Include a cover page containing the tile of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length. The Assignment 1 and 2 revisions are not included in the required page length.Assignment 1: Historical Perspective
Obamacare: From The Obama to The Trump Administration
Lea Jones
PAD 510: Introduction to Public Policy
Prof. Dr. Timothy Smith
Due April 23, 2018
Historical Perspective of Obamacare
Healthcare for Americans has not been affordable to all Americans for a long period. The insurance companies that were ensuring Americans against diseases were charging expensively and most Americans more so the jobless and those earning less could not afford a medical cover. The insurance companies were also charging expensively for persons suffering from terminal diseases. This led to the events that led to the creation of Obamacare. In the year 2009, the Democrats under the leadership of President Obama revealed their plan to overhaul the healthcare system. The house representative speaker Nancy Pelosi gave a notice of the plan of coming up with the affordable healthcare for America Act. The death of Senator Ted Kennedy placed the senate into risk the passing of the Health Care Act since the 60-seat supermajority was reduced by his death (Huntington, et al, 2011)
There was hope when Paul Kirk was appointed the interim democrat senator since he gave Democrats the supermajority they much needed. This led to the house of representative passing the affordable health care for America with 219 Democrats and one Republican. The Democrats did not have numbers in the Senate to pass the bill through. They used budget reconciliation bill so that they can get one bill passed which needed on 51 members to pass it to go to the president’s desk for signing. By March 2010, the Senate succeeded to pass their version of the health care plan, and it was signed into law by President Barrack Obama. The affordable care act is commonly known as Obamacare. At the moment, the Trump administration wants to scrap Obamacare because president Trump thinks that the Obamacare is a hoax and expensive for most Americans hence making it unaffordable (Huntington, et al, 2011)
Social, Economic, and Political Environments during the passage and implementation
of Obamacare
By the time the policy was being discussed, some Americans would not afford health coverage because it was expensive. At the same time, the Democrats were not able to pass the legislation due to lack of a majority in the Senate. The law was not popular with the majority of the citizens either. A few people in the political class had the clue of the details of that piece of legislation, but the common citizens had no clue. However, the Democrats who were the policymakers, forced for its passage using the budget reconciliation bill as a leverage for their unpopular law to be passed. Finally, the affordable health care act was passed by a narrowly partisan process, and Democrats were optimistic that the American citizens would later like the law. The law lacked majority support. Its unpopularity is evident since those who were running for congressional seats and were opposing the bill got elected trouncing those in support of the bill. Those who are against had fears that the proposed health care plan shall not be affordable as such. They also believed that the bill should disrupt the existing medical coverage system apart from bureaucracy associated with such bills (Jones, Bradley, & Oberlander, 2014).
Critique on effectiveness Obamacare at the moment
President Obama promised repeatedly that the plan should be the most affordable health care plans in America. That has not been achieved since the cost of the insurance has been on the rise and it has become a burden to most families and businesses. The plan is premised on cost-sharing. There has been an increase in enrollment into the plan because Americans have no alternative, but in future, the number of people who shall enroll will reduce because most people feel they are paying premiums for a plan that requires cost sharing substantially. For much good-health middle-income earners, the high-cost sharing is worth paying a single premium instead of cost-sharing (Wilensky, 2012).
Any guiding principle in any market is always that it should have competition and choice. In such an environment, consumers can do better, and that is how markets should work. Since the introduction of Obamacare, this has not been the case. More than 80 % of the insurance companies control five or fewer companies in more than 35 states. For instance, 90 % of Alabama State is controlled by one insurance company. When there is a monopolistic market where there is no competition, the price of commodities are expected to go up, and the quality of the product will go down. That is how Obamacare is operating at the moment. It is monopolistic has led to the increased premiums, and now it is offering poor services to the citizens by choosing the healthiest and dropping the sickest, jacking up rates and even overcharging small businesses. And because of this, the plan has not achieved its goals of being affordable to all Americans again (Barrilleaux, & Rainey, 2014).
The Obamacare was anticipating for job creations, but the act has failed to create jobs. Several fiscal policy developments by Federal Reserve under the current law will have had an impact on the labor market. The impact of affordable heal care act on the job market has risen from the provisions in the act that raise marginal tax rates on earnings thus reducing on how much people would choose to do work. People with higher income face out the subsidies the affordable health care act provides through its expansion of Medicaid. Some people labor income has a higher tax imposed on it by the act and all these effects on labor have grown thus affecting the economic growth which in turn have had an impact on jobs. The Obamacare needs competition for it to achieve its purpose. If it continues being in the market alone as it is now, it will not be affordable it is was intended to be (Wilensky, 2012).
References
Barrilleaux, C., & Rainey, C. (2014). The politics of need: Examining governors’ decisions to oppose the “Obamacare” Medicaid expansion. State Politics & Policy Quarterly, 14(4), 437-460.
Huntington, W. V., Covington, L. A., Center, P. P., Covington, L. A., & Manchikanti, L. (2011). Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010: reforming the health care reform for the new decade. Pain physician, 14(1), E35-E67.
Jones, D. K., Bradley, K. W., & Oberlander, J. (2014). Pascal’s Wager: health insurance exchanges, Obamacare, and the Republican dilemma. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 39(1), 97-137.
Wilensky, G. R. (2012). The shortfalls of “Obamacare”. New England Journal of Medicine, 367(16), 1479-1481.
