Hey gang,
I’ve gotten sick of hearing Obamacare get slammed all over the media and throughout Capitol Hill. I fear that not many people know what Obamacare really is and what its benefits are to our citizens. So, in my best effort to correct this, I’ve done some research, interpreted it, and put the results together to let you know what Obamacare is all about.
Let’s be honest: there is no one single definition of what Obamacare does or is supposed to do. Try Googling it. Google search “Obamacare” and you’ll get nothing but anti-Obama websites, organizations, petitions, and a bunch of results from Fox News. Really, what is this new law about?
Obamacare itself is not a law. It is the nickname for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which Congress put into effect on January 5 of this year. Sounds like a good enough title, right? Let’s examine it.
The PPACA gives American citizens a wealth of benefits to their health, wallets, and consciences. Here are a few:
-You can now appeal when an insurance plan denies payment for a treatment or service, and win, as opposed to just taking it and staying sick (or, in most former cases, dying). If the insurance company still denies you, you can get an independent review completed. At least now the little guys have some ammunition. (Healthcare.gov)
-For children, there is a huge benefit: health insurance companies cannot limit or deny coverage to anyone under 19-years-old because they were labeled with a pre-existing condition. All those kids you spend your volunteer time with at the Children’s Cancer Society now have a chance to get healthy and live productive lives without unintentionally putting their family in the red (or kids with asthma, leukemia, or Crohn’s disease). The best part is that this applies whether or not the child’s health problem or disability was discovered or treated before they applied for health coverage. This same rule will apply to ALL Americans who apply for health insurance starting in 2014. About damn time, too. (Healrthcare.gov)
-You can now seek emergency care at any hospital that is outside your plan’s network, without prior approval from your health care provider. This is especially useful if you’re traveling and have a medical emergency. You know that you’ll be alright financially if you get bit by a snake or a shark (or, anything else you can imagine could happen outside of your home town). (Healthcare.gov)
-Beginning in 2014, no more annual limits to the amount you can be covered for in a single year. Similarly, starting in 2014, there is no longer a lifetime limit to what amount of coverage you may receive. Now, as long as you make your monthly payments, your insurance company must pay for the cost of your health care, no matter how high the cost. But until then, the limits to annual coverage are as follows:
- $750,000—for a “plan year” or “policy year” starting on or after September 23, 2010 but before September 23, 2011.
- $1.25 million—for a plan year or policy year starting on or after September 23, 2011 but before September 23, 2012.
- $2 million—for a plan year or policy year starting on or after September 23, 2012 but before January 1, 2014. (Healthcare.gov)
-Children under age 26 can now stay on their parents’ insurance policy (or be added on to it) until they turn 26, even if they are married, in school, or financially dependent upon them. Useful for if you can’t find a job after you graduate college or if you lose your job and the health insurance that came with it and still want coverage. Useful in a down economy, right? (and don’t combat me by saying “Yeah, an economy that Obama put us in!” That’s B.S. After eight years of near-retardation in the White House, it’ll take more than two to dig us out of this mess. But thanks for blaming the black guy). (Healthcare.gov)
-Preventative services: you no longer have to pay a copayment, co-insurance, or a deductible for preventative health services, like mammograms (ladies), cholesterol and diabetes tests, counseling for quitting smoking or losing weight, flu shots, counseling and screenings to ensure healthy pregnancies, and well-baby and well-child visits up to age 21. These are just a few examples. (Healthcare.gov)
-Up to 35% tax credits for small businesses with 25 or fewer employees. (Healthcare.gov)
-Limiting how much money insurance companies can spend of your premiums on administrative costs, marketing, and other non-health care related costs. If they go over it, you get a refund. (Healthcare.gov)
-Cost savings to reduce the federal deficit by $143 billion over the next ten years. (Connelly)
-Offering coverage to 30 million Americans who currently live without health care. Take a moment to fathom that quantity of people. (Connelly)
-The crème de la crème of the PPACA is, by far, the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP). This makes health coverage immediately available to people who have been denied health coverage because they have, under the old system, a “pre-existing condition.” Some people are arguing that this is going to cost so much money. But, hey, think about how much MORE money people are going to contribute to the nation’s economy when, you know, THEY’RE NOT DEAD. It’s simple, really: someone who is alive and working is worth more than someone who is dead and physically incapable of being employed. Think about it. If you still disagree, punch yourself. (Healthcare.gov)
By the way, have you ever seen a list of pre-existing conditions used as terms for denial for health insurance coverage? Take a look:
http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/medicine/pre-existing-conditions.htm
Keep in mind, this list includes only two of the many, many cancers that, under the old system, would qualify as “pre-existing conditions.” (“Pre-Existing Medical Conditions List”)
It just makes sense to me that, really, the whole reason for needing health insurance is if you have one of those conditions and can’t pay for your health care needs independently. I suppose health insurance companies, executives, and Republicans disagree. Not that it’s going to do them any good anymore.
