Obamacare

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often nicknamed Obamacare, was signed into law by President Obama on 23rd March 2010.

Obamacare aimed to extend health insurance cover to some of the estimated 15% of the American population that are not covered by their employers of the health programmes that were already in place for the poor and elderly.

The law also requires businesses with more than 50 full-time employees to offer health insurance, bans insurance companies from denying health coverage to people with pre-existing health conditions and allows parents to put their children, up to the age of 26, on their plans.

It also expanded the eligibility for Medicaid, a programme created by the federal government, but administered by the state, to provide payment for medical services for low-income citizens.

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How is Obamacare paid for?

Taxes. To pay for subsidies, Obamacare increased taxes, i.e. those making $200,000 ($250,000 for married couples) pay higher income and investment taxes (an additional 0.9%). Many businesses are also required to pay more taxes.

Why are people against Obamacare?

Obamacare has been described as an unwanted intrusion into the lives of individuals and the private affairs of businesses. Republicans have also said that the law imposes too many costs on businesses, with many calling Obamacare a "job killer". Although since the introduction of Obamacare, jobs in the health sector have risen by 9%.

Republicans launched several legal challenges after the law was passed in 2010, however in 2012 the US Supreme Court deemed it constitutional.

Despite this, Obamacare is on the cusp of being overturned as the House passed a revised version of the health care bill, bringing President Trump's pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare closer.

If Obamacare was repealed...

Without a replacement, it's estimated that in the first year 4 million people would lose medical insurance if Obamacare was repealed. This rises to 13 million 8 years later.

This saves $338 billion dollars over a 10 years, an average of $33.8 billion a year.

However it would also mean that many of the popular provisions of Obamacare would also be repealed:

  • Children could no longer stay on their parent's health care plan until the age of 26
  • People with a pre-existing condition could be denied cover by insurance companies
  • Companies could charge women more than men

Although if the Republican's revised health care bill was put in place, children, up until they were 26, would be able to stay on their parent's health care plan, however many other Obamacare policies will be abandoned such as, companies with more than 50 staff will not have to cover their employees and it allows states to opt out of the guarantee to provide health care to people with pre-existing conditions.

Flaws of Obamacare

There are aspects of Obamacare that haven't been implemented as well as others, for example

  • Obamacare was supposed to expand Medicaid programmes, however the Supreme Court said states could choose not to participate in the expansion of Medicaid therefore poor and working-class families who didn't qualify for Medicaid were still left to pay for private cover
  • For middle-income families, the subsidies are not generous enough and the fines for not having coverage are small enough that they need not enroll in plans, so fewer Americans than forecasted are signing up to Obamacare so insurance companies are backing out, in turn raising costs for everyone

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Emilia Chen, Oxford