What Is Obamacare?

Question: What Is Obamacare?

Answer: Obamacare is a name used by critics of President Obama's efforts to reform health care. Those who oppose it are concerned that it gives the Federal government too much control over personal health care decisions and benefits, forcing a "complex one-size-fits-all health system" onto the states.

Obamacare 2008

The controversy started during the 2008 Presidential election campaign. One of Obama's campaign promises was to create a government program, similar to that used by Congress, that would extend health care insurance coverage to everyone. He also wanted a national electronic information exchange system to provide patient care records to any doctor who needed it. Critics called this socialism, since it involved the government in mandatory health care for everyone, similar to countries in Europe and Canada. It was ironic that these same legislators didn't have the same objection to their own government-sponsored health care.

Obamacare 2009

Obamacare critics furthered intensified their attacks when Obama submitted his first health care reform plan in 2009. In that proposal, Obama kept most of the elements of his campaign pledge. He modeled the government health care plan, known as "Universal Health Care Coverage," to be more like Medicare and Medicaid than the congressional health care plan.

Obamacare 2010

In 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law. It retained a mandate that nearly everyone in the U.S. must have some form of health care insurance by 2014, or be fined by the Federal government. This mandate is the main issue for most of those opposed to Obamacare. Soon after the act was signed into law, Attorneys General in 21 States filed suits to protect their citizens from being forced, in violation of the Constitution, to purchase government-approved health insurance.

Obamacare 2011

In 2011, the mandate that everyone must get health insurance was ruled unconstitutional by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal in Atlanta. It stated that this particular mandate falls outside of Congressional authority to regulate interstate commerce. In response, the Treasury Department has petitioned the Supreme Court to hear the case in 2012. This should be highly controversial, since it falls within the 2012 Presidential Campaign.

In fact, three of the Republican Presidential candidates in 2011 promised to repeal Obamacare.

• Mitt Romney was accused of being hypocritical, since he instituted a form of Obamacare when he was Governor of Massachusetts. Some critics called it Obamneycare.
• Rick Perry believed that employer-sponsored health care insurance was sufficient.
• Michele Bachmann filed a bill to repeal Obamacare.

Obamacare Pros

The term "Obamacare" is primarily used by those who are opposed to it. Therefore, the pros of Obamacare are the same as those for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Act was designed to reduce healthcare costs by making services available to the 32 million who currently can't get insurance. They are often forced to use a hospital emergency room as their primary care physician, which unnecessarily increases costs for everyone. Second, many unfair health insurance practices are no longer allowed. For example, insurance companies can no longer deny children coverage for pre-existing conditions (this benefit applies to adults in 2014). If a company denies someone coverage, that person can go to an external appeals process. Insurance companies can no longer drop anyone from coverage once they get sick. For more benefits, see the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Obamacare Cons

Conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, lists ten negative outcomes of Obamacare:

1. New taxes, penalties, and fees will discourage businesses from growing, lowering economic growth by $706 billion and costing 800,000 jobs.
2. The Federal government will force the 18 million of the uninsured to go under Medicaid, while others must accept another government program. Despite this, millions will still remain uninsured.
3. Each year, $125 million will go towards subsidizing school-based health centers and programs to reduce teen pregnancy, with no requirement to reduce abortions. Parents won't know what services their children will receive.
4. Half of those on Medicare Advantage will lose this coverage thank to rate increases.
5. Health care costs will rise thanks to $47 billion in new taxes on drug companies and medical device makers.
6. Nearly two-thirds of doctors are considering abandoning any kind of government-sponsored health care insurance, stating that regulations are too high and reimbursement too low.
7. By forcing States to accept federally-mandated health insurance, the Act violates States' rights.
8. Small businesses, the drivers of new job growth, will be especially penalized by $52 billion in new taxes and new IRS reporting requirements.
9. Despite $500 billion in new taxes, Obamacare will increase the deficit by $500 billion over the next 10 years.

(Source: Heritage Foundation, Impact of Obamacare)(Article updated January 15, 2012)