ObamaCare: A Just Reform to American Healthcare

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
was signed into law on March 23, 2010. [18]

ObamaCare. A made-up word tossed around countless times during the 2012 election by voters, candidates, and the media. With so much skewed information on the topic, you may have felt like I did about ObamaCare, very confused. So here is the 906-page act, ObamaCare in a nutshell. ObamaCare is a slang term for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a recent overhaul of the American Health Care system. ObamaCare can be split up into two parts, what it wants to provide for citizens, and how it’s going to be paid for.

With over 49.9 million uninsured Americans in 2010 [1], it is clear that our current health care system was flawed. The majority of the healthcare industry is currently privately owned with expensive insurance and rising prices. Consequently, many lower income citizens cannot afford the rates and go without health insurance. The main goal of ObamaCare is to provide affordable health coverage for all.  To do so, ObamaCare gives tax credits to the people who need them in order to pay for healthcare and extends Medicare to people at up to 133% of the national poverty line. [2] It will be illegal for companies to deny people healthcare because of a pre-existing condition such as asthma, diabetes, or cystic fibrosis. Companies deny these people because they believe these patients will cost them too much money. However, ObamaCare ensures that all Americans, regardless of their pre-existing conditions, will have access to healthcare. [3] ObamaCare also requires employers to cover their employee’s “adult children” until the children are twenty-six. [4] Young people who have been looking at a future of high unemployment rates can now stay on their parent’s insurance while they search for jobs and their own health coverage. Some health insurance companies put yearly and lifetime caps on their coverage. This essentially means you are allowed to get sick up to a certain point, then when you are too sick or have sought out too much medical care, you will be turned away even if you need further care. Under ObamaCare, lifetime and yearly caps will become illegal.[5] Insurance companies also will need to cover all preventative care such as check ups, colonoscopies, and mammograms. This is in the hope that by catching diseases early, we can stop them from spreading, save lives (and save the cost of late stage treatments!) [6] Up to this point, it seems like ObamaCare would be a bill most everyone would support, most people wouldn’t oppose giving everyone access to the healthcare that they need. However, like all things, it won’t be free and this is where the problems arise.

Estimated Breakdown of ObamaCare funding increases [19]

           Barack Obama is quoted saying, “In the United States of America, no one should go broke because they get sick”. [7] However some people feel that they are going to go broke paying for universal healthcare. Over the next ten years, ObamaCare is expected to cost up to $1.76 trillion dollars [8]. To pay this hefty total, there are various taxes in place. Americans with an income of 200,000 dollars individually or 250,000 dollars as a family will pay an increased Medicare tax. Additionally, any person with an income over 200,000 dollars will pay a 3.8% tax on their unearned income, the money from their investments.[9]Insurance companies who provide “Cadillac plans” will be taxed as well.A “Cadillac plan” is a particularly expensive insurance plan generally accompanied by extensive benefits and low co-pays. [10] There will be taxes in place on companies who produce medical equipment and pharmaceutical companies. There will also be a tax on any company with more than fifty employees that does not provide health care for their employees. Another, and perhaps the most contraversial way the government proposes to pay for ObamaCare is through an individual mandate. [11]This individual mandate states that if you are not covered under public heath care, you must buy private insurance, failure to do so will result in a fine.  Of course, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a very long and complicated document so this does not cover every detail of the act. If you want to know those details and have some time on your hands, check out the full 906-page text.  If you’re still a bit confused or are more confused now than you’ve ever been about ObamaCare, enjoy this cartoon explanation of the act.

While ObamaCare provides extensive benefits, many people are opposed to it. They may be taking a page from the book of Robert Nozick, an influential political philosopher who is considered by some to be at the forefront of libertarianism. Nozick and other libertarians believe that the government does not have the right to insert itself into the private health care debate and that this is a type of paternalist legislation, the government trying to protect us from ourselves. [12]The individual mandate is at the core of the act and is the most debated facet. Those against it argue that the government cannot demand that citizens purchase a specific good because that would not leave the health care industry functioning on a free market. However, the Editorial Board of The Washington Post explains why this mandate was put in place, stating that, “Insurance companies would be unable to offer affordable coverage to those with preexisting conditions, for example, unless they also were guaranteed enrollment of the young and healthy customers who are less likely to consume health-care services” [13].  If the individual mandate didn’t exist, it would be like telling house insurance companies that they have to cover only people whose houses have already caught on fire. [14]

Out of those who take issue with the act, most are concerned with the funding of the act. While its true that this act will be expensive, I think the benefits far outweigh the costs. Imagine you have just graduated college and like thousands of other recent graduates, you haven’t found a job yet or you’ve found one but it doesn’t include benefits. Now imagine you wake up in excruciating pain and after going to the ER you find that your uterus is full of tumors. What would you do? This same thing happened to the woman pictured to the left.   

ObamaCare arguably saved this woman's life. [20]

Before ObamaCare, she was denied coverage for a preexisting condition and essentially could not afford to live. However after ObamaCare passed, she acquired healthcare and was able to get well. Everyone should have a right to live and ObamaCare ensures that we all will get a fair chance. Even though it will cost some people more money, the ability to save someone’s life, like the woman pictured above, seems worth it.

