Powerpoint

POLS210: American Government I

Instructor: Professor K. Cheiken

October 16, 2016

“Healthcare in America”

There are issues within healthcare in America that have been concerning citizens for many years. For starters back in 2010 the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, was passed into law and caused an uproar with courts, Congress, the media and the people even still till this day (Gass, A1). There are many supporters, many others want to make a few changes, as well as those who repeal the law and want it gone for good. Even though the growth of Americans covered by the Affordable Care Act has grown to over 25 million, there are some still not understanding its concept (Gass, A1). The intentions of Obamacare are to: increase health insurances quality; affordability; lower uninsured rates; and reducing the cost of health insurance. Even though the intentions are grand there have been faults along the way that have been mutating the Affordable Care Act in a negative manner.

The cost of health care is one of the major concerns of citizens. It is becoming more expensive, and further increases are only seen for the near future (ProCon, A1). This is not the only con that is affecting Americans, there are others such as: its budget impact on federal deficits; the spending cuts for Medicare; the effects of primary care physician shortages; contradictions which results in high costs; high volumes of patients needing medical attention within emergency rooms; and many others (ProCon, A1). These faults within Obamacare all have solutions that will take time to implement. Majority of Americans support or want to make only minor changes to reform the Affordable Care Act.

One solution would be to propose the Free Choice Voucher system, thought of by Sen. Ron Wyden. This system was put into play to defuse the “family glitch” within the Affordable Care Act (Ehley, A1). Employees were allowed to receive contributions from the employer if they could not afford average employer based coverage (Ehley, A1). Another solution would be to make changes to the way individuals are qualifying for their coverage plan and to make the subsidy based off of the person’s annual income from previous years (Ehley, A1).

The most favorable solution for Obamacare would be to make changes and to make decisions based off of previous income. This will allow proof of income, and also allow the individual to still be able to afford everyday necessities. Another positive outcome will be that those will not be put into debt, but given health care they can afford and have refundable tax credits (Ehley, A1). Health care in America will have its flaws for decades to come, but the most important thing to remember is to focus on positive changes. Reform is always scary, but also may be needed in order to best fit American citizens as a whole and not majority.

Work Cited:

Ehley, Brianna. “Four Ways to Help Fix Obamacare”. Fiscal Times. (2014).

Gass, Erin & Sorian, Richard. “The Five Healthcare Issues That Will Dominate the 2016

Election”. FleishmanHillard. (2015).

ProCon. “Top 10 Pros & Cons: Is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)

Good for America?”. ProCon.org. (2015).