Repeal of the Affordable Care Act - Research Paper Example

Repeal of the Affordable Care Act Introduction Affordable care act is an act which is mainly health oriented. The law was passed in March 2010 by the American congress. Later on, it was signed by the President Obama. The Obama government to achieve multiple objectives of strengthening Medicare, reduction of disparities in low-income people and to give coverage options to uninsured people announced the care act (Healthcare.gov, 2011). More than 32 million Americans are living without health care. It would contribute in reducing the abuses of insurance industry. According to the government, the bill will give more protection to American nation on health issues. Children will get more health care as compared to past; there will be no limit for the annual health care for people (Healthcare.gov, 2011). Patients will get preventive services without sharing any cost. Government tends to implement the plan in practice from 2014. Despite all the goods that plan seem to bring in the health care of Americans, there are a lot many reservations in the public (Healthcare.gov, 2011). Middle class suffers more as the tax cut from small businesses and insurance policies would help poor or low-income people to buy policies for them. The plan is aimed at reducing the premium of businesspersons running small businesses to help the needy people. Republicans have rejected the law for not having any constitutional authority and have raised voice for repeal (Healthcare.gov, 2011). The Repeal of the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) is a pending piece of political legislation and its repealing has many reasons behind it. This paper discusses the issue of repeal of the Affordable Care Act in detail. Bill’s Principal Sponsors The Democrats who are linked to the legislature/Congress and sponsored the Affordable Care Act are Charles Rangel, Xavier Becerra, Shelley Berkley, Earl Blumenauer, Joe Courtney, Joseph Crowley, Artur Davis , Danny Davis , Lloyd Doggett , Bob Etheridge , Bob Filner , Al Green , Luis Gutierrez , Brian Higgins , Henry Johnson , Steve Kagen , Ronald Kind , John Larson , Sander Levin , John Lewis , James McDermott, James McGovern, Kendrick Meek, Walter Minnick, Dennis Moore, Richard Neal, William Pascrell, Gary Peters , Earl Pomeroy , Linda Sanchez, Allyson Schwartz, Ike Skelton, Fortney Stark, John Tanner, Michael Thompson, Dina Titus, Christopher Van Hollen and John Yarmuth (GovTrack.us 2009). The Republicans who sponsored the Affordable Care Act are Virginia Brown-Waite, Walter Jones and Todd Platts (GovTrack.us, 2009). American Nurses Association, American Medical Association, American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Physicians, Association of American Medical Colleges, National Association of Community Health Centers, American Osteopathic Association, Catholic Health Association, American Public Health Association, Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, Doctors for America and National Hispanic Medical Association consider the Affordable Care Act as a revolutionary act that keeps the capability of attending all the problems associated with health care (Foster, 2011). According to the mentioned health care communities, repeal of Affordable Care Act will be depreciative for health care services and will take health care back to its backward form (Foster, 2011). Ostensible Objectives of the Legislation According to the legislature, ObamaCare Act has many ostensible objectives. They are to make certain relaxed admittance to emergency facilities, to make certain that all people are insured under the law, to make employers responsible for their employees for the provision of health care insurance services, to ensure betterment of insurance policies by increasing insurance coverage, to make sure that the premiums of insurance are kept low and to impose tax penalties for people with no health insurance (ACEP, 2010). Hidden Agendas or Objectives to the Proposed Law Democrats and republicans both have some objectives that are not known to a common person yet. Republicans have blamed government for making this bill a source of success in future midterm elections (Klein, 2011). Republicans want to defame the present government and wants to get the office back from the government. Republicans have started showing more energies to repeal as the midterm elections are getting closer day by day (Streich, 2010). Media campaign has also been launched by the republicans to highlight the flaws of the bill (Rickman, 2011). Republicans are projecting the flaws by touching key issues of the bill. Republicans say that people do not want it, as they have to pay for the care act so it should be repealed. Purely due to political reasons, not even a single republican voted in favor of the bill (Rickman, 2011). Republicans are trying to project flaws in the law to lower the public support for the present government in the forthcoming elections (Streich, 2010). On the other end, democrats want the public support for upcoming elections to hold the office for further four years. Democrats want to achieve some objectives out of the bill before the presidential elections of 2012 (Streich, 2010). Therefore, both the major parties are working for their political mileage. Irrespective of the real objectives that can be driven out from this bill, both the parties want to get public support for securing their future in country’s politics (Streich, 2010). Benefits from the Proposed Law The children are getting the major benefits if the law is implemented in true letter and spirit. Previously the children used to get health support till the age of 19. Now, the young people can get benefited on their parents health plans till 26 (ACEP, 2010). Physicians and surgeons will be able to get bonus from Medicare on the issues of primary care (ACEP, 2010). Therefore, health community will be able to derive benefits for their workers. People with the income of 133% of federal poverty level are also put on medical coverage load. Ultimately, 32 million Americans who are living without any health facilities, will be able to get free of cost health care (Healthcare.gov, 2011). Maximum people in America will be benefited by having health insurance by 2014 (ACEP, 2010). Therefore, percentage of uninsured will fall from 19% to 8% by 2016. Low-income people and sick get benefit from the law (Healthcare.gov, 2011). People suffering from high cost diseases like cancer etc. will have the benefit of either less cost sharing or free of cost treatment. Adversely Impacted Interests Both the major parties have been adversely affected by the media role on the issue. Democrats and Republicans have been unable to achieve what they wanted. Interests of insurance policies have been adversely affected, as they would not be able to draw attention of people towards their policies. One of the major causes of making health care law was to diminish the disparities between insurance policies (US House to repeal ‘ObamaCare law’). Small business holders are also being hurt, as they have to pay major share in implementation of this bill. Sales tax is being imposed to generate