Millions of Americans, many of whom are or could be in situations similar to hers, were previously uninsured and can now have access to the healthcare that they need. People cannot be denied coverage due to their pre-existing conditions, further being a woman is no longer a “pre-existing condition” that one should have to worry about.

One of millions of women who are happy
 that their gender will not be the deciding
 factor on their access to healthcare. [21]

When looking at ObamaCare from a justice standpoint, I would agree with John Rawls. Rawls viewed justice as fairness. Rawls believes that everyone should have equal basic rights and equal opportunities. The only inequalities in opportunity need to be inequalities that are “attached to offices of positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity”[15]. Rawls also presents a difference principle, this states that “however great the inequalities in wealth and income may be, and however willing people are to work to earn their greater shares of output, existing inequalities must contribute effectively to the benefit of the least advantaged. Otherwise the inequalities are not permissible” [16]. While its true that some will have to pay a greater tax than others, this act attempts to equalize the opportunity for healthcare. Those who are benefitting are the millions of previously uninsured citizens. I feel that in my life I have taken my healthcare for granted, I am assured that I will be able to be treated every time I am sick, and I will get the medications I need. Millions of people are not so lucky, Travis Turner [17] was diagnosed with liver cancer while still an infant and quickly reached his million dollar cap. With the passing of ObamaCare, Travis was given a second chance at life.

The passing of ObamaCare is controversial, but it is providing hope for so many Americans, such as Travis, who are in dire circumstances. I support ObamaCare because I agree with Rawls that everyone should have an equal opportunity to healthcare. When looking at the people benefitting from ObamaCare truly as people and not just statistics, you could see why this act is so important and will make a positive impact on American HealthCare.

Works Cited 

[1]  Emily Smith, and Caitlin Stark. "By the numbers: Health insurance." CNN, June 28, 2012. http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/27/politics/btn-health-care/index.html (accessed November 20, 2012). 

[2] Sarah Kliff, The Washington Post, "What happens if a state opts out of Medicaid, in one chart." Last modified 2012. Accessed October 23, 2012. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/07/05/what-happens-if-a-state-opts-out-of-medicaid-in-one-chart/.

[3] "2014 Insurance Reforms under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)" (Press release). Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Retrieved 2012-023-10. http://www.bcbsm.com/healthreform/pubs/ppaca_insurance_reform_2014.pdf

[4] Kimberly Amadeo. About.com US Economy , "useconomy.about.com." Last modified 2012. Accessed December 11, 2012. http://useconomy.about.com/od/healthcarereform/f/What-Is-Obama-Care.htm.

[5] Ibid, 2012

[6] Ibid, 2012 

[7] UpTakeVideo. "Obama's Health Plan in 4 minutes." YouTube. , September 21, 2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htZN-Is7N7o. 

   December 11, 2012

[8] Brian Koenig. Yahoo! News , "CBO: ObamaCare Price Tag Shifts from $940 Billion to $1.76 Trillion." Last modified March 14, 2012. Accessed December 11, 2012. http://news.yahoo.com/cbo-obamacare-price-tag-shifts-940-billion-1-163500655.html.

[9]Phil Galewitz. Kaiser Health News , "Consumers Guide to Health Reform." Last modified 2010. Accessed October 23, 2012. http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2010/March/22/consumers-guide-health-reform.aspx

[10] Jenny Gold . Kaiser Health News , "'Cadillac' Insurance Plans Explained." Last modified March 18, 2010. Accessed December 11, 2012. http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/stories/2010/march/18/cadillac-tax-explainer-update.aspx.

[11] Galewitz, Phil. Kaiser Health News , "Consumers Guide to Health Reform." Last modified 2010. Accessed October 23, 2012. http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2010/March/22/consumers-guide-health-reform.aspx

[12] Robert Nozick, "Anarchy, State, and Utopia," Justice:A Reader, ed. Michael J. Sandel (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 60, 61

[13] Board, Editorial. The Washington Post, "Why the individual mandate holds the key to health-care reform." Last modified 2012. Accessed October 23, 2012. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-the-individual-mandate-matters-so-much/2012/03/23/gIQA8zCacS_story.html.

[14] KFFHealthReform. "Health Reform Explained Video: "Health Reform Hits Main Street"" YouTube. , September 17, 2010,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Ilc5xK2_E.  December 11, 2012

[15]John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2001), 42,61,64.

[16] Ibid, 2001

[17] Steelworkers. "Affordable Care Act: Hope Delivered for USW Families" YouTube. , September 9, 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8SiheO7XlQ. December 11, 2012

[18] Photo, http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacarefacts-images/obamacare-cartoon-2-a.jpg

[19] Photo,http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/08/30/how-congress-paid-for-obamacare-in-two-charts/

[20] Photo,http://cdn.front.moveon.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/obamacare-500.png

[21] Photo, http://media-cache0.pinterest.com/upload/133278470192807562_IsxiExg6_c.jpg