Today marks the 6 year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act; and since we’ve all heard our Republican uncle talk about how terrible ‘Obamacare’ is, I thought it might be nice to get some of the facts.
The Affordable Care Act was a large step in achieving universal health care access for Americans. Because of it, millions of hardworking Americans can now get the coverage they deserve; and millions more have better coverage than before. Just 7 years ago, health care providers could:
1.
Charge women more than men for the same plan
2.
Deny people with pre-existing conditions
3.
Cancel your coverage once you get sick
4.
Put a lifetime cap on how much care you can receive
Luckily these are all things of the past. Another blessing of the Affordable Care Act is the gifted access to preventative care. Healthcare providers must now offer free preventative services like cancer screenings and certain immunizations. The addition of these precautionary measures saves lives and can yield higher national health for our future.
On this campus alone there are thousands of likely unknowing beneficiaries of the Affordable Care Act. Prior to its passage, millions of young adults could not afford to purchase their own coverage. Under the Affordable Care Act, individuals can now stay on their parent’s insurance plan until they’re 26.
This rule change has allowed for over 5 million young adults (myself included) to gain coverage. It’s also important to note that the Affordable Care Act implemented an 80/20 rule that requires insurers to spend at least 80% of premium costs exclusively on improvements to care—which helps keeps our costs down.
This election season we’ve heard several candidates say that they would repeal the Affordable Care Act. Before hopping on board with a partisan move, I would ask each of you to dig in and see if you want to go backwards. It’s not my belief that the Affordable Care Act has created a perfect system, but I do firmly feel that it is a giant leap towards providing the healthcare that we deserve.
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