HokageAmerican Governments Healthcare has been and is a widespread issue all over the world, providing citizens with care that is required by law. Healthcare has been a widely debated issue across the United States as individuals have held different opinions regarding the meaning of having access to affordable healthcare. Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA), was signed and passed by President Barack Obama in March 2010 which aimed to provide individuals who are financially unstable to have medical treatment without having to worry about the expenses. It has particularly been an area of interest in the United States, raising controversial issues as to its effectiveness in government.
Long ago, many people in the U.S. did not have access to healthcare, leaving individuals, especially low-income families, with little to no help in all areas relating to physical and mental health. Before Obamacare, most states did not give health coverage to adults without children, no matter how poor they were (5 Ways the Affordable Care Act is Helping Real People, 2017). Moreover, most states only covered parents if they had extremely low incomes. Now, Obamacare has expanded health coverage to low-income families through the Medicaid program. It aimed to reduce the amount of uncompensated care the average U.S. family pays for by requiring everyone to have health insurance or pay a tax penalty (5 Ways the Affordable Care Act is Helping Real People, 2017). As a result, Obamacare has affected those who were low-income adults, families with children, seniors, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, children in foster care, and former foster youth up to age 26 (5 Ways the Affordable Care Act is Helping Real People, 2017). It improved the quality of healthcare while simultaneously controlling rapidly rising costs. As a result, millions of Americans were able to get the health insurance coverage they needed. It allowed for a broad range of health care involving other important issues in government, protecting people with pre-existing conditions from being denied health insurance. Furthermore, it gave a lifelong guarantee that health insurers could not discriminate against them based on pre-existing health conditions (5 Ways the Affordable Care Act is Helping Real People, 2017). Healthcare needs to be accessible by all U.S. individuals because it is a necessity and right in life. When individuals are denied the right to healthcare, there is an absence of freedom and is dehumanizing mankind. Society functions when individuals are healthy in order to work and gain income for their families. As a result, mortality rates would decrease. There has been many debatable perspective and opinions as to whether or not Obamacare is beneficial to all citizens. One common viewpoint that many have held that all Americans have benefited from Obamacare guaranteeing access to coverage to everyone regardless of pre-existing health conditions and coverage for mental health and substance use disorder services. In contrast, another viewpoint has been held that Obamacare only benefitted low income families (Amadeo, 2019) . Indeed, one of the most important provisions of the Affordable Care Act is the expansion of health coverage to low-income families through the Medicaid program, offering sustainable pursuit towards an accessible healthcare. Finally, a third perspective on Obamacare supports that it has been ineffective; therefore, it should be thrown out. Research has shown that three to five million people lost their employment-based health insurance with increased coverage raised (Amadeo, 2019). In consideration of all the viewpoints made by US individuals, it can be inferred many impose strong opinions as to how Obamacare has affected their lives, financially and emotionally. Obamacare was discussed by both of the presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 elections. Clinton supported Obamacare in hopes to to build on its features, such as offering a tax credit up to $5000, a platform for “public opinions” on the healthcare system, supporting the elderly by letting them buy into medicare at the age of 55, and increasing funding for community health centers. In contrast, Donald Trump wanted to repeal and replace the Obamacare with a brand new version healthcare that includes, insurance tax deductible, consumers are able to import drugs from authenticated countries, promoting on a tax-free health savings account, and turning Medicaid into a block grant program (Kodjak, 2016). Due to the negativity of cost on Obamacare at the time, people wanted a cheaper alternative. Therefore, many states, such as Kentucky where they declined on the uninsured rate due to the expenses of the Obamacare, and were more interested in a new Healthcare Act that could potentially cost less, and voted for Donald Trump (Kliff, 2016). During the 2016 election, President Trump vowed to repeal and replace the ACA once he became president. On President Trump’s first day of office, he made an executive order to “minimize the unwarranted document and regulatory burdens” (Rovner, 2018). Moreover, he tried to make dues on his promises, enabling him to successfully partially repeal and replace the ACA with a new Health Care Act called American Health Care Act passed by the House, though it was not supported by the Senate (Rovner, 2018). Currently, Obamacare has not yet been repealed and there are still new consumers who purchased and seeked coverage through the ACA instead. In 2018, “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports that about 11.8 million people bought 2018 coverage on the ACA’s federal and state-based exchanges during the shortened open enrollment period, and 27 percent of them were considered new consumers” (Rovner, 2018). There has been many questions as to if Obamacare will be repealed in the future and how it will affect millions of citizens who are insured with ACA. In regards to the 2020 Presidential election is coming up, Obamacare could potentially be repealed if an Republican candidate wins the race.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorUndergraduate student generated content. Blog posting and updating done by Kristina Flores Victor, Assistant Professor of Political Science at CSUS Archives
March 2020
Categories
All
|