health care reform act

hello everyone and welcome to the young informer.today, we will be taking a look at the affordable care act, otherwise known as obamacare anddiscussing its pro's and con's. obamacare is actually pretty complicated,so first we'll need to understand it well before we can form an opinion. so, what isobamacare? in 2010, president barack obama signed a healthcare reform law which basically makes health insurance more affordable, higher quality,and overall less costs. this was brought with the condition that coverage must be obtainedby 2014 or you would need to pay a monthly fee. so now lets take a look at how it all works.there are a few ways us citizens are being

covered with obamacare, the main ones arethrough the through employment, government, and private purchasing. now that the law isput into effect, roundabout half of people are getting insurance from jobs, a third aregetting it through special programs such as medicare and medicaid by the government, thena tenth of people are forced to buy it on their own, but where does that leave the othertenth, or 30 million people will not have coverage. not much will be changing for employed americanswho are already covered, an example of a positive change is that there is a cap on how muchan individual has to spend on their own, also, you can get free preventative care. the realdifferences are going to be felt by those

working for large companies and that are yetto be covered. starting from this year, 2014, the government started requiring both smalland large companies, with upwards of 50 employees to cover them, unless they wish to pay a penalty.this therefore will definitely be beneficial toward the employee, but a burden on the employer.in order to facilitate this process, the government opened up insurance marketplaces where businessowners can easily purchase medical insurance online.so in all, most company employees will be able to enjoy a medical insurance plan. others will be covered through help of thegovernment through medicare and medicaid. these people shouldn't see too much of a change.

and for the rest of the people, they willbe able to buy healthcare plans on their own, through websites such as healthcare.gov. onthere, you will find a plethora of insurers. and unlike before, insurers wont be able todrop a client if it turns out they are sick and they wont be allowed to ask for more moneyif the person wishing to obtain the plan has any already-present conditions. males andfemales alike, will be charged the same price and as the price will decrease for peopleof higher ages, the price will increase for young people, but this is shielded by thefact that kids up to the age of 26 will be permitted to live under their parents' plan. so now lets take a look at the pro's and con'sof obamacare. i was talking earlier about

how employers with over 50 full-time employeeswill be forced to purchase a healthcare plan. this in itself is extremely important dueto the high costs of insurance plans. consequently this leads employers into cutting employeehours into part-time to avoid the costs. so in the end its not the company that pays forit, but the workers. another huge con is the individual mandate,this essentially forces people to be covered by an insurance plan, if not like in the caseof employers, they will be paying a fine. a gallup poll done not so long ago found that40% of americans who are not covered, did not know about the individual mandate, alongwith its penalty. in case you were wondering how much the penaltywould cost and how it would be taxed, well

here it is. the penalty is supposed to increasegradually, in 2014, its 1% of income, in 2015 its 2% and in 2016 its 2.5%. but these numbersshould definitely increase as time moves on, an example being that the income tax was 1%when first implemented. keep in mind that if you are part of the verylow income bracket, well then you will qualify for a tax break to cover the costs. this whole system closely resembles to corporatismas insurance companies operate as a sort of middle man between the government and theindividual. so they will still be getting paid the complete amount and will of coursebe making a profit. this middle man is a pretty big issue. thefact that americans want to pay for any medical

assistance such as checkups or pharmaceuticaldrugs, has led health insurance companies to drive up costs, increasing premiums forthe customer. but if you think about it, you'll still be paying the same for the same producteven without the insurance plan, except without the additional costs of the middle man inquestion. so at this point what the affordable careact does is just put this system into actual law, and to top it off adds the individualmandate in order to force you through intimidation of the state. consequently, insurance companiesare provided with a set customer base that has no way out. you'd think that the individual mandate wouldbe a necessity in keeping the price of insurance

low, but on the contrary, premiums for coveragehas been rising consistently. some states are seeing an increase of 298%. for peoplewho cannot afford insurance, the government helps them in the form of subsidies, but still,the insurance companies get paid the full amount. as you can guess, this just a massivedriver of debt for the us government's already pretty big 17 trillion deficit. unfortunately it doesn't stop here, the insuranceplans of millions of americans was canceled because of obamacare, but its hard to go intodetail on that. although all these reasons are pretty compellingto convince you that obamacare is bad, you cannot ignore the most important fact. healthcareis a basic human right, simple as that. the

amount you earn can't be the reason why youare deprived of healthcare. this is the main reason why president obama actually decidedto implement this law in the first place. before, many people would try to suppresstheir illnesses in order not to have to pay the medical bills. therefore, although plaguedwith several flaws, its hard to argue against what obamacare or the affordable care act,stands for. so what do you think about obamacare? do youagree, do you disagree? do you feel as though it enriches the lives or the people, or doyou think it only enriches the insurance companies? leave your thoughts and comments below. this was the young informer, thanks for watching,and i'll see you next ti