Obamacare Pros And Cons

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also called “Obamacare”, was enacted into law, signed by President Obama, on March 23, 2010. Since then, it has been a much debated topic in our country. According to realclearpolitics.com, only 38.2% of Americans approve of the law and 51% disapprove. Obamacare has a lot of provisions and features in the bill has been implemented since the bill has been enacted that will affect the U.S. economy and society. One of the provisions in the bill is the individual mandate. Individuals and families in the United States are required to have some form of health insurance or must pay a fine. To avoid the fine, individuals must have had coverage by May 1st, 2014. The reason why the bill includes individual

Also people who don’t have health insurance and have to have emergency health services have to pay a lot more money due to lack of health insurance. According to American Hospital Association, uninsured people health services end up costing $38 billion dollars a year. This provision has been very controversial and a lot of critics say it is unconstitutional. With that said, it was taken to Supreme Court, and in a 5-4 decision, it was decided that it was constitutional. A lot of critics say that this is unfair because a lot of people in our economy won’t be able to afford to pay health insurance. For now it is a little early to tell if people will be able to pay but so far reports sound good. According to washingtontimes.com, 91% of the first 8 million Obamacare enrollees have paid in full of their monthly health care insurance

The mandate will be required in 2015 and if these employer’s don’t comply they will have to pay a fine. The fine is $2,000 for every full time employee without health care insurance. According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, not having the employer mandate could cost the U.S. $46 billion dollars over a 10-year period. A lot of critics say that this will cause companies to cut full time worker’s hours so they don’t have to pay for their insurance. This mandate has been a huge controversy but according to obamacarefacts.com, the mandate doesn’t really affect many firms. They say only 4% of firms in the United States will be affected. Though, these firms being above the 50 full time employee’s which means it could affect a lot of people. This provision could hurt the economy because if companies choose to not pay their employee’s health insurance, and lower their worker’s hours. This means that this employee’s will be making less money and that will hurt our