The Analysis of ObamaCare - Essay Example

?Problems with the Health Care Reform Act President Barack Obama faces a tough re-election year ahead of him not only because of his lack of follow through on his previous campaign promises, but also because he railroaded his highly unpopular Patient Protection and Affordable Act, more commonly known as ObamaCare, into the population through the then Democrat controlled legislative houses. This is one political mistake that he many never recover from. If we are to look at the track record of his predecessors in relation to their own healthcare reform programs, we will see that they did not fare any better on their own versions of public healthcare coverage. But, none of them have failed as spectacularly as his version has. The ObamaCare Act is so riddled with problems that the individual states are trying to reject its implementation and the Supreme Court has had to step into the problem. And that it seems, is where the main problem of ObamaCare lies. ObamaCare has practically prevented people from gaining access to proper medical care unless they have health insurance. In fact, the law mandates that each and every American citizen of good standing must carry health insurance in order to gain access to an emergency room. By dictating who can gain access to medical care and how that medical care can be accessed, the president has overstepped a number of legalities and human rights. By removing the freedom of the people to choose how they can access medical care, the president has violated our constitutional right to choose. Although health insurance is something that our society wishes could encompass one and all in coverage, mandating it for every person, regardless of whether they can afford to buy the service or not, is like signing their death sentence. Medical professionals themselves question the legality of the law: Mandating health insurance is not only questionable legally, it is also questionable medically. It sets up an unsustainable tautology that assumes willing participation on the part of doctors. But many of the doctors I know will drop out, even if their patients can't. (Seigel, Marc M.D. , A Doctor's Prognosis for ObamaCare -- The Four Essential Problems With the Patient) The president's health care act failed to take into consideration or perhaps refused to see the obvious, that healthcare is not cheap and technology is now allowing it to become more personalized and because of that, may or may not be covered by insurance companies who only make their money by rejecting prodecure coverage for their members whose medical needs cannot be covered on a group basis. This changes the slant of the law from health care coverage to health insurance instead. Our government seems to have forgotten that just because you are covered by health insurance, that does not mean that you are actually covered by health care. Even though we are mandated to buy health insurance under the law, we are not assured that all the medical consultations and testing that we might require will be covered at all under our health insurance coverage. On a related note, the law refused to acknowledge the fact that we have at least 24 percent of the American population are opted out of insurance coverage. They do not want to be covered, so why should the government force them to sign up? And that, is why the legality of this law is now being questioned before the U.S. Supreme Court. Instead of making medical coverage more affordabe, ObamaCare made insurance premiums shoot through the roof, a situation that insurance companies tried to make known during the hearings for the healthcare bill (The WellPoint Revelation: Private Insurance Premiums Could Triple Under ObamaCare). Obama's supporters in the legislative house would not hear of it then and they refuse to hear more about it now that the law they forced upon the public is being rejected by more than a half percent of the population. In fact, a Rassmusen poll taken November 14 of this year indicates that: U.S. Voters shows that 55% at least somewhat favor repeal of the health care law, with 42% who Strongly Favor it. Thirty-seven percent (37%) at least somewhat oppose repeal, with 26% who are Strongly Opposed. (Rassmusen, Scott, Health Care Law: New Low: 50 % Expect Costs to Rise Under Health Care Law) It becomes difficult to say that ObamaCare is actually doing well ever since it was signed into law last year. It somehow does not make me feel any better knowing that the Medicaid age limit for coverage has increased to 26 years. What with the lack of jobs and our economy in shambles, I am not sure how I can manage to pay for the mandatory health insurance premiums. Businesses are shutting down or cutting down their workforces because they need to find a way to pay for the insurance premiums without cutting too much into their profits. So where does that coverage situation leave most members of society? You guessed it, without insurance coverage at all. Speaking of members of society, there is another gray area in the ObamaCare law that is proving to be a very divisive topic. As we all know, illegal immigrants are a huge problem for our country. Ilegal residents come in, they work under the table, then they get ill while they are hiding out. They go to our hospitals and receive the medical care that they need. For free, and that is something that will continue to be covered under ObamaCare. These people are not tax payers in this country and therefore, should not be covered by any free service, most specially health care related, offered by the government. These illegal immigrants or seasonal workers should not be shouldered by taxpayer dollars since they do not pay any taxes to our government. And yet that is what is happening right now. That is definitely a notable problem under the health care act that now exists. We have an economy that is barely keeping its head above water due to partisan politics mostly over the ever increasing government expenses. ObamaCare helped make matters worse for us economically. Costing us over $ 2 trillion, it further bloats our beauraucracy by creating: 68 new grant Programs, 47 bureaucratic entities, 29 demonstration projects, six whole new regulatory agencies, six compliance standards, two new entitlements, and a large expansion of the IRS. (Waldman, J. Deane M.D., Are We Feeling Better Yet? ) The biggest problem with ObamaCare is that we, as a society, are being forced to spend money we do not have on a service not all of us want. The government, in an effort to cover all of the start up costs of this program, will bleed it out of us through the taxes we already have to struggle to pay for. There is nothing we can do about it for now. What is done is done. Unless the U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of the people and declares the law unconstitutional. The debate on the failure of ObamaCare will continue into this current election season where Pres. Obama is trying to get re-elected. If he tries to influence the Supreme Court in order to boost his chances at re-election, they might have to decide in his favor on the following premise: If the Supreme Court upholds ObamaCare in its entirety, it will be seen as a victory for President Obama and Congressional Democrats, which would likely provide them with some electoral momentum. On the other hand, such a decision by the Court would throw responsibility for reforming ObamaCare entirely on the shoulders of the new Congress and President, thus making it an even bigger election issue. (Levy, Curt., ObamaCare: The Electoral Impact) ObamaCare is full of problematic policies which cannot be fixed due to partisan politics and lobbyist groups. The government knows what is wrong with it and how to fix it. But they choose to use the law as a pawn in the election game playing out this year. Works Cited Levy, Curt. “ObamaCare: The Electoral Impact”. 15 Nov. 2011. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. “Private Insurance Premiums Could Triple Under ObamaCare”. The WellPoint Revelation. 28 October 2009. Web. 16 Nov. 2011. Rassmusen, Scott. “Health Care Law - New Low: 50% Expect Costs To Rise Under Health Care Law”. Rassmusen Reports. 14 Nov. 2011. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. Seigel, Marc M.D. “A Doctor's Prognosis for ObamaCare -- The Four Essential Problems With the Patient”. FoxNews. 10 Aug. 2010. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. Waldman, J. Deane Dr. “Are We Feeling Better Yet?”. Medical Malprocess. 12 Dec. 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2011. Read More