Obamacare

ObamaCare

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Introduction

On 23rd March 2010, President Barrack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), into law. Also referred to as ObamaCare, the controversial Act is deemed to be the most significant reform strategy of the American healthcare system since the inception of Medicaid and Medicare about four decades ago. The Affordable Care Act seeks to affirm the fundamental principle that, everyone irrespective of social or economic status should have access to basic health care services. ObamaCare particularly focuses on helping America’s ‘working poor’ to obtain medical insurance cover. The ACA also seeks to transform America’s non-group insurance sector, which covers individuals that are not in formal employment. Further, the Act makes it compulsory for most American residents to have medical insurance thus expanding public insurance significantly. Additionally ObamaCare aims at subsidizing private health insurance coverage, raising revenues from a wide array of new taxes, and reorganizing spending in the health sector under Medicare, which is the country’s principal health insurance framework. If the ACA is fully implemented in the long run, it is projected to bring about dramatic changes in the healthcare landscape. However, ObamaCare is laden with controversies about its financial feasibility, integral disadvantages and adherence to federal policy.

U.S. Health Care Background

America uses approximately 17 percent of its annual gross domestic product (GDP) to support health care. This is a significant proportion and is considered the highest around the world. Further, the nation’s healthcare spending is increasingly surpassing the rate of economic growth and experts estimate that, by the year 2080, healthcare will take up 40 percent of the American GDP (Gruber, 2010). Irrespective of the high level of healthcare spending, there are still numerous inequalities in access to healthcare services. For...