Obamacare provides many consumer protections, including allowing people to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26, protecting individuals with preexisting conditions, and requiring insurance companies to cover preventive services without charging patients more.
The law also established public marketplaces where individuals and families can shop for affordable health insurance plans. These exchanges offer tax credits and subsidies to lower premiums and out-of-pocket costs.
What is Obamacare?
Obamacare, also known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is a law passed by President Barack Obama in 2010. It’s one of his signature pieces of legislation and aims to make health care more affordable, accessible and high-quality for all Americans.
The ACA made significant changes to the way Americans receive healthcare, including expanding insurance coverage and protecting people from insurance company tactics that could drive up their costs or restrict their access to care. The law also required that insurers spend at least 80% of their premium dollars on medical care, which has helped lower health insurance premiums for many Americans.
It also allows those with pre-existing conditions to buy affordable health insurance, which has helped slow the growth of healthcare expenses and improve their quality of life. Additionally, the ACA requires insurers to cover a wide range of preventive services and provides coverage for young adults up to age 26.
What is the ACA?
The Affordable Care Act, or ACA, was passed by President Obama in 2010 to help reduce healthcare costs for families. It also ensured that everyone had access to health insurance.
The ACA was designed to expand coverage, increase consumer protections, improve quality and system performance, and curb rising health care costs. Its provisions have benefited millions of Americans and have helped drive down the uninsured rate in the U.S.
For example, it makes preventive services available without cost sharing for women and aims to support pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. It also provides coverage for key screenings and vaccinations, including HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer.
The law also helps people with pre-existing conditions find affordable insurance. For example, it prohibits insurers from denying coverage because of health status and limits the ability to charge different rates by age or gender. Moreover, the law requires that companies spend at least 80% of premiums on paying for care.
What will happen if the ACA is repealed?
If the ACA is repealed without a viable replacement plan, many people would lose their coverage and insurance premiums could increase. Repealing the ACA’s prohibitions against gender and health status underwriting and limits on age underwriting will mean insurance will cost more for women, older Americans, and people with preexisting conditions.
Moreover, replacing the ACA with fixed dollar tax credits will make health coverage unaffordable for lower-income Americans. Removing the ACA’s requirement that insurance cover essential health benefits (EHBs) will also leave millions of people without protections for key preventative care, including maternity care and mental health services.
The ACA also helped reduce prescription drug costs for seniors, by closing the Medicare Part D coverage gap and making it illegal to charge higher prices to seniors who reach a certain level of spending. Repealing the ACA would put more Medicare enrollees into the donut hole, where they would have to pay the full cost of all their prescription drugs before their catastrophic coverage kicks in.
How will the ACA be replaced?
A number of options exist to replace the ACA. Some, such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion, are favored by both Republicans and Democrats.
Repealing these provisions could lead to an increase in uninsured rates. The bill also eliminates several cost-sharing reductions that help keep premiums down.
The Congressional Budget Office has not released cost estimates for these repeal bills yet, and House committees may be allowed to mark up the legislation without those reports. However, they likely will focus on the ten-year budget window ending in fiscal year 2027.
