On March 23, 2010 President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. Since then, the bill has been one of the most debated issues in recent history. Is this Act good for business? Is this Act Constitutional?
Jason Sweatt, a certified public accountant at Elliot Davis states, “The Act has tax impact, directly or indirectly, on every American. This impact will unfold over the next seven to 10 years and we all need to pay attention so we don’t get hit with unexpected cost.” This Act immediately affects small businesses dramatically. The new law focuses on employers with more than 50 employees. Due to that, small businesses will need to exert a significant amount of time and energy to learn and correct them to comply with the requirements. This can be extremely costly. This law is costly to large businesses as well. If you have more than 50 employees you have to offer coverage or be subject to a fine.
One of the largest taxes that the PPACA enacts is on health insurance, prescription drugs, and on medical devices. What this causes is for premiums as well as prices to rise sharply. What this does is put a new burden on businesses. Hospitals and doctors will struggle until they get to a much larger size. “The plan is a 40 excise tax as on higher premium plans. This would make the premium cost go somewhat upward and will make actually make the insurance premiums rise.” (South Carolina Business) “Up to six years ago, more than half of the United States Medical practices were owned by certified doctors. It is estimated that at some point next year, almost two thirds will be salaried employees of larger institutions. This is caused directly from the new law.” (Wall Street Journal) Brian Margargl...
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The cons of PPACA include an eventual increase in the cost of healthcare because of the increase in the number of individuals receiving preventative care. This is based on a study done by the Congressional Budget Office in 2009, which concluded this increase "will lead to higher net medical spending" (Amadeo). The increased number of benefits actually causes the cost curve to rise (Tate 122,123). PPACA will impose a tax on those individuals that do not have insurance by the deadline in 2014, and the tax will increase each year (Amadeo). PPACA also requires insurance plans to cover ten specific health concerns or it fails to meet their criteria (Amadeo).
One of the most controversial topics in the United States in recent years has been the route which should be undertaken in overhauling the healthcare system for the millions of Americans who are currently uninsured. It is important to note that the goal of the Affordable Care Act is to make healthcare affordable; it provides low-cost, government-subsidized insurance options through the State Health Insurance Marketplace (Amadeo 1). Our current president, Barack Obama, made it one of his goals to bring healthcare to all Americans through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. This plan, which has been termed “Obamacare”, has come under scrutiny from many Americans, but has also received a large amount of support in turn for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons include a decrease in insurance discrimination on the basis of health or gender and affordable healthcare coverage for the millions of uninsured. The opposition to this act has cited increased costs and debt accumulation, a reduction in employer healthcare coverage options, as well as a penalization of those already using private healthcare insurance.
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In the 2012 Presidential Debates over the Affordable Care Act President Barack Obama said “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” But this, in fact, is not the case. Barack Obama mislead voters into believing they could keep their health insurance if you were among the 85% already happily insured. His message was, “ObamaCare will affect the other people, not you” (Troy). ...
Taxes in relation to the new healthcare reform is a prominent topic when one examines the supporting and opposing sides of the law. New taxes on businesses producing medical equipment and new Medicare taxes on investments have been established. For individuals and businesses choosing not to participate in purchasing health insurance there will be a penalty called a "shared responsibility" tax. The accrued money from these taxes is being used, among other things, to provide low-cost insurance plans on the marketplace and to create subsidies for those purchasing the plans. Through these subsidies, "any individual making up to $45,960 or a family of four with household income up to $94,200 is eligible" ("Obamacare tax guide") to qualify and get assistance at the end of each year to off-set the cost of the insurance even more...
American people look at their insurance bills, co-pays and drug costs, and can't understand why they continue to increase. The insured should consider all of these reasons before getting upset. In 2004, employee health care premiums increased over 11 percent, four times more than the rate of inflation. In 2003, premiums rose 10.1 percent and in 2002 they rose 15 percent. Employee spending for coverage increased 126 percent between 2000 and 2004. Those increases were lower than expected. (National Coalition on Health Care, 2005, Facts on health care costs). Premiums have risen five times faster than workers wages, on average. If medical spending continues to rise by just two percent more than personal income, by 2040 Medicare and Medicaid would hit 18.5 percent of the gross domestic product, leading the federal deficit to be 20.7 of the gross domestic product. (Melcer, R., 2004, St Louis Post-Dispatch, Rising Costs of healthcare pose huge challenges).
2.) Ellen-Marie Whelan and Lesley Russell, February 25, 2010, “Why We Need HealthCare Reform, May 16, 2014,
This paper will take into account the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Law and how all three branches of government are involved with the creation and analyze issues associated with the ACA. Subsequently the paper will describe the role of public opinion and lobbying groups. Thirdly this paper will evaluate the concepts of equity, efficiency, and effectiveness showcasing their role in the law and its passage. This paper will take into consideration the anticipated effects on cost, quality, and access, including discussing the balance of markets and the government. In closing this paper will highlight the anticipated effects on Medicare and aging as well as Medicaid and the poor. The ACA was signed on March 23, 2010 with the intention to offer all U.S. Citizens and residents a qualifying health care coverage plan. The law’s focus is to expand coverage, control health care cost, and improve health care delivery system.
As of February 2013, only 6 states with Republican governors had committed to accepting federal funding to expand Medicaid to all residents. As of June 2013, 26 states supported the Medicaid expansion. Most of the states not supporting the Medicaid expansion were in the south, and had the reasoning that the state could “simply not afford it”. It was found that the United States spends more on health care than any other country, but in result has worse outcomes on most measures of health. The Institute of Medicine reports a reason Americans are so unhealthy is because of the large uninsured population and limited access to care.
The Consequences Of Obamacare [Electronic Resource] : Impact On Medicaid And State Health Care Reform : Hearing Before The Committee On Energy And Commerce, House Of Representatives, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, First Session, March 1, 2011. n.p.: Washington : U.S. G.P.O., 2011., 2011. Louisiana State University. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.
Klein, E. (2014). A health industry expert on ‘the fundamental problem with Obamacare.’ The Washington Post. Retrieved on 2/8/14 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/01/09/a-health-industry-expert-on-the-fundamental-problem-with-obamacare
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