RESEARCH PAPER
Nicole Blanck
Jacquin
English 1
3/28/13
ObamaCare
In the recent election, many listened as ObamaCare was repeated time after time. Do the citizens of the United States really know what ObamaCare is? Through my observations, not in the least. My goal in this essay is to educate the reader on the effects, history, and everything else about ObamaCare. Many people underestimate what ObamaCare is. What is ObamaCare and how will it change our current healthcare? To answer this question, I will discuss what ObamaCare is, the history of our current healthcare, the effect ObamaCare will have on seniors, and the statistics of ObamaCare.
What is ObamaCare? Well, the answer to that question can go on forever. According to ObamaCareFacts.com, ObamaCare is another name for The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. All these names are for the same thing. Obama has created a health care plan for the Unites States. ObamaCare was created to provide affordable health insurance for all U.S. citizens and to reduce the growth in in health care spending(ObamaCareFacts.com).Before I head into the effects of Obamacare, I am going to talk about the history of our current healthcare. According to staysmartstayhealthy.com, back in the 1920’s, there wasn’t much knowledge about medicine and insurance, causing the doctors to not be able to charge very much. As doctors grew knowledge about disease and treatments, they started to charge more. With the costs rising, it was hard for patients to keep up with the bills. A nonprofit organization was then formed to help people with their bills, Blue Cross. Also according to staysmartstayhealthy.com, by 1960, the United States healthcare was well established and going strong. Skipping a few years, by 2001, Medicare and Medicaid, healthcare insurance businesses, made up 32 percent of all healthcare spending in the United States (How Did Healthcare Come about in the United States?"). Currently, the main problem in our healthcare is the rising costs of Medicare. Back in 1965 when Medicare was first built, it worked well, but with today’s healthcare, a lot has changed. With ObamaCare, our healthcare will continue to change.
So how will ObamaCare change the expenses and costs of our current healthcare? To begin, currently, Americans are spending 23 trillion dollars on healthcare annually(Steve Riczo, “ObamaCare's Rocky Road to Reality”). According to ObamaCarefacts.com, ObamaCare is planning on cutting the national deficit by over two hundred billion dollars in the first 10 years. Also, ObamaCare will create the same rates for both genders. ObamaCare has already partially gone into effect. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, according to ObamaCareFacts.com, the rate of uninsured Americans decreased from 16.3% to 15.7%. Also from ObamaCareFacts.com, Americans have already saved in 2012. 2.1 billion dollars through the new ObamaCare provisions. The current ObamaCare bill states that affordable insurance is paying no less than 8% of your annual income on insurance(OmamaCareFacts.com). Through many phases, ObamaCare is continuing to reduce the growth of healthcare spending. Lowering the cost of healthcare will help the 45.7 million Americans currently without health insurance (Staysmartstayhalthy.com). ObamaCare also gives 47 million women access to preventative health services(ObamaCareFacts.com). Along with lowering the costs, ObamaCare mandates that Medicaid workers, primary care physicians, will receive an average 73% pay increase(ObamaCareFacts.com). This payment increase will help in finding doctors willing to take Medicaid patients. OmamaCareFacts.com states; “No one truly knows what ObamaCare will cost. Common estimates for an average family of 4 range from around $7,000 a year to $30,000 a year depending on factors such as age, health status and region.” Our current health care system costs, on average, $9,000 for every man, woman, and child each year. Currently, we don’t have an exact answer on if ObamaCare will cost Americans less, or more money annually (ObamaCareFacts.com).
It is often thought that people of all ages receive the same amount of healthcare. They are very wrong. Seniors, to be specific, get completely different health care than people in their 20s. The seniors healthcare is going to change the most. According to Staysmartstayhealthy.com; currently, ¼ of all seniors rely on Medicare Advantage. With ObamaCare, ½ of those seniors will no longer have the coverage they had. Through ObamaCare, there will be new taxes on drug companies amounting to $27 million (Cummings). One benefit for seniors are cheaper drug costs. Also, costs won’t rise. Seniors will receive free prevention healthcare. ObamaCare is reforming Medicare Advantage, along as fixing other problems occurring with the senior’s healthcare(ObamaCareFacts.com). Canada’s healthcare of seniors is very similar to ObamaCare’s healthcare of seniors. My grandparents lived in Canada all their lives. When my grandmother found out she had cancer, the cancer had already spread and was in a late stage. She waited for more than three times the wait time we currently have here in the United States. According to Curtis Dubay, in Canada’s healthcare, the average wait time is 17.7 weeks till treatment. 17.7 weeks sounds like a long time but it sounds even longer when put in prospective with the United States current healthcare. Currently, someone not feeling well can call, their doctor’s office, as opposed to going to the hospital like in Canada, and make an appointment to see the doctor usually within the next week. By the time my grandmother found treatment, it was too late to cure. The same story goes along with my grandfather, and many other seniors in Canada, who also had cancer. It is so hard to think that maybe if they had gotten healthcare like in the United States, things could have gone differently. Just how my grandparents were waiting on procedures, currently, according to Curtis Dubay, Canada has 870,462 procedures waiting to be done. So all in all will ObamaCare help or create trouble for seniors? In my opinion, it will go both ways. ObamaCare will be easier for them in a financial aspect, but when it comes to the medical care aspect, it will not reach the bar that our current health care has set.
