Intro to Obamacare/ACA

Issue: How to Deliver Healthcare that is affordable and available to all? Government provided (i.e.; Medicaid, Medicare, etc.); Employer provided; Exchanges; and Other Exchanges provide subsidy to help meet expenses. Without some such system, up to 30 million could lose access to healthcare

Issue: How to Deliver Healthcare that is affordable and available to all? Key provisions: Guaranteed Issue: Minimum Standards Individual Mandate Health Insurance Exchanges Low Income Subsidies Medicaid Expansion

Other Provisions COVERAGE FOR YOUNG ADULTS KEY PROVISION: Young adults can now remain insured through their parents' health insurance plan until the age of 26. PREVENTIVE CARE SERVICES KEY PROVISION: Insurers must cover preventative care for children--well-child visits, vision and hearing tests, development screenings--without requiring co-payments, deductibles or co-insurance.

SPENDING LIMITS KEY PROVISION: Insurance companies cannot limit their expenditures for a child on their health plan over a lifetime. Annual limits will no longer be allowed after the year 2014 MENU LABELING REQUIREMENT IN RESTAURANTS/FAST FOOD KEY PROVISION: Chain restaurants, including fast-food chains and vending machines, will be required to post calorie counts of their menu items directly on the menu.

PREVENTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH FUND KEY PROVISION: The Public Health Services Act will be funded to invest in prevention and public health programs. COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION GRANTS (CTG) KEY PROVISION: Local communities will address health disparities and reduce chronic disease by promoting healthy living and addressing the root causes of poor health.

I think it’s reasonable to talk about what would have happen if Congress repeals the Affordable Care Act without replacing it because there is no assurance that anything will replace it. The Republicans can try to reassure people that all these horrible things won’t happen, but there’s no reason to believe they’ll be able to make good on that promise. For one thing, the reason that horrible things will happen is because they want to get rid of most of the things that make the health care scheme work. In order to make it possible to be profitable while insuring people with pre-existing conditions, you need lots and lots of healthy people paying premiums who don’t actually use much health care. That’s why there is an individual mandate. The subsidies in the individual market and the Medicaid spending are what makes it affordable for millions of people to get coverage, so if you eliminate or drastically reduce those subsidies, tens of millions will lose their health care access. The Republicans’ plan is not fully developed, but we know that they things they don’t like are the things that keep the insurance pool of young and healthy enough that premiums can be kept at an affordable level.

What the GOP is going to attempt to do would be unpopular even if they had better intentions for many of the same reasons that Obamacare has struggled to maintain widespread support. People will be forced to change plans and doctors. Insurance companies will stop serving their market. They’ll get blamed for premium hikes even if, somehow, those hikes are lower than they have been in the past.