The Affordable Care Act (ACA), or nicknamed Obamacare, is a form of Universal Healthcare or socialized medicine. The Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010, and has undergone more than fifty attempts to repeal the act. The goal was to give affordable healthcare to Americans who could not afford insurance. Obamacare does not replace private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. It standardizes the healthcare insurance companies. Obamacare has been a hot topic for the 2016 Presidential Election, and each side have different intentions for the act. The Affordable Care Act has good intentions for the millions of uninsured Americans. The Affordable Care Act was based on a reform in Massachusetts in 2006. This gave a lot of inspiration on Obamacare, and it still is studied to figure out a way to create affordable healthcare nationwide.
The American citizen should care about the Affordable Care Act because it highly impacts their everyday lives. Young adults can stay on their parent’s plan until the age of 26, and this helps young adults not to fear being uninsured during their college years. CHIP is easier for kids to be covered under, helping poor families care for their children. If the child needs medical attention, the parents do not need to worry about going into debt over a doctor visit. Medicaid has expanded in states that chose to expand the services. All insurance plans are to cover minimum benefits like free preventive care, OB-GYN services without referrals, free birth control and emergency room visits out of network will be covered. Gender discrimination is not allowed for how a person is insured, nor can a company drop coverage when someone is sick or if an honest mistake was made on the application. Unjust rate hikes are also not allowed. Healthcare is more available to the public, and millions of Americans can be soothed at the idea of being insured.
The Affordable Care Act has had quite a few problems, but they can be fixed and changed to make the act better. The penalty if somebody does not have healthcare should not exist because not everyone believes they need healthcare. If someone believes that they are healthy enough to not need to see doctors, let them live their life in that way. Their ignorance might be preventable, but their stubbornness will get to them. The current growth rate for the cost of healthcare in the United States is twice of the general economic growth rate. Spending for healthcare consists of 18% of the total gross domestic product (GDP). If this growth continues, the growth is predicted that by 2037, one in four American dollars will go towards healthcare. The growth rate of cost should not be at the percentage it is. Americans should not have to pay that much money for affordable healthcare. Another issue is that small business are to give insurance coverage to its workers, but this can be a problem if the business does not get much business. Large businesses do not have this worry, but family owned businesses could possibly not afford giving healthcare to the workers.
To create a new policy to fix these issues,an idea would be no tax on the uninsured if they do not want insurance. The penalty is pointless, and creates unnecessary paperwork that costs money to file. The growth rate of the cost of healthcare should not be increasing, and that the act should try to battle this growth. The American people should not be paying extraordinary rates. To battle the growth, healthcare companies should not raise the prices of cost just to raise the cost to make money. Small businesses should not be forced to give insurance to its workers, but the workers to be able to sign up for other services not provided by the employer. To enforce this, remove the current regulation and let the business choose to provide health insurance.
Obamacare had good intentions to be a great act, but it did not live up to its intentions. The law is still in infancy, and it can be fixed with time and cooperation in Congress. Millions have new access to healthcare, but many do not believe in socialized medicine. Nor do people believe that they need to be forced to purchase health insurance. The country should not be split over healthcare, and we should unite on creating a policy that will benefit Americans. This is one of the greatest issues debated during the presidential debates, and will change American life over the next generation.
