Obama Administration Position - Report Example

Obama Administration Position On 23 March the President of the United s, Barrack Obama, enacted the first major law since the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. This law has brought a major reform into the health care system of the United States of America. This law that is officially called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or PPACA is also informally called Obamacare and has been in the grip of controversy from the day the President signed it. The PPACA is an attempt to reduce the number of the American Citizens who are living without any cover of medical care or insurance and also to reduce the burden of the health care cost. The law helps to bring about a number of incentives for the American citizens that include subsidies, tax reliefs to the employers and to the people who are uninsured. It has also enforced the insurance companies to cover all the citizens who apply for insurance and offer quotes that are not biased or dependent on conditions and genders (“White House Washington”). There are many opponents of the act and it was the Republicans who termed the bill “Obamacare.” Despite of opposition to the act, there are many aspects of the act that make it worthwhile as it was a major step for the betterment of the healthcare system of the United States of America. Health care is an important issue and proper health care is imperative for every citizen; thus the PPACA needs to be assessed and evaluated so as to ascertain its functionality and use. Opponents of the law mostly include the Republicans and the Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney. They have staunchly been criticizing the law and have a number of objections to it. The foremost criticism that the law faces is that with the subsidies and the tax credits, there will be an increase in the Health premiums that the citizens will have to bear (Sheils et al 2177, 2178). This is a false notion as according to one estimate, this reform is expected to cut the deficit by approximately $210 billion within this decade whereas it is expected that it will reduce it further by 1 trillion dollars in the following decade. Another claim by the opponents is that this is in fact a government takeover of the health care system of the country. This is merely a myth as the act puts the citizens in charge of the act and not the government. It fosters a stronger employer health insurance while it also helps to protect the consumers by granting them with many protections. Families and individuals who were not able to get better insurance deals due to financial burdens will be given tax credit. All this makes the act rather nongovernmental and without any one entity in power. Another criticism of the act is that it will affect the business in a negative manner. This is again a myth as it will help the smaller businesses that cannot afford to give their employee benefits. On the other hand it is expected that it will reduce the premiums on the insurances for small business by 4 percent whereas larger businesses will be eligible for a 3 percent reduction in their premiums ("White House Washington"). The most important reason for the act to be implemented is that the insurance companies will no longer be able to use the “pre existing conditions” as a basis to deny insurance coverage. This will be a huge win for women who for long have been denied insurance coverage on the basis of preconditions and make up a large portion of the Americans who go uninsured. For that reason it can be safely said that women now will be able to get insurance under the individual mandate feature of the bill. With the individual mandate those people who did not have insurance and could not actually afford it would now be getting it. This will reduce the burden of the free riders and help in reducing the deficit (Covert). One of the strongest features of the act is the individual mandate that before the Supreme Court ruling did not have a solid chance of being in the act. But even without the clause of individual mandate, this act would have been paramount in stopping the premium to rise as due to the subsidies and the tax credit more people would be encouraged to get insurances. And even if healthy people would have started to leave their insurances in case the individual mandate had been repealed, there would not have been any rise in the premium (Sheils et al 2177, 2178). Another important factor must be kept in mind when the subject of the viability of the act is in question. This is a fact that now insurance companies would not be able to use the premium that is paid to them for advertising and paying the salaries to their executives. They would now be in fact using this money on the medical expenses of the individuals and for the first time on giving the customers rebates which would start by the summer this year. Medicare has long been used by the American Citizens that include the aged and the disabled for their medical expenses. Now with this new law it will be further strengthened and made more streamlined. The fraudulent practices will be checked, new benefits will be added and costs will be cut ("White House Washington"). By the arguments of the opponents of the act it is clear that they are more politically motivated than they are motivated for the general well being of the masses. The benefits of the law called Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act cannot be denied and this law will provide for the betterment of the healthcare system in the country. It will assist in making health insurance accessible to a larger number of people and hence improve the health status of the citizens of the country. Tax reductions accompanied with benefits for the employers are other added benefits of this law. Work Cited Covert, Bryce. "Why The Obamacare Decision Is Very Good News For Women." Forbes. 28 June 2012. Web. 28 Jul. 2012. "Health Reform ." The White House Washington. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jul 2012. . Sheils, John F., and Randall Haught. "Without the Individual Mandate, the Affordable Care Act would Still Cover 23 Million; Premiums would Rise Less than Predicted." Health affairs 30.11 (2011): 2177-85. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 29 July 2012. Read More