Health Care Reform Bill impacts Americans
Majority of U.S. citizens now required to buy health insurance or pay a fine
After months of preparing and battling, President Barack Obama’s Health Care Reform Bill passed on Tuesday, March 22. The law will go into effect within a year, but will not be fully enacted until 2019.
“This legislation will not fix everything that ails our health care system, but it moves us decisively in the right direction,” President Obama told USA Today.
The majority of U.S. citizens are now required to purchase health insurance or else they will have to pay a fine. The only ones exempt from this mandate, which goes into effect in 2014, are low-income citizens. The law extends the federal-state Medicaid program to low-income individuals with incomes up to 133 percent of the poverty level. Families making up to four times the federal poverty level will be eligible for tax credits when purchasing personal insurance.
According to CBS News, the government will cover 100 percent of the medical costs of low-income individuals on Medicaid through 2016. The law will gradually close the insurance coverage limit on prescription drugs under Medicare as well. Currently, Medicare only covers up to $2,830 in prescription drug benefits. Once senior citizens reach that limit they have to pay the difference. This year, senior citizens who reach $2,830 will receive a $250 rebate for their prescription drugs. In 2011, senior citizens who have reached the prescription drug limit will initially receive a 50 percent discount on name brand drugs, closing the prescription drug limit.
Starting this year, insurance companies are outlawed from placing lifetime dollar limits on their policies. They are also no longer able to deny insurance coverage to children with pre-existing conditions and cannot cancel their customers’ policies because they become sick.
The new health care law will insure 32 million people by 2014, which is approximately 95 percent of American citizens. According to CNN, 15 percent of Americans are uninsured and 25 percent of Americans are considered underinsured.
The law will cost $940 billion, which is acquired from taxing high-income households, raising taxes on Medicare, taxing high-cost medical plans, money from penalties due to citizens not buying health insurance and trimming down various health-related tax breaks over the span of ten years.
“We proved that this government, a government of the people and by the people, still works for the people,” said Obama to Fox News.
In response to increased taxes, such as with the new health care system, a Tea Party protest was held outside of the Douglas County Courthouse from 5:30-6:45 p.m. on April 15. The protest, which was sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, included speakers like Senator Jeff Kruse; Representative Tim Freeman; Jim Huffman, a professor at Lewis and Clark Law School and Jeff Kropf, the director of the group.
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