Obamacare or Affordable Care - Essay Example

What are the Cons and Pros of Obama Care INTRODUCTION Obama Care has been initiated by the 44th President of the US, Mr. Barack Obama, with the vision to provide quality and reasonable health insurance to the Americans along with a reduction in the overall healthcare spending trends in the country, making it more affordable for the public. From an overall perspective, Obama Care has been intended to increase the affordability of healthcare maintain adequate quality in the industry services, based on which it is also acknowledged as Affordable Care Act. However, there are certain pros and cons associated with Obama Care that provides an understanding about the composite nature of the new healthcare regime in the US, especially when concerning its economic impacts on the industry as well as on the economy at larger (ObamaCare Facts, “ObamaCare Facts: Facts on the Affordable Care Act”). THESIS STATEMENT This thesis primarily intends to analyse the positive and negative impacts of Obama Care on the healthcare system of the US and the overall economy in general. PROS OF OBAMA CARE Long-run implementation of Obama Care is expected to result in the overall reduction in the insurance payments being made by the American people in the society. Estimations suggested that approximately 30 million out of 44 million people in the US to be covered under the insurance benefits offered through Obama Care. The policy measure is also projected to benefit the middle-income group, as the insurance premiums are designed in a way that would be affordable for more than 23 million US citizens in the current scenario (ObamaCare Facts, “ObamaCare: Pros and Cons of ObamaCare”). Likewise, it has also been projected that more than 47 million women would be able to avail the benefits of wellness services under Obama Care. In relation to the low-income group of people, it has been revealed that through Medicaid expansion, more than 15 million people would be covered under the insurance benefits of Obama Care. In addition, Obama Care has also helped in alleviating the services availed by senior citizens through various reformation strategies in the Medicare regime, due to which, there has been an expansion in the range of benefits and options of insurance coverage for the senior group of people. It would be worth mentioning that millions of senior citizens have already saved huge amount of money due to the supportive policies introduced by Obama Care. Furthermore, through new reforms, Obama Care has been successful in providing a range of healthcare benefits to millions of people in the US. This is because people have gained access to quality healthcare services through “no out of pocket costs”, facilitating families to save thousands of dollars that was previously incurred by them as cost for availing healthcare services (ObamaCare Facts, “ObamaCare: Pros and Cons of ObamaCare”). Obama Care has resulted in expanding Medicaid facilities making healthcare services feasible for the low-income group of people and encouraging them to afford insurance policies. Correspondingly, to maintain transparency in its governance structure, Obama Care has formed 159 new boards and several programs to identify whether it has been functioning as expected. This in turn has helped in ensuring that the service provided meets the required standards and the expectations of Americans in relation to the healthcare services. Obama Care has also extended its insurance coverage for the young adults within the age of 26 years wherein these adults are covered under the insurance policies taken up by their parents. Furthermore, through Obama Care, families are supposed to be able to save around 60% of their insurance cost by making insurance payments through government subsidies for health insurance and other tax credits, further facilitating indirect money supply within the economy. These benefits can be availed by small businesses as well, wherein the total number of employees is less than 25 (ObamaCare Facts, “ObamaCare: Pros and Cons of ObamaCare”). Additionally, Obama Care is also focused towards ensuring consumer protection wherein an obligation has been established for the providers of healthcare in which they will have to spend almost 80% of the revenue on expenses related to health and advertising. On the further note, it could be revealed that various measures have been introduced for restaurants due to which, it is mandatory for the restaurants to display the content of calories on the food products (ObamaCare Facts, “ObamaCare: Pros and Cons of ObamaCare”). CONS OF OBAMA CARE Irrespective of the above-mentioned advantages of Obama Care policy, many experts perceive that the measure will be a failure causing various disadvantages and challenges for the economy. Among these disadvantages, opposers of Obama Care has delivered considerable emphasis on the fact that most of the Americans get employed in large companies, which might raise challenges for the employers, further making them reluctant to bear the increased cost to provide insurance benefits to the employees. Subsequently, due to the initiation of Obama Care it is believed that insurance benefits provided by the employers to the employees will decrease, as most of the employers will intend to avoid the taxes related to high quality plans for healthcare insurance. Thus, it is considered that almost 1% of the business would get affected, as companies will have to reduce the number of working hours for employees in order to avoid paying them insurance benefits at a maximised cost as per the policy measure of Obama Care (ObamaCare Facts, “ObamaCare: Pros and Cons of ObamaCare”). Obama Care also provides funds for female groups related to healthcare services such as contraception. However, it is considered that these services must be removed from the Obama Care as it might encourage teenage pregnancy and diminish the overall societal heal in the country. This particular aspect has also been one of the most controversial issues in the new healthcare regime presented through Obama Care (ObamaCare Facts, “ObamaCare: Pros and Cons of ObamaCare”). Additionally, Medicare reforms under this policy measure is also supposed to have a huge influence on the senior citizens and the healthcare professionals in the US with a reduction in the number of advantages in Medicare and other healthcare related payments. Small businesses are also expected to suffer substantially from this policy measure, as the employers in this industry will have to either provide insurance benefits to the workers to avoid governmental fines, further discouraging the rise of entrepreneurs in the nation. Therefore, these businesses might cut the working hours of employees or not recruit new employees to avoid the cost incurred for providing insurance benefits to workers. Moreover, Obama Care is also criticised on the grounds that it will increase the amount of tax levied on small businesses, which in turn would pass additional cost to its customers. On one hand, the premium rates for healthcare insurance has been continuously increasing at an alarming rate while on the other hand, Obama Care does not provide any protection to the consumers regarding the rising premium rates of healthcare insurance. Obama Care has also resulted in imposing huge taxes to big businesses due to which, the cost of healthcare for the customers has also increased rather than decreasing as was expected by its supporters (ObamaCare Facts, “ObamaCare: Pros and Cons of ObamaCare”). CONCLUSION Based on the above arguments, it can be evidently identified that due to the policies introduced by Obama Care, huge changes are to be observed in the healthcare system of the country, influencing the social as well as the economic structure. Imposition of this policy measure, in the long run, will not only cause fluctuations in the employment scenario of the nation, but is also supposed to lead to fluctuation in national income sources and fund allocation requirements, resulting in overall economic instability. However, on the positive note, it can be asserted that Obama Care has helped in providing quality healthcare service to a larger proportion of Americans leading to the overall reduction in the healthcare expenses, helping low and middle-income groups to meet their basic requirement. Nevertheless, it is evident that the policy measure possesses some disadvantages and loopholes, which should be effectively managed in order to make the entire regime fruitful as expected. Works Cited “ObamaCare: Pros and Cons of ObamaCare.” ObamaCare Facts. n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. “ObamaCare Facts: Facts on the Affordable Care Act.” ObamaCare Facts. n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. Read More