Threats to the Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act has played a major role in our current healthcare system and helped millions of people. The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, or “ACA,” for short, is a health reform law that Barack Obama signed into law in 2010. The Affordable Care Act helps people get affordable and quality health insurance that they may not be able to have otherwise. Despite these efforts, the Affordable Care Act has had an uproar of critics, including Republicans and Donald Trump, who haven’t stopped working towards its repeal. My interest in healthcare and personally wanting to know more about the controversy surrounding the Affordable Care Act caused me to question, what are the benefits of the Affordable Care Act and how is it being threatened?
What is the Affordable Care Act?
The Affordable Care Act ensures that all Americans have access to affordable health insurance. To achieve this, the Affordable Care Act has three primary goals; to expand affordability of health insurance to more people, improve quality of healthcare, and generally lower costs.
The Affordable Care Act carries this out in several key ways including: regulations that prohibit unjustified raises, incentives to hospitals for quality care, and subsidies for out of pocket costs. For example, two important aspects of the Affordable Care Act are that insurers are prohibited from denying or charging more to people with pre-existing medical conditions, and medic-aid eligibility is expanded to people whose income falls below 138% of the poverty level.
History
Millions of people depend on the Affordable Care Act due to the many ways it provides quality and affordable healthcare, so threats can affect how this is done effectively. In 2011, Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives and immediately worked towards repealing the law. It began with a bill, “Repealing the Job-killing Health Care Law,” but failed. There has since been over 70 additional attempts by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but all have failed. Due to so many failed attempts of repealing the Affordable Care Act, other threats intended to undermine it have also emerged.
What’s the Issue?
Threats to the Affordable Care Act are an issue that deserve more awareness because changes or repealing the Affordable Care Act, will affect our current healthcare system and all the people who depend on it. People of low-income and people with pre-existing medical condition are most at risk due to the regulations that support both of these groups. It’s more than an issue of insurance premiums, but it’s about people’s lives.
Republicans have fought to repeal and undermine the Affordable Care one way or another, disregarding the millions of people who have been able to benefit from our healthcare system with the Affordable Care Act. Threatening the Affordable Care Act, leads to threatening peoples’ lives, who rely on the quality and affordable health care coverage provided. Awareness should be raised to counteract the efforts of dismantling the Affordable Care Act.
Threat on Subsidies
Earlier this year, Donald Trump imposed a threat to cut subsidies, which was a way of undermining the Affordable Care Act. In doing so, he put pressure on insurance companies, who rely on these government subsidies to maintain affordable healthcare. These subsidies reimburse insurers to cover out-of-pocket costs, such as co-pays and deductibles, for lower-income Americans. In the New York Times article published on August 7, 2017, “Facing Trump Subsidy Cuts, Health Insurance Officials Seek a Backup Plan,” Robert Pear focuses on what that loss of money would be like. Pear explains that an estimated $7–10 billion come from federal subsidies, and without this money, insurers would instead make up for the potential financial loss by imposing higher premiums. Insurers feared this loss of money, so an increase in health insurance premiums is exactly what insurers quickly began to announce.
Increased Insurance premiums
Steven Rattner, a wall-street financier, explains just how significantly insurers planned to increase their premiums. In The New Times article, “How Donald Trump is Driving up Health Insurance Premiums,” published on August 15, 2017, Rattner breaks down the percentage of increase in premiums announce for 2018. Rattner exemplifies that an average estimate of 29% increase on insurance premiums are expected, and 15% of it is due to Donald Trump’s threat on subsidies. Rattner gives readers insight to just how much insurers rely on subsidies to be able to offer affordable insurance premiums. Without subsidies, the Affordable Care act’s main purpose of providing affordability would be difficult to attain as it would result in an increase of insurance premiums.
“Job Killer”
Threatening the Affordable Care Act has come in different forms that can affect the public’s views, such as labelling it a “job-killer,” however, employment has actually risen since the reform law passed. Ted Cruz, a Texas Senator, is one of these critics who clearly stated his position against the Affordable Care Act, saying millions of people have lost their jobs, which is false. In an article published in 2016, “Ted Cruz’s Pants on Fire claim that health care law is nation’s ‘biggest job-killer’,” Jon Greenberg, a professional journalist, explains Ted Cruz’s claims against the Affordable Care Act, and uses national data to prove how he was wrong. Greenberg writes, “The numbers run against Cruz’s statement… The unemployment rate has moved steadily from 9.9 percent to 5 percent. The economy has added about 10.7 million jobs.” Greenberg’s use of national data doesn’t just prove critics like Cruz wrong, but additionally shows how significantly employment has risen, decreasing unemployment by almost 50%. Instead of the Affordable Care Act being a “job-killer,” efforts towards repealing it can become the real job killer.
Employment Increase
Since the Affordable Care Act, employment in the healthcare sector has increased, further proving threats against it as a “job-killer,” to be wrong. Due to the Affordable Care Act mandate that requires people to have health insurance, more people have been employed to provide quality care to the increased population of insured people.
However, the House of Representatives has recently introduced a bill that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, resulting in a decreased population of people with health insurance coverage. In a CNBC article published in 2017, “500,000 jobs added to health-care sector under Obamacare, Goldman Sachs estimates,” Dan Mangan, a healthcare reporter, writes how the insured population and healthcare employment would be impacted by changes to the mandate of the Affordable Care Act. Mangan states, “Goldman Sachs’ analysis found that the nationwide 5.4 percentage point increase in the number of insured people since 2012 ‘could explain roughly 40 percent of health-care job growth, or 500,000 additional jobs in the sector over that period.’” Mangan explains the correlation between the insured population and healthcare job growth, which resulted with the Affordable Care Act. Threatening the Affordable Care Act means threatening employment in healthcare, and a decrease in the insured population.
