The Supreme Court ruled on June 28, 2012 that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 also known as the ObamaCare Act is to be upheld, even the controversial parts, where people without health insurance will have to pay a fine starting in 2014. The ObamaCare Act was started to “help reduce overall health care costs by making services available to 32 million who currently cannot get health insurance”(useconomy.about.com, part of the New York Times Company Amadeo, 2012). The Act will make it so insurance companies cannot disqualify a person from receiving health insurance because of a pre-existing condition, and will also make sure that insurance companies do not drop someone because they are sick. Large companies with more than 50 employees will have to offer health insurance, but they will receive tax credits. “The Act will lower the budget deficit by $143 billion over the next ten year by raising some taxes and shifting more cost burdens”( Source: CBO CBO Report on Health Care Reform and the Budget; Wall Street Journal, What Health Insurance Ruling Means, June 28, 2012; NPR, Medicaid Expansion, June 27, 2012, useconomy.about.com, part of the New York Times Company Amadeo, 2012). Starting on January 1 2014 everyone in the United States is supposed to have health insurance. The hope is that if everyone has health insurance, the healthy people are going to equal out the unhealthy people and so insurance should not be too high of cost, or too expensive, but people are afraid that is not what is going to happen. If a person does not qualify for Medicaid or does not purchase health insurance by January 1, 2014 they will have to pay $95 (or 1% of their income whichever is higher), in 2015 people without insurance will have to pay a penalty of $325 (or 2% of income) and in 2016 they will pay $695 (or 2.5% of income). About 4 million people will end up paying the penalty instead of purchasing health…
