The Importance Of Healthcare Reform

Healthcare Reform: It’s a right, not a privilege. New words are coined all of the time. There is one that spread like wildfire when President Barack Obama was first elected, “Obamacare,” also known as The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This has been one of the prime issues during the last two elections because it is basically performing a radical and invasive surgery on our current health care system. Basically this entails extending affordable and same health insurance options to all American citizens that their government has by mandating a tax be paid every month for. During the last decade healthcare has become a lucrative industry that all types of businesses and hospitals have been built around. Obamacare threatens this
It is the most significant regulatory overhaul of America’s healthcare system since Medicare/Medicaid (Wikipedia). According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, part of the new “Patient Bill of Rights” includes making it illegal for insurance companies to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions (Healthandhumanservices.gov). The Health and Human Services website also states that Americans will be able to purchase insurance through the Affordable Insurance Exchange where they can compare plans and choose the best fit for themselves and families, rather than being offered only one kind of insurance by an employer (Healthandhumanservices.gov). The Act also allows states to require insurance companies to justify premium increases and bans a yearly cap on what can be spent on healthcare per year for an individual. As well as, eliminating co-payments for contraceptives, mammograms, colonoscopies and other annual basic preventative care measures for all age groups. There will also be tax credits given to small businesses for providing insurance to employees. There will be a sharp decrease in the number of uninsured citizens, which would decrease the overall costs of health care in
Controversy also springs up around issues of money distribution and a individual mandate. In 1994, the Congressional Budget Office issued a report describing an individual mandate to buy insurance as “an unprecedented form of federal action” (Healthandhumanservices.gov). Many states even joined litigation in federal court arguing the power to ‘regulate’ commerce does not include affirmative power to compel commerce by penalizing inaction in 2010 (Healthandhumanservices.gov). At this rate citizens will have to pay an annual penalty fee if they opt out of paying the monthly tax. The economic and financial turn that the PPACA will induce is one of the primary concerns of everyone from the restaurant industry, insurance companies, to clinics and hospitals. By law it restricts insurance companies to alter rates based on pre-existing conditions therefore forcing insurance companies to set rates to cover costs. The worry is that this puts healthy individuals under economic pressure to opt out of buying insurance, which will increase rates until the insurance company markets collapsed. Although this is more of a concern to the majority of the Republican Party, according to the Obama administration, mandated insurance is intended to prevent this downfall (NPR). It is also projected by the Congressional Budget Office that this will lower future deficits and Medicare spending (Healthandhumanservices.gov). Money for new healthcare will be funded by a variety