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Afforadable Healthcare Act defined for students

The Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act, PPACA, informally known as Obamacare, is a drastic health care plan that has been approved and back by all three branches of the government including the executive, legislative, and judicial. Current President, Barak Obama, signed it into law. The act is the first universal healthcare plan that the United States has ever nationally implemented. The overall goal of the healthcare act is to provide American’s with more affordable and quality health insurance. The act places stricter policy rights on healthcare providers with more regulation on taxes, subsidies, consumer protections, and many other subsections of healthcare policies provided.

Many, including the students and staff of Shorter University’s campus, are overall more confused or misinformed when asked about what Obamacare actually is. Freshman sports management major, Fiona White feels that Obamacare is more complicated than she realizes.

“The Affordable Healthcare Act has a lot of complicated parts to it but hopefully in the long run it will provide Americans with a more affordable and easier way to obtain insurance,” said White.

The government assistance pertaining to healthcare, Medicare and Medicaid will not be affected with the passing of Obamacare, nor will private insurance policies be replaced.

As a whole, Obamacare is over a thousand pages containing ten different titles that define the changes to the insurance industry that follow with Obamacare. Working families in America are the main target group for Obamacare, considering that this group is what mainly makes up the dynamics of America.

Since it will now be required of every citizen of America to have health insurance no matter age or socioeconomic status, which is a huge change compared to the past where it was not required by always encouraged having health insurance, the cost of healthcare potentially can rise or change according to your needs.

But keeping the focus mainly on young adults, more specifically college aged Americans who are students, an easier breakdown of what Obamacare means for those can be defined. Young people are the focus of Obamacare and the number of people that sign up for the health insurance program will strongly affect the long-term success of the program. Compared to current times however a change will definitely be needed.

Currently in America, 43% of young adults are uninsured. The reasoning for this mainly being a cost issue, or that young adults are at their healthiest stage and don’t see the benefit of having health insurance at this time.

But when trouble does strike, these young adults are faced with medical bills that are overwhelming and troublesome to pay off. With the passing of Obamacare, now 82% of young adults who are currently uninsured will qualify for assistance for cost or can obtain Medicaid through particular marketplaces that cater to Obamacare. This is in itself a remarkable breakthrough. For students who are not insured and are drowning in possible medical bills, help can be obtained!

The biggest advantages of Obamacare are:
• You can no longer be discriminated because of gender
• It is not possible to get dropped from coverage when you get sick
• If a medical cost is exponentially higher than out of pocket spending limits then you are protected
• Your insurance company must offer coverage to covers all possible critical areas of care.
• You are afforded many health services without a copay
• Regardless of gender, or age important mental health, maternity, and prescription drug services are covered
• You can stay on your parents plan until the age of 26
According to statistics, one in two young adults have a pre existing condition attributed to their body. (INSERT QUOTE FROM HALEY HIGHFIELD WITH EXISTING HIP CONDITION)

Obamacare is stating that now a pre existing condition will not have to be grandfathered in but will be accepted and insurance companies must adhere and cooperate with the consumers that fall under this category.
Student’s whose parents provide them with health insurance will be covered further under the affordable healthcare act. Now a student can stay under his/her parent’s policy until the age of 26. Students can make it through college and get on their feet before having to worry about finding an individual healthcare policy. However since Obamacare is focused on young adults funding the program, this is a faulty note. But since the young adult age category is defined at 18 to 35 the people from 27 and later will be responsible dually with other age categories to keep the program strong.

There is a tax for those citizens that still deny health insurance. This tax will start off for the year of 2014 as $95 or 1% of a person’s income regardless of age. This tax is lower than a yearly insurance plan for some, but the benefits of having an actual insurance plan rank higher than agreeing to pay the tax. This tax will also rise each year that health insurance is not obtained.

Critics of Obamacare argue that males having to pay for maternity coverage or females having to pay for male specific coverage that are gender bias and wasteful. But these services are potentially required within the families of American homes. There will be flaws to every scenario of healthcare reform and President Obama along with Congress has found a universal way to cover all possible outcomes. The act is of course not perfect, as a perfect healthcare reform seems unrealistic or fairytale like, but this act has already helped so many with the changes provided to the healthcare system. Long-term results will not be seen from Obamacare for a while, and the program is susceptible to change during this time period. Citizens will just have to sit back and watch if the program proves successful or falls under failure.

Arielle Goralski
News Editor