Obamacare emphasizes expanding health coverage via insurance exchanges, while improving wellness to lower overall costs. Medicare for all proponents seek to eliminate private health insurers altogether and pay hospitals and physicians less in order to further lower costs.
Medicare and ACA marketplace plans share certain characteristics, yet work in different ways. Medicare is a federal health insurance program for people 65 or over while individual health plans in the ACA marketplaces are privately offered individual plans.
Medicare
While these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, they’re actually two separate programs. Obamacare refers to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), passed in 2010 to make changes in how health insurers operate; Medicare offers health coverage to individuals aged 65 or over or with qualifying disabilities.
The Affordable Care Act requires health insurance providers to offer plans that fulfill certain criteria, including covering essential benefits like prescription drugs and preventive care, while prohibiting them from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions or charging more for them than other individuals. Furthermore, everyone must maintain health coverage or pay a penalty fee.
American citizens may already be familiar with the ACA marketplace, commonly referred to as the healthcare exchange. Individuals without access to traditional health coverage through an employer can purchase private plans on this exchange at significantly reduced costs than would otherwise be available from traditional coverage provided through employers; depending on income they may also qualify for assistance through tax subsidies that cover their monthly premium payments.
Before the Affordable Care Act (ACA), health insurance was often an intimidating and perplexing experience for many individuals. Without access to comprehensive plans through their employers, people were forced to purchase overpriced plans that did not match their specific health needs or budget constraints. Prior to the ACA’s implementation, it was commonplace for individuals with pre-existing conditions or making mistakes on applications to be denied health coverage altogether or dropped after being declined insurance due to being refused coverage due to having preexisting conditions.
The Affordable Care Act was intended to change these dynamics and make health insurance more accessible, yet while it made significant strides towards this end, its full success remains in doubt; several key components have been challenged in court and in some instances repealed by Congress. Still, despite changing dynamics within the health insurance market and new challenges being presented by new competitors, ACA remains in force today.
