Before I start, if you do not have health insurance, go to http://www.healthcare.gov and sign up for one of the many options now available to you, thanks to Obamacare. It is. Important. Do not go without insurance. The consequences can be deadly.
This is also the first posting in a two part series. Expect more soon!
Thanks,
Alex
The government is shut down on 10/1/13 for the first time since 1996, all over a bit of legislation called the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or more lovingly referred to as Obamacare, which opened up for enrollment on 10/1/13 allowing for coverage to begin on 1/1/14.
Both Democrats and Republicans are throwing all sorts of misleading information around about what Obamacare actually does. House Republicans, who may or may not truly understand all that Obamacare does, have demanded that it be repealed or they will not pass a congressional budget.
Simply put, no budget approval = no government funding = government shutdown.
So, in an effort to spell out what Obamacare actually does, and hopefully getting some congresspeople to read this and become more informed, I'll try and sort it out for you. Finally, I'll spell out why it is so dramatically important that people who are eligible for Obamacare enroll in Obamacare.
First, the facts of the ACA, or Obamacare:
1. ACA allows kids to stay on their parents' healthcare plan until age 26.
2. ACA bans the insurance company practice of not covering people because of a pre-existing condition.
3. ACA incentivizes small businesses (< 50 employees) to offer healthcare coverage.
4. ACA requires large businesses (> 50 employees) to offer healthcare coverage.
5. ACA requires that a large, open-market public exchange is available to purchase private insurance.
6. ACA dramatically expands Medicaid to cover most Americans.
7. ACA requires that everyone have health insurance, or pay a penalty.
For the most part, everyone agrees that the first six facts are extremely helpful, and will dramatically help the healthcare problem that the United States faces. It is the last fact that is troubling for quite a few Americans. Why should everyone be REQUIRED to buy health insurance? Simply put, because EVERYONE uses or will use health insurance. Thankfully, the ACA has made getting healthcare coverage much easier than before. There are three major ways to obtain healthcare in this new environment:
1) Purchase health insurance directly through your employer. Since Obamacare incentivizes small businesses to offer healthcare coverage and requires large companies to offer healthcare coverage, odds are you will have the chance to get reasonable health insurance through your company. If your company does not give you the opportunity to purchase health insurance through them, use the new public market.
2) Purchase health insurance at the public market, found at http://www.healthcare.gov. One of the major products of Obamacare is a large open market for private insurance companies to compete, driving prices down. Buy insurance here.
3) Enroll in Medicaid, which now covers nearly all Americans. Traditionally, Medicaid was only for people who were not making enough money and were living under the federal poverty level. Now, Medicaid has expanded nearly 133% to include nearly all Americans who may not be covered by their employers or able to purchase health insurance on their own.
Now, as with any successful insurance company, there must be a mixture of healthy people and sick people enrolled. The healthy people pay into the insurance until they too need the benefits. With this said, for Obamacare to work well, young healthy people without insurance must enroll in Medicaid. When the young and healthy have enrolled, it supplies a great deal more cash for the older and/or sick to use, which inevitably, we all will need at some point. So do your duty and pay it forward until the day you get sick and need some help too.
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