary (Nather page 76). If health insurance companies raise rates too much, they will be removed from the exchange.

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

Recently, the House of Representatives voted to repeal and replace Obamacare with a new health insurance system. I believe that this is unnecessary because many are happy with the principles of Obamacare, they just do not like how the program is being carried out by the government. Thus, I believe that the executive and legislative branches should focus on addressing the flaws of Obamacare as opposed to coming up with an entirely new system. By doing so, they could perfect the system; however, by starting from scratch, Trumpcare will very likely have the fate of Obamacare and have a faulty beginning, to say the least.

"The bottom line is -- that we are making the insurance market better for everybody and that's right thing to do," our president is quoted in saying in reference to his intangible innovation, the Affordable Care Act (“Obama Tweaks”). But is the act truly a good thing? Truthfully this act isn’t good now nor will it be in the long run. This act is supposed to make health care affordable to all American citizens, but that is not the case. President Obama promised in his 2008 campaign that his health care act will be the best thing for the American people in the long run. There was never truly a problem with health care in the America initially. But now our country faces a multitude of dilemmas after this act was put into place, including,

In the article, “Why Obamacare is bad for America’s health”, Allen B. West (2012) argues that Obamacare is not good for the country. Firstly, he says America was found on the Declaration of Independence. Freedom of choice and free markets are very important for America. The author says that the government made health care mandatory for most of the people in America, but it’s not fair because in America everyone has his/her own rights and should have the right to choose their health care. Secondly, he thinks that Obamacare is dangerous for America because American taxpayers pay 1.76 billion dollars for Obamacare which is double than the forecast when the bill was signed into law. In addition, Obamacare

The Affordable care act was signed into law by President Obama on March 23rd, 2010. The goal of the Law was to expand coverage for the uninsured citizens of the United States, control the rising cost of health care and improve a health system. It was not optimizing care despite its rising cost and had health outcomes that were not comparable to other industrialized nation.

In the new report releases on November 2013 of The Council of Economic Advisers, “Trends in Health Care Cost Growth and the Role of the Affordable Care Act”, shows the health care costs and prices are growing at their slowest rates in decades. The chart, “Real Per Enrollee Growth in Health Spending Per Payer,” in this report shows that the average annual growth rate of private insurance from 2010 to 2013 was just 1.3 percent, marking the lowest rate record and “less than one-third the long term historical average stretching back to 1965” (Trends in Health Care Cost Growth). This report also indicates that the ACA reduces the expenditure for health care and puts the inflation in the lowest rates (only one percent) in the recent fifty years (Trends

The health care system in the United States is in need of major reform. Even with major technological advances, the amount of citizens unable to acquire proper care is immense. “Between 2005 and 2006, the number of U.S.-born residents who were uninsured increased from 33 million to 34.4 million, and their uninsured rate increased from 12.8 percent in 2005 to 13.2 percent. The numbers of foreign-born who were uninsured rose from 11.8 million in 2005 to 12.6 million, and their rate was statistically unchanged at 33.8 percent in 2006” (U.S. Census Bureau, 2007). Although this is not the most startling statistic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (2007), “The number of uninsured children increased from 8

The lack of access to healthcare is a problem that cannot be ignored. Millions of people in the United States are being affected by the inability to obtain health services. The most significant barriers that have been identified prohibiting individuals from obtaining access to healthcare are related to finance. One of the barriers is the inability to afford to pay for health insurance and therefore are left uninsured. The accessibility to health insurance has declined significantly and this can be attributed to the skyrocketing cost. Another aspect to consider adding to the immensity of the problem are the employer’s inability to offer health insurance due to the high cost. Employers are more than ever not offering employed based health coverage or are only offering part-time employment, which in turn allows them to not be required to offer health insurance. This is an issue as individuals are left without the coverage of an employer, cannot afford private insurance on their own, but yet do not fall into the criteria to qualify for Medicaid or Medicare services leaving them without access to proper healthcare ((Bodenheimer & Grumbach, 2012, pp.17-19). This inequality to access to healthcare is concerning as the individuals health is at stake. These are people who might be suffering from chronic illness that are going untreated and therefore will have detrimental effects due to not having the opportunity to get treatment. These individuals are left to choose between providing

Each individual in the United States was estimated to have a healthcare expenditure of $8,086 that totaled up to $2.5 trillion overall in the year 2009 (Stone). With the changes that the ACA brings to the healthcare sector, the overall costs are projected to be $4.5 trillion by the year 2019 (Stone). The 195% increase in healthcare expense is due to the impact of the ACA and also the rise in costs for medical expertise (Kocakulah). The increasing healthcare costs continue to worry American citizens despite having the among the best facilities in the world.

Policy that is designed and implemented for the purpose of government intervention will always have advantages and disadvantages. Therefore with the context of analyzing the Affordable Care Act, there will be benefactors and opponents that will offer valid points and counterpoints.