Decline in Insurance Coverage
Undermining and threats towards repealing the Affordable Care Act can result in less people being covered and being able to benefit from health insurance coverage. This can become a serious matter because people will choose to opt-out of health insurance altogether.
Jeanne Lambrew, an architect of the Affordable Care Act and Obama’s deputy assistant of health policy, published an informative article in January 2017, “An American Life, With or Without the Affordable Care Act.” Lambrew convinces readers on how beneficial the Affordable Care Act is by using different scenarios, and what it would be like if it were repealed. For example, Lambrew explains how a young married couple, expecting a child can be covered with plans that cover maternity benefits. However, if the Affordable Care Act were repealed, pregnancy could be considered a pre-existing condition, meaning they could be denied or significantly charged more for health coverage. Additionally, a family with a child who has a congenital heart defect could expect significant financial burden and face challenges for their son’s care without the Affordable Care Act.
Lambrew exemplifies how important the Affordable Care Act and key aspects is for many people whose lives would change without it. Similarly, a government healthcare website explains how coverage for pre-existing conditions work, in a short article, “Coverage for pre-existing conditions.” Without the Affordable Care Act, it could change the way pre-exisitng conditions affect insurance coverage, people could be denied insurance or face financial struggles to receive adequate healthcare.
Undermining Efforts
Despite the benefits the Affordable Care Act provides for numerous reasons, Republicans haven’t given up on undermining the Affordable Care Act. Kim Soffen, a graphics reporter argues how congress has gone about undermining the Affordable Care Act. In an article she published on October 2017, “These are the steps the Trump administration is taking to undermine the ACA,” Soffen explains some of the most recent undermining efforts against the Affordable Care Act. For example, she points out how Donald Trump announced that $10 million would be spent on advertising for open enrollment, compared to $100 million that Obama spent on advertising. Significantly cutting the funds for advertisement as Trump has done, would lead to a lot less people being aware of the enrollment period and decreasing the amount of people who sign up for insurance on the exchanges.
Negative Representation
Haeyoun Park further argues ways that Trump has undermined the Affordable Care Act, highlighting 12 different ways. Park published an article on this issue in a New York Times, published on October 2017, “We’re Tracking the Ways Trump Is Scaling Back Obamacare. Here Are 12.” Park explains how Donald Trump has not only cut funding, but has spoken down upon the Affordable Care Act, which influences the public’s views. One of the ways Trump has spread this information is through his favorite platform to do so, Twitter. Park explains how Trump has posted negative infographics, mostly around the months of June and July, that falsely represented the Affordable Care Act. Donald Trump has undermined the Affordable Care Act by giving a negative representation, among many other undermining efforts.
Conclusion
Threats to the Affordable Care Act have come from critics, Republicans, and Donald Trump. Repealing efforts have continuously failed, so the Trump administration has gone on to undermine the Affordable Care Act in different ways. It’s important to raise awareness on the importance of the Affordable Care Act and how it benefits people in countless ways. Without the Affordable Care Act, people wouldn’t be able to afford health insurance or maybe even have any coverage in general. People who rely not only on affordability, but on key aspects, such as not being able to be charged more or denied insurance, will face additional challenges. Donald Trump may be cutting funding, and giving false perceptions of the Affordable Care Act, but we can all help change this. All it takes is for more people to know about the Affordable Care Act and help raise awareness, to counteract the negativity and undermining intentions against the Affordable Care Act. Millions of people depend on the Affordable Care Act so threats to this reform law, can become a threat to their life.
Works Cited
Pear, Robert. “Facing Trump Subsidy Cuts, Health Insurance Officials Seek a Backup Plan.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Aug. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/08/07/us/politics/health-insurance-subsidy-cuts-trump.html.
Rattner, Steven. “How Donald Trump Is Driving Up Health Insurance Premiums.” The New York
times, The New York Times, 15 Aug. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/opinion/how-donald-trump-is-driving-up-health- insurance-premiums.html.
Mangan, Dan. “500,000 jobs added to health-Care sector under Obamacare, Goldman Sachs estimates.” CNBC, CNBC, 29 Mar. 2017, www.cnbc.com/2017/03/23/500000-jobs-added-to-health-sector-under-obamacare-goldman-sachs.html.
Greenberg, John. “Ted Cruzs Pants on Fire claim that health care law is nations biggest job- Killer.” @Politifact, 29 Jan. 2017, www.politifact.com/truth-o- meter/statements/2016/jan/29/ted-cruz/ted-cruzs-pants-fire-claim-health-care-law- nations/.
Lambrew, Jeanne. “An American Life, With or Without the Affordable Care Act.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2017/01/06/american-life-and-without-affordable- care-act.
“Marketplace health plans cover pre-Existing conditions.” HealthCare.gov, www.healthcare.gov/coverage/pre-existing-conditions/.
Soffen, Kim. “Analysis | How the Trump administration is undermining the ACA.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 13 Oct. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/aca- sabotage/?utm_term=.107c26a36ace.
Park, Haeyoun. “We’re Tracking the Ways Trump Is Scaling Back Obamacare. Here Are 12.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 Oct. 2017, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/12/us/trump-undermine-obamacare.html.
