Obamacare: The Impact on American Citizens - Speech or Presentation Example

Obamacare: The Impact on American Citizens and Healthcare On March 23, President Barack Obama enacted into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPCA), also known as Obamacare, to gradually take effect starting its launch which intends to overhaul the longstanding healthcare system in the United States. The primary goal of Obamacare is to escalate the number of Americans enjoying healthcare insurance by making it affordable and accessible to the common masses. With this, various reforms on existing policies regarding insurance provisions are drafted and employers are encouraged to provide insurance packages to their workers, or increase the coverage if there are any, by proposing incentives (Pear).

Although the motivation of the new law is for the benefit of the average Americans comprising low income households, majority of the people are against it, with eight percent claiming that they are satisfied with the quality of their present healthcare (Atlas). Several opinions are also being raised regarding Obamacare’s impact to the people and to the healthcare industry in general, whether it is indeed advantageous or will only bring a terrible outcome. Under the PPACA, several provisions are structured to modify the previous system in healthcare which consists of the following: a call for individual mandate or necessitating uninsured parties to secure a private insurance policy to avoid penalties; a uniform insurance premium for applicants of same age and location regardless of gender and pre-existing conditions; expansion of Medicaid eligibility; changing the reimbursement process of Medicare; the creation of health insurance exchanges; abolition of minimum standards for health insurance policies; federal subsidies on families at federal poverty level; subsidies for small business upon providing health insurance to employees; and the conception of minimum criteria for health insurance plans.

Generally, it offers attractive incentive packages for individuals and employers to acquire healthcare insurance coverage in the form of subsidies, exchanges, tax credits and fees. (“Understanding Health Reform’s Essential Benefits”). However, Obamacare received strong oppositions, arguing its impending effect to the people’s spending habits and quality of healthcare, and its impact on state government budgets. Based on a poll spearheaded by Rasmussen and Schoen of The Wall Street Journal, majority of the voters believe that the newly mandated law will only increase their healthcare expenditure and the projected cost of the program is more likely to exceed in reality.

Essentially, the participants are calling for a more efficient modification system that will definitely reduce the cost of healthcare. In addition, Scott Atlas expounded that the greatest consequence of PPACA is the rationed or restricted access to doctors, therapies and care, as observed in Canada and United Kingdom where health systems are government-centralized. He maintained that the new law will decrease the people’s access to timely healthcare particularly by trained specialists; lesser amounts of new drugs to cure serious diseases like cancer will be available in the future brought by government price controls; access to modern medical technologies that helps to diagnose diseases at an early stage, safer treatments and better outcomes will be reduced; limited choices of doctors and treatments since medical services tend to shrink when government dictates on its prices and physicians are likely to find a more competent environment somewhere else; limited choices on health insurance coverage; and reduced access to prominent innovators and innovations in health care because the intervention of the government will narrow the options on fresh diagnostic methods and newly developed treatments.

As perceived on other countries that impose government-centralized health systems, the quality of healthcare is inclined to suffer due to budget restraints, health practitioners and pharmaceutical and medical technology companies are expected to lose interest brought by government price controls, and the increasing trend of insurance costs will burden the government. Furthermore, Obamacare is assumed to have a great impact on states for “it will impose significant new costs on state government budgets… It will also constitute a significant usurpation by the federal government or long-standing state authority over health insurance regulation.

” (Haismer and Blase 1). As a result, healthcare will be expensive thus will adversely affect ordinary citizens who depend on individual or employee-based health insurance. Nevertheless, the radical overhaul of the healthcare system through the creation of Obamacare has a noble idea of providing an equal opportunity of medical treatment and assistance for low income American families. Yet the looming adverse effect of the new provisions of the law to the people and healthcare in general must be fully reviewed to properly address the necessary adjustments which will help prove its benefits to the ordinary citizens.

Situations from countries adopting the same government-run healthcare scheme must be also considered since it might offer a rich source of inspiration and lessons learned. Works Cited Atlas, Scott. Obamacare: Kiss Your Access Goodbye. 7 Jul. 2012. Web. 13 Aug. 2012. Haismaier, Edmund F. and Blase, Brian C. “Obamacare: Impact on States”. Backgrounder. 2433 (2010): 1-19. Print. Pear, Robert. "Health Law Critics Prepare to Battle Over Insurance Exchange Subsidies". New York Times. 7 Jul. 2012. Web. 13 Aug. 2012. Rasmussen, Scott and Schoen, Doug.

“Why Obama Can’t Move the Health-Care Numbers”. The Wall Street Journal. 9 Mar. 2010. Web. 12 Aug. 2012. "Understanding Health Reform's Essential Benefits". HealthInsurance.Org. 4 Apr. 2012. Web. 13 Aug., 2012.