About Obamacare

ObamaCare may not be the best or perfect but it is a good start

ObamaCare, officially known as The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (TPPACA) was signed into law on March 23, 2010. ObamaCare is easier to say than the acronym TPPACA. Yes it was signed into law while Mr. Obama was the president. Reforming healthcare, making it more affordable, making it available to everyone, and containing ever increasing total health care cost is not an easy task. Though the credit is given to the President we must remember it could not have been a one man job. The issues ObamaCare attempts to address are so complex that it must have been put together by a team of extremely talented and knowledgeable individuals. Reform of the health care had been attempted by several governors and Presidents of both the parties. We may not like the President, the Democratic Party and several provisions of ObamaCare, but it is a good start and we should not attempt to destroy it by attempting to defund it. Yes we should definitely try to make it better with the help of experts selected by both the parties. The issues involved are so complex and they can’t be solved simply by voting yes or no or by creating interesting sound bites.

There are several Websites that attempt to explain ObamaCare. However, they all require that you stay focused and read many pages of material to understand it. Why the Websites find it hard to summarize the essence of ObamaCare in a few pages? Because the issues are so complex to explain and the provisions of the law come into force over a period of 10 years. It is human nature to feel comfortable with status quo. We have been comfortable with the employer paid healthcare benefits. Most of us find it hard to read so much to understand ObamaCare. So we are afraid that this law will upset our status quo. In reality, status quo has been changing over the last few years and is going to be totally different in a few years. We will realize it in November of this year when we have to fill out the papers for next year’s health care coverage. We may think by doing away with ObamaCare we could go back to the good old days of health care coverage. No it is not going to happen.

How has the status quo been changing over a period of time?  Fewer companies are now offering paid health care as a benefit. The employers are asking the employees to contribute more and more to the premium they have to pay the insurer. They are asking you to take a larger deductible and offer limited choice of doctors you can see and hospitals you could go to. Now some of the employers say that they will insure only the employees and not their families. If you have to buy insurance for your family it will cost you close to $10,000/year.Very soon they will offer you fixed amount of money and let you buy the healthcare you want from various exchanges. That way the employers will know ahead of time how much they have to spend for the health care coverage of their employees. You, as an employee will have to investigate various companies that offer health coverage and find out which one will suit your needs.

If we don’t have adequate health care coverage or become self-paying patients then we may have to pay the full undiscounted charges of the hospitals and health care providers. Likewise we may have to pay undiscounted prices for the medications. Failure to pay will result in creditors coming after your financial assets.

As a nation through Medicare, Medicaid, private medical insurances, and by supporting safety net hospitals in our communities we are paying a lot more than people of various developed countries. It is unsustainable. And our over all health is no better than that exists in many countries. Yes, our lifestyle may have a lot to do with us not having as good a health as many developed countries. ObamaCare attempts to address many areas of deficiencies in the health care system without adding too much to the deficit. It attempts to minimize the cost by requiring individual mandate, taxing the insurance companies, medical device makers, pharmaceutical companies, cutting reimbursement to health care providers and by other ways. Only passage of time will tell whether it will solve all the problems. But it is an attempt to accomplish it. Sure we can improve on it. We could even amend it to remove certain provisions of it taking into considerations the financial implications. It is harder to create something or improve on it than to destroy it.

It has taken us so long and so much political will to try and create the Affordable Care Act. Let us preserve it and test it out.