Medicare is the largest health insurance program in the United States. It is a government-funded insurance program that covers people who cannot work due to age or illness. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law in 2010 and on January 1, 2014.
The law aims to expand healthcare coverage for millions of Americans. However, it is not without its controversies and difficulties: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) aims to improve the healthcare system in the United States by providing health insurance to millions of Americans who do not have it.
The plan is called “Obamacare” because it resulted from legislation passed by Congress under the “ObamaCare” brand name. The law directly deals with healthcare costs and regulates the healthcare industry by setting standards for healthcare providers and services and new requirements for insurance companies.
In May 2010, Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The bill gives the president broad power to make major changes in healthcare legislation, including cost-sharing subsidies to help lower-income consumers pay their health care costs.
However, the Obama administration subsequently determined that the subsidies were unconstitutional, as they violated the separation of powers between Congress and the federal government.
Components of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act consists of four major components to be fully effective:
1)-Benefit coverage is available to any American adult who meets the income and age requirements.
2)- The Act requires insurance carriers to provide minimum benefits comparable to those offered by traditional medical plans.
3)- The individual mandate was an essential component of the Act. It required most US citizens to purchase health insurance or pay a fine with a penalty of $695 per adult.
4)- The Act successfully established the essential health benefits as a requirement for all insurance plans. These benefits were defined to contain: medical care, hospitalization, dental care, prescription drugs, and vision care.
Disadvantages of Obamacare:
However, some of the most commonly feared harm that comes from Obamacare are:
1)-The individual mandate never went into effect. It was suspended indefinitely in 2011 after the Supreme Court ruled that Congress did not have the power to tax people.
2)-The insurance subsidies are based on income and not on age. If you’re 55 years old but have a family of four earning $50k a year, Obamacare offers you only one plan with an annual cost of $1300. (Those plans lack essential benefits such as hospitalization and prescription drugs.)
3)-If you get sick, the insurance companies will no longer be allowed to deny you medical care based on age, disability, or pre-existing conditions.
Cadillac Tax:
The individual mandate is an income tax. The so-called “Cadillac tax” is a $500 billion tax that goes into effect in 2019.
In 2016, an estimated 5.3 million people had to pay the Cadillac tax because they exceeded the amount of money that could be used for health care premiums. In 2013, Congress passed a bill that would repeal the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare), including its mandate penalty.
As a result, the law’s requirements to enroll in health insurance (and the corresponding tax penalties) were struck down on April 30, 2015. The law’s mandate and taxes are still in force, however. So what happened?
Conclusion:
Obamacare mandates that all employers provide “essential” health benefits such as medical insurance, hospitalization, and prescription drugs (also known as preventive care).
The employer mandate was introduced in 2010 to regulate the coverage of individuals employed by large firms. It was one of the most controversial social programs of that decade: Republican-controlled congresses voted against it; Democratic congresses voted for it.
The individual mandate was one of Obamacare’s first provisions, passed in 2010 and implemented in 2011. It aims to force employers to provide “essential” health benefits to their workers or pay a fee.
The employer mandate is not new, but requiring employers to provide these benefits was a surprise to many Americans. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation — a nonpartisan health care research organization — more than 60 percent of large firms offer coverage for their employees.
