Constituents speak-out and rally supporting the Affordable Care Act, organized by MoveOn.org outside Senator Pat Toomey's office on December 20, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo : Getty Images for Moveon.org/Lisa Lake)
Democrats on Capitol Hill this week are touting a new slogan "Make America Sick Again" as Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and his colleagues try to save Obamacare lest there will be a national health care catastrophe. Republicans do not like the program and are finding ways to repeal it.
The Republicans took the initial steps to repeal the law on the first day of the 115th Congress on Jan. 2, Tuesday, but found it an uphill endeavor, especially without a better replacement. They made it clear, however, that a full replacement may take years though their promise to voters to end Obamacare puts them under tremendous pressure, Fox News reported.
Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act is an insurance exchange by the federal government where Americans who lack insurance could shop for government health care plans that would cover essential and standard health benefits. Uninsured citizens can check if they are eligible for government subsidy.
Congress passed the Affordable Care Act and President Obama signed it in 2010 to expand the health insurance coverage to more people, including the broadened Medicaid eligibility. Those who are happy with their Obamacare-compliant private healthcare could stick with those, renew them or change them.
Obamacare was created to provide universal healthcare to Americans and reduce overall costs by curtailing emergency room visits for routine care and other uninsured medical expenses. However, the dropout of young and healthy participants along with doctors and insurance firms resulted to increased premiums.
Republicans oppose Obamacare because of costs. They do not like the tax increase to expand Medicaid and subsidizing insurance coverage for lower-income Americans from higher-income taxpayers. They are against the kind of uniformity in the regulation that suppresses medical innovation and blame it for killing job growth with its imposed costs on larger businesses.
Some young adults who complained they felt they are forced to buy healthcare even if they could not afford it. Others find Obamacare confusing with the bill that totals to 2,700 pages.
The October 2013 rollout of Healthcare.gov website had glitches. In October 2016, Obamacare was hit with another obstruction with the announcement that premiums will increase an average of 25 percent across 39 states served by the government-run online market.
Incoming President Donald Trump nominated Georgia Congressman Tom price to head the Health and Human Services. Price proposed an Empowering Patients First Act that would have the federal government offer uninsured citizens tax credit toward private insurance cost, Maharlika News reported.
The credits would be based on age and not income, which Democrats fear would harm lower-income citizens. The program will also remove Medicaid expansion which helped about 14 million poor Americans have coverage.
Replacing Obamacare would take time as sudden change could leave millions of people in America suddenly uninsured. If they get sick, they are left on their own, and that is politically dangerous.
Check out an explanation of the Obamacare below:
