My Words on Obamacare

“Obamacare is a disaster”, this is what the 45th president of the US Donald Trump keeps saying about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) known as Obamacare. This health insurance plan was signed on March 23 in 2010 and intends to provide quality affordable health care for all Americans. In addition, it aims to protect consumers from insurer worse abuse cases such as discrimination based on gender, age, and health status. However, since its promulgation, it has become the subject of many controversies. As a matter of fact, many politicians claim that it must be repealed and replaced. This is partly due to the fact that Obamacare has awakened tremendous dissatisfaction among two groups of people in the US: the insurers and the patients.

Marc_ObamaCare

The insurance companies are unhappy about Obamacare. It puts too many requirements on them which are threatening their profit. According to the video “Obamacare Explained Simply” by The Daily Conversation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFUk1DX3gtA), 80% of the money collected in premium must be spent on medical cost, because of the patient protection commitment. This means merely 20% can be spent on overhead and administrative costs. As a result, the insurers cannot make the profit they want to make. Furthermore, the ACA prohibits discrimination based on pre-existing health conditions. Consequently, people with terminal disease can easily get health insurance. Hence, more people with bad health condition are insured than people in good health. This is very detrimental to insurance companies because it costs them a lot of money to cover all of these ill people. All of that to say, the insurers are more inclined to declare bankruptcy because of the requirements of Obamacare. That’s why, they are frustrated and are getting out the market, making it free from competitions.

The citizens seeking for health care are another group of people disappointed by Obamacare. These frustrations are brought about mainly by the increase of their health care cost. According to President Trump in his meeting with Insurance Companies’ CEO (https://youtu.be/xjp0JamIZaA), premium costs have doubled in many areas in the US. This is due to the fact that the market has not enough competition. As a result, the insurance companies have the freedom of fixing their premium costs. Hence, many citizens prefer to stay without health insurance. According to Donald Trump, 20 million Americans prefer to pay a penalty fee instead of paying for Obamacare which is less expensive for them. Those facts are proof that Obamacare is not affordable for some citizens. As a result, they are discontented and are rejecting it.

The ACA known as Obamacare has made the insurance companies and the patients unhappy. First, Insurance companies are required to spend 80% of their money in paying patient’s bill which reduce their profit. In addition, they are not allowed to discriminate among people based on their previous health status. For this reason, they have to insure even people with poor health condition which costs them a lot of money. As a result, they are leaving the market. Second, the patients are also frustrated about Obamacare. Because of the lack of competition among insurers, their premium costs are going up. Consequently, they prefer to pay the penalty fee instead of paying for insurance. This is how Obamacare is detrimental to insurance companies and the citizens.

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