How Obamacare Relates to the Practice of Nursing and Healthcare - Essay Example

? Obama Care [Pick the During the presidential campaign, one of the four main priorities mentioned by Obama was universal healthcare. Although following the zeitgeist of the election campaigns, many others like Hilary Clinton and mitt Romney also talked a lot about improving healthcare but Obama was the most vocal candidate in this respect. So when Obama finally succeeded and held his office, he fulfilled his promise in the form of Obamacare. Obamacare is actually the given name of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) or more commonly known as Affordable Care Act or ACA (Amadeo, 2010). The name Obamacare was ironically given to it by Mitt Romney in 2007 as a pejorative term and was readily picked by media and then by Obama and other democrats. When Obama was talking about healthcare reforms, Romney took it as a threat and warned his supporters and Republicans in an address that Obama was just doing it to earn fame and to brag about it later. Romney mockingly said that if Democrats win and implement their healthcare policies, they are going to be more about their fame and less about the public welfare and the Democrats would probably name their policies according to their own names like Obamacare and Hillarycare etc. Romney also called it “socialized medicine” (Pham, 2013). When Obama was asked about it later, he very proudly said that “Yes, Obama cares”. This reform underwent a lot of ups and downs before getting signed. A very lengthy debate was held on this topic in the Senate and the House of Representatives and a lot of media hype was given to the issue. Due to all this highlighting, it became one of the popular topic of debates and discussions among all and sundry and at the same time it gave rise to bravura of confusions and myths. It became one of the most debated topics in USA and ironically, most of the people didn’t even know actually about its exact implications (Wallace, 2012). The American citizens were already having healthcare facilities and insurance under the Medicaid laws that were being practiced. Being used to the existing healthcare and insurance policies, Obamacare became a hard pill to swallow for the American citizens and especially for the elderly people. With lack of awareness and confusing debates on media no one in America exactly knows whether Obamacare is actually going to help or to add more to their sufferings. Actually Obamacare is the overhauling of the already existing policies of healthcare and insurance. It adds more to the healthcare system of the country by increasing quality and affordability of health insurance. This affordability and quality is aimed to be achieved by lowering the insurance rates and increasing public and private insurance. There are many provisions that are going to be practiced under the banner of Obamacare. These are specifically designed to get more and more public attracted towards the new policy and by making the conditions easier or at least apparently easier for the public. This policy ensures same premium price for everyone, despite of their existing conditions. So this is going to be affordable and available for all without any discrimination. It also prohibits denial due to pre existing conditions. This policy is going to help people with low incomes. It is going to give them equal health benefits and thus going to be very useful. It is also going to provide subsidies for low income individuals and families. These subsidies are going to be provided to people who are earning between 100% and 400% of Federal poverty level. This is a very practically helpful step for people with low incomes and thus they can have good and affordable healthcare with provision of this subsidy that covers a lot of people with low incomes. This subsidy will also encourage people to get insured because of its affordability and thus it will practically help in getting nearer to the notion of universal healthcare. There are also going to be many reforms in the Medicaid payment systems and with these reforms Obamacare will help people to get insured and will eventually help to fulfill the infamous Medicare Part D coverage gap or more commonly known as ‘Donut Hole’ by 2020. Thus it is going to be a very reformatory step in healthcare and nursing. Obamacare will also help a lot in improving the financial problems attached with healthcare. Medical bankruptcy is the most prevalent form of bankruptcy in America and Obamacare is going to decrease the medical bankruptcies with its easy policies. It is also going to decrease job lock situations where employees are obliged to work because in case of leaving the job they would lose their healthcare benefits. As Obamacare is going to help more people to get easy access to healthcare so they would not be forced to work in job lock circumstances. One of the reasons for Obamacare’s popularity is its being accessible for all. No one is going to be left but a very few exceptions are still going to be there. Illegal immigrants are not going to be allowed to avail this policy. They are just allowed to use emergency healthcare. The people who are not enrolled in Medicaid are also not going to be eligible for Obamacare. Those who are opting to pay annual penalty are also exempted from Obamacare. And finally the people living in the states that opted out of the Obamacare can also stay uninsured. Despite its entire apparently revolutionary and reformatory outlook, Obamacare is also widely criticized because of the many drawbacks it poses for the people who want to get insured. The most widely accepted reason for this is the myth of creating ‘death panels’. According to this myth, Obamacare would create death panels for the elderly citizens. Many Americans believed in the hoax that Obamacare is going to deny health benefits to old citizens because they are going to “waste” the amount invested on them or they are ultimately going to be told to die. Death panels were a myth but there are actually some serious disadvantages of Obamacare to healthcare and nursing. It is going to add 19 more taxes in general for healthcare and thus draped in the very conspicuous shawl of care is the witch of extra taxes that is going to cast another spell of taxes on already suffering people. Obamacare is also going to shift many workers to part time status instead of their full time jobs. As the reforms do not apply on part time workers so many employers are going to shift their workers to part time status to avoid their insurance. This is going to drag the middle class citizens to an even lower level of living and earning. According to the report of Association of American Medical colleges, Obamacare is not very positively taken by the workers related to the profession of medicine. According to this report they fear of having more work and less financial benefits by increasing quality and quantity of healthcare and nursing facilities. This report states that by 2020 there is going to be a shortage of 91,500 doctors in USA because the doctors are already thinking on alternate lines and of early retirements. Thus Obamacare did not prove itself worth it among the people related to the medical profession. According to a CNN poll, 62% of the people believe that Obamacare is going to increase the amount of money spent on healthcare. The poll also shows that 56% people in America think that Obamacare gives government too much involvement in healthcare. Generally 44% people support Obamacare, the majority ofcourse being that of Democrats and 56% are against Obamacare. There is another very interesting fact related to public opinion and it is that most of the senior citizens have opposed the reform while mostly the people below the age of 40 supported it. Whatever are the effects and aftermath of Obamacare, they are going to be very decisive for the future of America’s healthcare and nursing facilities. They are directly going to effect, not only the people who get facilitated by the healthcare but also those who facilitate them. It is being said that Obamacare is going to benefit the medicine giants like Merck etc and insurance companies. It is also being hoped that just like president Obama promised, they are going to help the people in general to but it is yet to be seen in the aftermath. The position which I think is best for the issue is that it is going to benefit old and young and rich and poor at the same level. So a person who does not earn a lot of money and his income is between 100% and 400% of federal poverty level is also going to benefit just like rich people because of the subsidy provided by Obamacare. So the main reason of its being useful is that it is going to provide healthcare to all and sundry on equal basis. Whatever the practical results come out to be in the future years after the proper implementation of this law, it is at least an effort to provide a better life to Americans. Medicaid was also widely criticized when it was first presented. But later, people realized its benefits. Likewise whatever Obamacare is going to be we can at least hope that it is for good and to keep our fingers crossed. As the late senator Ted Kennedy also said about it “What we face is above all a moral issue, that at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and character of our country” (Batley, 2013) References Amadeo, K. (2010). What Is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010? Retrieved from http://useconomy.about.com/od/healthcarereform/f/Patient-Affordable-Care-Act.htm Wallace, G. (2012, June 25). 'Obamacare': The word that defined the health care debate - CNN.com. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/25/politics/obamacare-word-debate/index.html Batley, M. (2013, September 23). Obamacare Born Out of Need to Say Something. Retrieved from http://www.newsmax.com/US/obamacare-born-say-something/2013/09/23/id/527193 Pham, S. (2013, September 27). Exclusive: Romney disagrees with GOP 'tactics' on Obamacare - CNN.com. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/27/politics/romney-shutdown/index.html Read More