Do we really know how ObamaCare will and is affecting us? We know that ObamaCare has already saved Americans 2.1 billion dollars in 2012 with the new ObamaCare provisions (ObamaCareFacs.com). Lessening the costs of ObamaCare sure have helped, but is that good for our government income? Apparently it will, according to the plan to cut the national deficit by over two hundred billion dollars in the first 10 years (staysmartstayhealthy.com). In my opinion, all this information seems to be too good to be true. Think about it: if the government is charging less for health insurance, where are they getting the money to cut the deficit? Also, where are they getting the extra money to increase the pay of primary care physicians? With healthcare costing less, more people will receive health insurance, creating a need for more doctors, raising the funds needed to pay all the doctors. In many ways ObamaCare can help the less fortunate afford health care, but to those satisfied with their current healthcare, it may just become a burden. So far, in Canada, their form of ObamaCare has created trouble in waiting time, skill of doctors, and their overall healthcare compared to the Unites States healthcare currently. It’s America’s turn for a new healthcare, how it will turn out, it yet to be determined.
Works Cited
Cummings, Gregory. "A Cure for Obamacare: From Canada with Love." Economic Education Jan.-Feb. 2013: n. pag. ProQuest. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.
Dubay, Curtis. "Impact of Obamacare." Impact of Obamacare (2013): n. pag. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. <http://www.heritage.org/research/projects/impact-of-obamacare>.
"How Did Healthcare Come about in the United States?" Stay Smart Stay Healthy RSS. N.p., 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.
"ObamaCare Facts: Facts on the Obama Health Care Plan." ObamaCare Facts: Facts on the Obama Health Care Plan. N.p., 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. <http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-facts.php>.
Riczo, Steve. "ObamaCare's Rocky Road to Reality." USA Today 2011: 20-1. ProQuest Discovery. Web. 1 Mar. 2013 .
Jacquin
English 1
3/28/13
ObamaCare
In the recent election, many listened as ObamaCare was repeated time after time. Do the citizens of the United States really know what ObamaCare is? Through my observations, not in the least. My goal in this essay is to educate the reader on the effects, history, and everything else about ObamaCare. Many people underestimate what ObamaCare is. What is ObamaCare and how will it change our current healthcare? To answer this question, I will discuss what ObamaCare is, the history of our current healthcare, the effect ObamaCare will have on seniors, and the statistics of ObamaCare.
What is ObamaCare? Well, the answer to that question can go on forever. According to ObamaCareFacts.com, ObamaCare is another name for The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. All these names are for the same thing. Obama has created a health care plan for the Unites States. ObamaCare was created to provide affordable health insurance for all U.S. citizens and to reduce the growth in in health care spending(ObamaCareFacts.com).Before I head into the effects of Obamacare, I am going to talk about the history of our current healthcare. According to staysmartstayhealthy.com, back in the 1920’s, there wasn’t much knowledge about medicine and insurance, causing the doctors to not be able to charge very much. As doctors grew knowledge about disease and treatments, they started to charge more. With the costs rising, it was hard for patients to keep up with the bills. A nonprofit organization was then formed to help people with their bills, Blue Cross. Also according to staysmartstayhealthy.com, by 1960, the United States healthcare was well established and going strong. Skipping a few years, by 2001, Medicare and Medicaid, healthcare insurance businesses, made up 32 percent of all healthcare spending in the United States (How Did Healthcare Come about in the United States?"). Currently, the main problem in our healthcare is the rising costs of Medicare. Back in 1965 when Medicare was first built, it worked well, but with today’s healthcare, a lot has changed. With ObamaCare, our healthcare will continue to change.