As a recent cancer survivor, I jumped on PCIP as soon as I could. Last Monday, I got my prescription card, and am officially insured through PPO USA. Last week, I got two prescriptions filled at a grocery store pharmacy. Yesterday, I got a three-month supply of Synthroid, a pill that I must take everyday in order to live, delivered in the mail. Next week, I am getting a six-month supply sent to me in preparation for when I go to work in London this January. I have to pay out-of-pocket for my meds, but the costs are much, much less than I would have to pay without PCIP. And I haven’t had any hassles with them over the phone or argued about prices, quantities, and locations. I can use my new insurance anywhere; when I asked if I could use it abroad, they said “Of course. It’s like any other insurance. If you go to a hospital in London, they can bill us by using the information on your insurance card, just like they could with every other company.” When the woman on the phone told me this, my eyes watered up. It is so, so comforting to finally have real health insurance. Granted, it’s not cheap, but now that I’ll be employed, I’ll be making enough to cover health needs. How sweet it is.
To close my essay, I would like to inform you that Obamacare is not a Ponzi scheme, contrary to what Senate Budget Committee Chairman Senator Conrad will lead you to believe (Montgomery). It’s hardly as a “monstrosity,” which is what future Speaker of the House of Representatives and perpetually orange-toned John Boehner referred to it as.It’s not going to cost you, as a tax-paying, law-abiding citizen inordinate amounts of money. And if you believe all the negative things that the news networks and many Republicans are saying about it, then, quite frankly, you’re not thinking for yourself. I took the time to give you the facts so that, for once in your depressing life, you could make up your mind about a political idea without someone putting a huge spin on it.
The current agenda of many Republicans to repeal and wage a legal war against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, is an incredible waste of time, effort, money, film, lung capacity, and human thought process. The people who are fighting this with all their might are the people who were profiting the most under the old set of rules prior to the introduction of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Let them squirm. My family had to squirm every time we had to pay a bill for mine and my father’s cancer treatments, hoping that each time would be the last time, and all the while knowing that we would soon be losing our health insurance. We aren’t squirming today.
What it comes down to, really, is correcting a huge set of wrongs that, for throughout our country’s history, were accepted as standard procedure. Not anymore. Take it from someone who, literally, needs this program to live: me. In order for something to be accepted, it first must be understood. That is why I wrote this for you. (Note: this is not the first time that our country has had to change ourselves because something we were doing was wrong. See: 13th Amendment, 19th Amendment, Civil Rights Act of 1964).
If you’d like to contest any information or argument in this essay, I’ve gone ahead and cited all my sources, MLA Style, for you to check my work. If you still want to build up your argument and go head-to-head with my cancer-defeating soul, I invite you to do so, after which you will promptly suck a fat one. However, feel free to correct me on any grammatical or citation mistakes, because I always welcome that.
Works Cited
Connelly, Michael K.“Wrong Diagnosis.” Herald Tribune 7 November 2010, Sunday final edition: 20A.
“H.R. 3590: The Quality, Affordable Health Care for All Americans Act.” U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee. 12 December 2009. 12 November 2010.
<http://go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&site=senatus.wordpress.com&url=htt p%3A%2F%2Frpc.senate.gov%2Fpublic%2F_files%2FL28HR3590HealthCare120209ac.pdf>
Montgomery, Lori. “Proposed long-term insurance program raises questions,” Washington Post. October 27, 2009. 12 November 2010.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/27/AR2009102701417.html>
“Patient Protection Affordable Care Act As Passed.” One Hundred Eleventh Congress of the United States of America. 5 January 2010. 12 November 2010.
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBMQFjAA&url= http%3A%2F%2Fdemocrats.senate.gov%2Freform%2Fpatient-protection-affordable-care-act-as- passed.pdf&ei=TNDcTKfAIIS8lQes_OTgDA&usg=AFQjCNF6LZ2iBsrS5nz_2rKzvEmrkZILlA>
(Note: this is the real act of Congress, as it passed. I read it. Well, some of it, anyway.)
“Pre-Existing Medical Conditions List.” Vaughn Aubuchon. 19 March 2010. 12 November 2010.
<http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/medicine/pre-existing-conditions.htm>
“Provisions of the Affordable Care Act.” U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. 12 November 2010.
Eliott At Large 