Obamacare

What is Obamacare?  Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), or Affordable Care Act (ACA) for short.  The goal is to provide health care to everyone!

 The Affordable Care Act expands the affordability, quality, and availability of private and public health insurance through consumer protections, regulations, subsidies, taxes, insurance exchanges, and other reforms.consumer protections regulationssubsidiestaxesinsurance exchanges

When did it go into effect?  The ACA was signed into law to reform the health care industry by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010 and upheld by the Supreme Court on June 28, 2012.upheld by the Supreme Court

How affordable is it?  In 2015: 1 in 6 Americans got a Health Insurance Marketplace plan for $100 or less (a month), and 87% of people who selected a marketplace plan got financial assistance.Health Insurance Marketplace plan $100 or less87%  For 2016: 7 out of 10 returning Marketplace customers can get a plan for less than $75 a month, and 8 in 10 can get one for $100 or less.less than $75$100 or less

What’s a Health Insurance Marketplace Plan?  A resource where individuals, families, and small businesses can: learn about their health coverage options; compare health insurance plans based on costs, benefits, and other important features; choose a plan; and enroll in coverage

What are its benefits?  Letting young adults stay on their parents’ plan until 26young adults  Stopping insurance companies from denying you coverage or charging you more based on health statusdenying you coverage or charging you more based on health status  Stopping insurance companies from dropping you when you are sick or if you make an honest mistake on your applicationdropping you  Preventing gender discriminationgender discrimination

Benefits continued…  Stopping insurance companies from imposing unjustified rate hikesunjustified rate hikes  Doing away with life-time and annual dollar limitslife-time and annual dollar limits  Giving you the right to a rapid appeal of insurance company decisionsrapid appeal of insurance company decisions  Expanding coverage to tens of millions by subsidizing health insurance costs through the Health Insurance Marketplaces (HealthCare.Gov and the state-run Marketplaces)subsidizing health insurance costs Health Insurance MarketplacesHealthCare.Govstate-run Marketplaces

More benefits…  Expanding Medicaid to millions in states that chose to expand the program Expanding Medicaid  Providing tax breaks to small businesses for offering health insurance to their employeestax breaks to small businesses  Requiring large businesses to insure employeeslarge businesses to insure employees  Requiring all insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditionspre-existing conditions

Even more benefits!  Making CHIP easier for kids to getCHIP  Improving Medicare for seniors Improving Medicare for seniors  Ensuring all plans cover minimum benefits like limits on cost sharing and ten essential benefits including free preventive care, OB-GYN services with no referrals, free birth control, and coverage for emergency room visits out-of-networkcover minimum benefitslimits on cost sharingten essential benefitsfree preventive carefree birth controlout-of-network

It all seems good so far. What’s the outcry over it? The Individual Mandate

What if I don’t purchase health insurance?  The per-person charge (i.e. fine) in 2016 jumps to $695 per adult and $ per child, topping out at a whopping $2,085 per family. The income-based penalty rises to 2.5% in June of 2015.

Timeline of important dates associated with Obamacare:  Feb Obama says in a joint session to Congress, “So let there be no doubt: Health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.”  July 2009-The Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee passes The Affordable Health Choice Act. The bipartisan bill included more than 160 Republican amendments accepted during the month-long mark up, one of the longest in history.  August Obama travels to promote and gain support for the bill

 November The House of Representatives passes a version of the bill by a vote of  March The Senate passes its version of the bill sending it’s legislation to Obama…it is signed into law on March 23, 2010  January 2011-The House voted to repeal the law. That was largely symbolic since the Senate rejected the repeal. However, 22% of Americans thought the act had already been repealed  August The 11 th Circuit Court of Appeals rules that parts of the law are unconstitutional Timeline of important dates associated with Obamacare:

 November 2011-The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington rules that it IS constitutional  November The Supreme Court agrees to hear a legal challenge to the law after 27 states, led by Florida, petitioned the high court  March Three days of oral arguments begin at The Supreme Court over the constitutionality of the law  June 28, The Supreme Court rules that the individual mandate of the health care law may be upheld within Congress’ power under the taxing clause Timeline of important dates associated with Obamacare:

Obamacare Explained:  -Explained.htm -Explained.htm 

Discussion questions: (To be collected!)  What countries provide some form of free, universal health care for their citizens?  When did Obamacare get signed into law? When did it go into effect for citizens?  Republicans’ objections to the Affordable Care Act include beliefs that the law will result in increased health care costs and lower-quality care. What is your take on these objections?  Why are some everyday citizens opposed to the Affordable Care Act?  What happens if you do not purchase health insurance?

 What is the point of the article?  What is a counter-argument that you can make for it?  Is it biased or not? And why?