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Obamacare?
If we want to be realistic about health care reform, we have to acknowledge that everything comes with a tradeoff. One of the more important conservative beliefs about ObamaCare, running right alongside the certainty that the law is a disaster that will fail in every respect, is the belief that Americans share their hostility to the law. It certainly is true that the Affordable Care Act has a bad reputation. But looking even an inch beneath the surface reveals a public more frustrated and confused by ObamaCare than opposed. I feel that ObamaCare will be good for our country, however many people feel differently. Whether they don’t understand the details behind the law or they don’t agree with its scruples of the 2000 page bill.
One of the huge positives for ObamaCare is the massive amount of jobs it will produce. Yep, jobs, up to 4 million of them over the coming ten years, according to a 2010 Center for American Progress report. How? ObamaCare reduces the cost of health care, making it cheaper for businesses to hire. The law is expected to create between 250,000 and 400,000 jobs a year and likely will help create more than 200,000 manufacturing and 900,000 in the service division by 2016.
Many will argue that ObamaCare forces companies to cut worker hours so that the business will not have to pay their health care. However only .2% of firms with over 50 employees don’t already provide insurance to their full-time employees. A big pro of ObamaCare is that it provides millions in tax credits to small businesses with fewer than 25 employees to help offset the cost of buying health insurance. Small businesses have historically struggled to provide benefits to workers.
ObamaCare also eliminates pre-existing conditions starting 2014. Elimination of pre-existing conditions means you can’t be denied coverage based on health status. Considering 1 in 2 Americans have a health problem that qualifies as a pre-existing condition, ObamaCare doing away with will help a lot of people to say the least. The reason people were denied coverage and treatments or charged more in the past was very simple; treating sick people is expensive. The higher the risk a customer is, the worse deal it is for the insurance company to cover them. Taking this into account, insurance companies and legislators made a deal. Health insurance companies would agree to cover everyone and give them all the same essential health benefits, but in return, everyone who was able to afford insurance would have to buy insurance.
The ObamaCare pros and cons list can go on and on forever. Everywhere you look there is argument over ObamaCare. However, many online as well as written sources will only give you one side of the story. With so many aspects of the law yet to materialize, we won’t be able to do much beyond speculate until around 2014 when the exchanges open and many of ObamaCare’s most important provisions go into effect. As the pros and cons of ObamaCare become clear, the bill will be amended and updated in a continued effort to reform health care in the United States.