El TomCalifornia Politics Affordable healthcare is a big issue in today’s society for many reasons. Medical insurance has become very expensive and those with lower incomes can no longer afford it. Although there are programs for low income families that help getting medical insurance, others who are borderline qualifying for such programs end up paying hundreds of dollars a year. Programs such as Women, Infants and Children (WIC) are of the few that offer resources at no cost to pregnant women, especially first time moms. Qualifications for programs like these vary from income to the number of dependents or children in the household. Other programs like Obamacare, Kaiser Permanente, and Covered California, have copays for citizens that should be getting their medication for free.
Obama implemented his Affordable Care Act (ACA) in March 3rd, 2010 (EHealth Insurance). During Obama’s running for presidency, one of his goals was to have affordable health insurance for every U.S citizen. He signed the ACA bill into law in 2010 and required every individual with legal residency status in the United States to obtain health insurance. Those who did not have health insurance during any time of the year would face a tax penalty for each month they didn’t hold coverage, mostly known as a mandate (Adamczyk). The fines for those who opted out of having healthcare coverage varied depending on the households’ income, so the more money someone made the more they had to pay at the end of the year. The mandate allowed citizens up to 3 months without coverage as long as they had coverage the remaining of the 9 months in the year and they wouldn’t get taxed for it, but if they reached 4 months then they would get fined on all 4 months and so on. There are 4 main options for healthcare insurance: Medical, Covered California, work insurance and private. The first option and the cheapest one is Medical. Medical is a program meant for low-income families. The guidelines for medical are very strict, based on income and household size. When a family or even just one of the members in the household stops being eligible for Medical they transition to Covered California where they can choose what type of coverage they want, the more coverage they want the more they would pay. Covered California recipients can also be eligible for assistance, meaning they can receive help with their monthly payment. However, Covered California is only eligible for people with legal residency status. If a Medical recipient stops being eligible for Medical due to too much earned income and they are not at least legal residents, then they don’t get to transitioned to Covered California. At this point their only other option would be to sign up for a private insurance but that’s too expensive for most. During Trumps running for office, he promised a tax cuts and defunding of several programs. His “Christmas present’ as he called it, in 2017 was a tax bill that he had been trying to pass for a while. The new tax bill was signed into law on December 22, 2017. This new bill brought many changes but the one change that affects almost everyone is how it repeals the Affordable Care Act (Goodnough). With this new bill, the mandate is lifted- no longer required to have health insurance and no tax penalty at the individual level. However, Congressional Budget Office projects the change will increase insurance premiums and lead to 13 million fewer Americans with insurance in a decade, while also cutting government spending by more than $300 billion over that period (Long). Those who wish to continue getting health insurance will most likely see an increase in their bill. Now, individuals are facing higher prices for insurance, will they save their money or will they pay the price for health care. Gavin Newsom wants to reinstate the individual mandate at the state level to bolster the affordable care act (ACA) and fund insurance subsidies for middle-income families (Bollag). Revenue from that penalty will subsidize health insurance for individuals earning up to $72,840 annually and families of four earning up to $150,600 (Bollag). He signed an executive order to consolidate that state’s drug price negotiation by 2021 (Bollag). It is intended to give California better leverage to negotiate lower class. Newson also wants to expand Medicaid eligibility to age 26 for those who do not have legal residency status. Currently, the law states that all children regardless of their immigration status are eligible for full-scope medical until the age of 19, unless parents are over the income guidelines for medical. Full-scope medical means a person is eligible to all health care related services for free, this includes doctors’ visits, dentists, specialist, hospitalization, medicine, etc. With full-scope medical a patient does not have a monthly payment or co-payments.
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
|