resources for the health care in America (Wallin, 2009). Bill’s Reformations Bill reformations, alterations and modifications related to health care service in terms of finance, organization and deliverance are mentionable as they place an impact on the provision of health care services. First of the reformation associated with bill’s impact on the health care provision is lowering of costs associated with health care. The health care insurance will be manageable because of its low costs for all the classes of the society and every person will be able to avail the benefit of health care services (Healthcare.gov, 2011). All the classes will be dealt related to provision of health care services. The employers will be held responsible for their employees in terms of health care insurance. Financially, the lower classes will be benefitted in terms of health care, as they will be insured with low costs. However, the small business owners will be facing problems as they will be accountable for all of their employees and will be penalized for not insuring their employees’ health. The insurance companies will be required to allocate low premium rates for insuring people’s health for all citizens of America without any discrimination or prejudice, which is again a financial impact (Healthcare.gov, 2011). The act is named as Affordable Care Act that means that the act is affordable for all persons of society because of its cost effectiveness. The government’s overpaying for illegal Medicare procedures will be under check to control expenditures that are wasted. Many people belonging to lower classes that do not enjoy the provision of health services will be able to receive health coverage because of essential insurance coverage of all people, which is a financial impact on the society as a whole (Healthcare.gov, 2011). The government also talks about provision of tax credit to owners of small businesses to ensure that they assist their employees with health care insurance due to which, middle class workers will be under financial pressure (Healthcare.gov, 2011). Hope of Bill’s Proponents The bill’s proponents are government, health care community and lower classes who were unable to gain all health care facilities because of higher costs. Government hopes to be elected again on the basis of their implemented Affordable Care Act and wishes for the betterment of lower classes as they, themselves have mentioned. Health care community hopes to find rewards and benefits because of health care act because medical associated people and physicians will be able to get rewards and bonuses for serving. People will also be provided with health care facilities in low cost and they hope this because of Affordable Care Act. Lower classes consider the bill and its insurance related policies as effective for them (Healthcare.gov, 2011). Efficacy of Bill in Health Care Policy The bill of Affordable Care Act has brought a major change in health care policy due to which, there are discussions and revolutionary debates considering the issue of repealing the act altogether. The society is highly affected because of the health care act as different classes of the society will be affected. According to the descriptions given about the act, the lower classes will be mostly benefitted because of the act (Healthcare.gov, 2011). As far as health care policy is concerned, the health care community considers the bill as a revolutionary step taken by the government for the prosperity and development of the department of health care (Foster, 2011). All the people under the citizenship of America will be insured health-wise. In terms of tax payments and credits, small business owners will be in some problem in terms of maintaining their economic status but as far as health care is regarded, people will have health care facilities in low costs (Healthcare.gov, 2011). Conclusion After going through all the details considering the Affordable Care act, it is quite clear that the bill is supported by health care community and associates of Democrats. However, as far as repeal of Affordable Care Act is concerned, the Republicans have straight forward and clear reasons for their interest in the repeal. According to Republicans, the bill is not required at all and the previous health care policies are enough for the benefits of people. The government shows interest in the welfare of people in terms of health by making sure that all the people are insured under Affordable Care Act. Nevertheless, the people against the Affordable Care Act consider the bill as unreasonable and uneconomical. According to them, the bill is only for the benefits of the government itself. The small business holders and insurance organizations will be affected negatively by the Affordable Care Act; nevertheless, government, health care community and lower classes will be benefitted by the act. The repeal of the Affordable Care Act should be there after good consideration over the matter and all the people affected negatively and positively should be taken care of. References ACEP. (2010). ACEP’s High Priority Provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. Retrieved on 18th February 2011 from http://www.google.com.pk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=12&ved=0CHAQFjAL&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.acep.org%2FWorkArea%2Flinkit.aspx%3FLinkIdentifier%3Did%26ItemID%3D49182%26libID%3D49211&rct=j&q=Objectives%20of%20Affordable%20Care%20Act&ei=uN5gTZieL8fqrAe3mcHDAg&usg=AFQjCNEcewinhi-UAsI9StimiNJDGd3J8A Foster, Tracey Ricks. (2011). The Washington Review & Commentary: Weekly News from The White House. WordPress.com. Retrieved on 18th February 2011 from http://traceyricksfoster.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/health-care-providers-what-they%E2%80%99re-saying-about-the-affordable-care-act/ GovTrack.us (Database of Federal Legislation). (2009). H.R. 3590 – 111th Congress: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Retrieved on 18th February 2011 from http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-3590 Healthcare.gov. 2011. Understanding Affordable Care Act. Retrieved on 18th February 2011 from http://www.healthcare.gov/law/about/index.html Klein, Ezra. (2011). Should the Affordable Care Act have bipartisan oversight? The Washington Post. Retrieved on 18th February 2011 from http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezraklein/2011/01/should_the_affordable_care_act.html Rickman, Gene. (2011). Republicans in Favor of Repealing Affordable Care Act. Retrieved on 19th February 2011 from http://topnews.co.uk/217862-republicans-favor-repealing-affordable-care-act Streich, Michael. (2010). Repealing Obama's Health Care Law. Retrieved on 18th February 2011 from http://www.suite101.com/content/repealing-obamas-health-care-law-a286789 “US House to repeal 'ObamaCare' law”. Retrieved on 18th February 2011 from http://www.presstv.ir/detail/161030.html Wallin, Joe. (2009). President’s Tax Proposal Takes Aim at Carried Interest of Venture Funds. Retrieved on 19th February 2011 from http://www.startuplawblog.com/2009/05/12/presidents-tax-proposal-takes-aim-at-carried-interest-of-venture-funds/ Read More