Obamacare: Healthcare Reform Act of 2010

What is Obama-care and what does it do? "Obama-care" is the name given by opponents (critics) of President Obama's health care reform bill. Obama-care is: "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010", which was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010. The purpose of the bill is to provide health insurance to all of the people, who are uninsured; those who can't afford health care insurance would now be able to afford health care insurance. The health care bill's purpose, also, is to reform the health care insurance industry and the health care industry, and to reduce growth in health care costs.

The health care bill-26 is quite extensive and contains over 1000 pages of reforms, and its unlikely that very few people have read the bill through its entirety.The bills purpose is to insure all Americans and to reform industries related to health care. Obama-care or "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010", affects all Americans, and is one of the main issues of the Obama Administration.

All Americans are mandated have some type of health-care insurance by the year 2014, or else there are penalties to pay. The insurance must be approved by the federal government. The penalty or fine would be $95 dollars or 1% of income, whichever is greater in 2014. The penalty increases in 2015 to $325 dollars or 2% of income, and to $695 dollars, or 2.5 % of income in 2016, To qualify for medicaid or subsidies, income must be below the federal poverty line of 133%. Fines would be imposed on those, who don't buy health insurance, or can't afford expensive health-care insurance, and who don't qualify for medicaid or subsidies. The penalties can be waived for religious reasons or hardships.

Some states (26) sued over the individual law with the argument that requires people to buy health care insurance or be fined as unconstitutional and against people's rights not to be forced into buying health insurance.The government countered that the law was only regulating a market that everyone was already into, also, saying that almost everyone in their lifetime will seek to buy health insurance at some point in their lives. Much of the law will go into effect in 2014. The penalties will be paid to the IRS. According to the Congressional Budget Office, it is estimated that 32 million Americans will gain health care insurance.

No republicans voted for the bill, 34 democrats voted against it. The penalties would put burdens on low-income people, and people who don't qualify for medicaid or subsidies. States are required to set up insurance exchanges to make it easier to shop for private health-care insurance coverage that is more affordable. Children up to the age of 26 can stay on their parents health-care insurance plan. Children can't be denied health insurance, because of a pre-existing condition, for example: like asthma or diabetes. In 2014, no one else can be denied for pre-existing conditions, either. Drug companies and the companies that make medical devices will have to pay higher taxes. The bill is a complex one-size-fits-all health-care system, which can be quite confusing to many and hard to understand. Some conservative justices believe that the act is entirely invalid.

House Republicans have vowed to repeal the health care act in its entirety, which would be unlikely and wouldn't be allowed in a Democratic controlled Senate. Out of the nine justices, seven had agreed the the expansion of Medicaid to 16 million low-income Americans by the year 2019, was unconstitutional as it was written. The court has decided that the federal government can't threaten to withdraw funds from Medicaid if states don't expand Medicaid. The federal government will only be able to withhold future funds.

There are many good web-sites about Obama-care and here are just a few: www.healthcare.gov, Kaiser Family Foundation, Enroll America, State Reform, and SAMHS A Health Insurance Enrollment Page. On the Kaiser Family Foundation web-site there is a short-animated movie that features the "You Toons" which explains the problems associated with the past health-care system, the current health-care system, and the future health-care reforms, and the big changes coming in 2014. The movie is called: "Hits Main Street." Cost is the biggest issue when it comes to health-care reform, and the penalties that people would have to pay if they don't get health insurance by 2014.