By FATAMA ZOHRA
January 16, 2017
“The exterior of Obamacare appears to be simple, and its simplicity allows more Americans to afford health care, but the Robin Hood nature of the act itself is where the controversy lies.”
Republican lawmakers are racing to repeal Obamacare and with it, the mission to provide healthcare to all Americans.
The Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, has been scrutinized and praised for its approach to healthcare reform. Obamacare extends coverage to Americans who are uninsured, have previous health conditions or have been denied health insurance before.
Under Obamacare, companies are mandated to provide insurance if they have fifty or more full-time workers. It also ensures that most plans cover at least 60% of medical costs.
Republicans are also concerned with the implications of higher taxes for higher-income families; however, the increase in taxes only serve to provide a function to the Affordable Care Act itself.
The exterior of Obamacare appears to be simple, and its simplicity allows more Americans to afford health care, but the Robin Hood nature of the act itself is where the controversy lies.
Obamacare has been deemed unconstitutional by many Republican lawmakers on various grounds. An issue the Republican party has with the act is the fee Americans have to pay if they do not sign up for health insurance, even if Obamacare provides government subsidies to those who cannot afford to buy a plan. Republicans believe this treads on personal freedom and their issue with the mandate even went to the Supreme Court, only for the Supreme Court to declare it constitutional in 2012.
Republicans are also concerned with the implications of higher taxes for higher-income families; however, the increase in taxes only serve to provide a function to the Affordable Care Act itself.
The fees and higher taxes implemented on higher-income families are meant to make sure that the minimum ten standard essential benefits are met with each plan that falls under Obamacare. These benefits include maternity care, mental health care, rehabilitative and habilitative services and prescription drug coverage.
“I will do everything in my power to have a vote on it the day we repeal Obamacare,” Republican Senator Rand Paul told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
Other concerns are that Obamacare is creating more costs for business in relation to health care or health care providers, but is not creating more jobs. However, a recent article from BBC claimed that there was a 9% increase for jobs in the healthcare sector.
Another article on CNN, by Sandee Lamotte, portrays the disagreements many doctors have with Obamacare and costs of it. In that article, urologist Brian Hill expresses his frustration with the bureaucracy of the health care system coming in the way of his passion. He questions that Obamacare is, “… giving you insurance, but are they really giving you healthcare?”
A 2016 survey for the Physicians Foundation by Merritt Hawkin shows that out of the 10,000 random participants who are physicians, 71% of respondents, gave Obamacare a passing grade. The divide manifests within the age of the doctors and their political stance in general.
Many of the differing perspectives pertain to if the doctor more often views patients with private insurances. With that sector of healthcare seeing a rise in their co-pays and deductibles at a higher rate, doctors who mostly treat patients with private insurance plans seem to grow weary of the ACA.
The surge to repeal Obamacare impacts those who are in need of constant medical service, impacts anyone who may encounter a medical emergency, and impacts people of every generation–specifically the millennial age.
Many millennials are covered under a parent’s insurance, which may be in jeopardy if the ACA gets repealed without any means of replacement. Also, many millennials may be denied healthcare coverage due to pre-existing conditions or denied the healthcare they need such as mental health coverage, prescription drug coverage, and even maternity or family planning necessities. When buying insurance, premiums, a monthly fee that is paid to an insurance company to provide health coverage, may increase, leading many to opt out of getting health care.
“Obamacare was implemented to help those who need it,” said Shaista Shoukat, a pre-med student at Hunter College in NYC.
She said that Obamacare is not perfect by any means, but is a step in the right direction to create a system where everyone has access to health services, much like the health care systems of Canada or Britain.
Shoukat also said that the controversy has gotten huge because Obamacare was modeled after the health care reform that Republican former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, implemented. She personally believes that Obamacare is not a matter of political opinion, but rather an opinion on whether to help those seek the aid they need.
“It is our responsibility to understand that everyone deserves medical coverage,” said Shoukat, 19, “and to deny anyone of that is taking away a humane right.”
