Affordable Health Care for ALL

By: Benjamin Colunga

The affordable care act was put in place by the 44th president of the United States of America.

It

has provided health care to millions of Americans who meet a certain set of qualifications.

What is the affordable care act and why does it matter?

The affordable care act, or ACA for short, is a newly developed health care
system in the United States that was put in place in 2014. The ACA is better recognized under the
alias of Obama Care. This is a fair label because President Barack Obama was the person who
helped make the affordable care act a law. The main idea behind the affordable care is to provide
millions of Americans with affordable health insurance. This is a great idea, but because its a
newly developed health care system it has many flaws. For example, there is a fee for not having
health coverage. Why does knowing about the ACA matter? Well, if youre a person who
considers health insurance to be a benefit or if youre a person who likes that green stuff called
money, I would recommend looking into what the Affordable Care Act is and learning what it
can do FOR you and what it can do TO you. Working at a place called The Marketplace(a call
center to sign up for the ACA insurance) I have seen both the pros and the cons of this system.

Benefits of health coverage through the ACA

The whole idea of the ACA revolves around a tax credit. A tax credit is what
people can be found eligible for depending on their income and household size. What a tax credit
does is it pays part of your health insurance monthly premium which leaves you to pay the
differenceif there is any left after the tax credit. This is one of biggest parts to the ACA. On top
of receiving that tax credit, a big benefit to the ACA is the fact that you now have affordable
health insurance which for a lot of Americans was never there. Sara Collins, vice president of

Health Care Coverage and Access, exclaims, The number of uninsured Americans declined by
8.8 million in 2014, the first year the major insurance reforms of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
took effect. (Collins) With the ACA more and more American have coverage available to them.

Miller, Zeke. "Number of Uninsured Americans Near Record Low." Time. Time, 18 Dec. 2014. Web. 13 Feb.
2016.

The cost for affordable health care

Many Americans now have health coverage, but what about the 12.9% of
Americans that still dont have health coverage. As part of the ACA it is now mandatory for
Americans to have minimum essential health coverage or pay a fee for not having health
coverage. Healthcare.gov , the official website for the ACA, gives the following information,

The fee for not having health coverage in 2014 was 95 dollars per adult or 1% of household
incomethe fee for 2015 was 325 dollars per adult or 2% of household income, which is more
than triple what it was for 2014. Today the fee for not having health coverage is 695 dollars per
adult or 2.5% of household income. It seems simple enough to sign-up for health coverage and
avoid the fee for not having health coverage, but this not always the case. If you dont fall into a
certain income bracket based off of household size you may not be found eligible to receive a tax
credit to help lower the monthly premium. The National Conference of Legislatures reports,
Health insurance companies around the country are seeking rate increases of 20 percent to 40
percent or more, saying their new customers under the Affordable Care Act turned out to be
sicker than expected. With rates increasing the price of an averages silver level plan for an
individual its 256 dollars a month in the state of Utah according the NCSL. If an individuals
income is too low to receive a tax credit then that individual may receive an exemption which
means they are not required to have health coverage or pay the fee for not having health
coverage. Option two is the individual is sent over to their states Medicaid agency for
determination if they are eligible for Medicaid. This is where a lot of problems occur because if
your state did not expand Medicaid then you will not be found eligible for Medicaid coverage. If
this happens the individual now does not receive a tax credit and cannot have Medicaid coverage
but they are still required to have health coverage. That individual that is now stuck with a full
insurance premium because they dont make enough money.

Beginning of U.S health care

The ACA has been in place since 2014 with the intent to provide Americans with
affordable health coverage. Obamacare is a newer health care system in the United States and
just like any other new system it has its flaws and bugs. Some of those bugs can affect a lot of

people in a substantial way. Whether or not you support the ACA it is now in action and it is
important to know about what it can do for you can what it can do to you.

Work Cited
Collins, Sara. "New U.S. Census Data Show the Number of Uninsured Americans Dropped by
8.8
Million." - The Commonwealth Fund. Common Wealth, 9 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.
Miller, Zeke. "Number of Uninsured Americans Near Record Low." Time. Time, 18 Dec. 2014.
Web. 13 Feb. 2016.
NCSL. "Health Insurance: Premiums and Increases." Health Insurance Premiums and Premium
Costs by State. State Legislatures, 15 Dec. 2015. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.
"The Fee for Not Having Health Insurance." HealthCare.gov. ACA, n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.