So how will ObamaCare change the expenses and costs of our current healthcare? To begin, currently, Americans are spending 23 trillion dollars on healthcare annually(Steve Riczo, “ObamaCare's Rocky Road to Reality”). According to ObamaCarefacts.com, ObamaCare is planning on cutting the national deficit by over two hundred billion dollars in the first 10 years. Also, ObamaCare will create the same rates for both genders. ObamaCare has already partially gone into effect. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, according to ObamaCareFacts.com, the rate of uninsured Americans decreased from 16.3% to 15.7%. Also from ObamaCareFacts.com, Americans have already saved in 2012. 2.1 billion dollars through the new ObamaCare provisions. The current ObamaCare bill states that affordable insurance is paying no less than 8% of your annual income on insurance(OmamaCareFacts.com). Through many phases, ObamaCare is continuing to reduce the growth of healthcare spending. Lowering the cost of healthcare will help the 45.7 million Americans currently without health insurance (Staysmartstayhalthy.com). ObamaCare also gives 47 million women access to preventative health services(ObamaCareFacts.com). Along with lowering the costs, ObamaCare mandates that Medicaid workers, primary care physicians, will receive an average 73% pay increase(ObamaCareFacts.com). This payment increase will help in finding doctors willing to take Medicaid patients. OmamaCareFacts.com states; “No one truly knows what ObamaCare will cost. Common estimates for an average family of 4 range from around $7,000 a year to $30,000 a year depending on factors such as age, health status and region.” Our current health care system costs, on average, $9,000 for every man, woman, and child each year. Currently, we don’t have an exact answer on if ObamaCare will cost Americans less, or more money annually (ObamaCareFacts.com).
It is often thought that people of all ages receive the same amount of healthcare. They are very wrong. Seniors, to be specific, get completely different health care than people in their 20s. The seniors healthcare is going to change the most. According to Staysmartstayhealthy.com; currently, ¼ of all seniors rely on Medicare Advantage. With ObamaCare, ½ of those seniors will no longer have the coverage they had. Through ObamaCare, there will be new taxes on drug companies amounting to $27 million (Cummings). One benefit for seniors are cheaper drug costs. Also, costs won’t rise. Seniors will receive free prevention healthcare. ObamaCare is reforming Medicare Advantage, along as fixing other problems occurring with the senior’s healthcare(ObamaCareFacts.com). Canada’s healthcare of seniors is very similar to ObamaCare’s healthcare of seniors. My grandparents lived in Canada all their lives. When my grandmother found out she had cancer, the cancer had already spread and was in a late stage. She waited for more than three times the wait time we currently have here in the United States. According to Curtis Dubay, in Canada’s healthcare, the average wait time is 17.7 weeks till treatment. 17.7 weeks sounds like a long time but it sounds even longer when put in prospective with the United States current healthcare. Currently, someone not feeling well can call, their doctor’s office, as opposed to going to the hospital like in Canada, and make an appointment to see the doctor usually within the next week. By the time my grandmother found treatment, it was too late to cure. The same story goes along with my grandfather, and many other seniors in Canada, who also had cancer. It is so hard to think that maybe if they had gotten healthcare like in the United States, things could have gone differently. Just how my grandparents were waiting on procedures, currently, according to Curtis Dubay, Canada has 870,462 procedures waiting to be done. So all in all will ObamaCare help or create trouble for seniors? In my opinion, it will go both ways. ObamaCare will be easier for them in a financial aspect, but when it comes to the medical care aspect, it will not reach the bar that our current health care has set.
Do we really know how ObamaCare will and is affecting us? We know that ObamaCare has already saved Americans 2.1 billion dollars in 2012 with the new ObamaCare provisions (ObamaCareFacs.com). Lessening the costs of ObamaCare sure have helped, but is that good for our government income? Apparently it will, according to the plan to cut the national deficit by over two hundred billion dollars in the first 10 years (staysmartstayhealthy.com). In my opinion, all this information seems to be too good to be true. Think about it: if the government is charging less for health insurance, where are they getting the money to cut the deficit? Also, where are they getting the extra money to increase the pay of primary care physicians? With healthcare costing less, more people will receive health insurance, creating a need for more doctors, raising the funds needed to pay all the doctors. In many ways ObamaCare can help the less fortunate afford health care, but to those satisfied with their current healthcare, it may just become a burden. So far, in Canada, their form of ObamaCare has created trouble in waiting time, skill of doctors, and their overall healthcare compared to the Unites States healthcare currently. It’s America’s turn for a new healthcare, how it will turn out, it yet to be determined.
Works Cited
Cummings, Gregory. "A Cure for Obamacare: From Canada with Love." Economic Education Jan.-Feb. 2013: n. pag. ProQuest. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.
Dubay, Curtis. "Impact of Obamacare." Impact of Obamacare (2013): n. pag. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. <http://www.heritage.org/research/projects/impact-of-obamacare>.
"How Did Healthcare Come about in the United States?" Stay Smart Stay Healthy RSS. N.p., 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.
"ObamaCare Facts: Facts on the Obama Health Care Plan." ObamaCare Facts: Facts on the Obama Health Care Plan. N.p., 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. <http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-facts.php>.
Riczo, Steve. "ObamaCare's Rocky Road to Reality." USA Today 2011: 20-1. ProQuest Discovery. Web. 1 Mar. 2013 .