Starting in 2014, almost every American will need to carry health insurance, or be subject to a fine. That rule is known as the individual mandate; and like most insurances, the reason for this requirement is to spread risks and costs among many people in order to make it affordable for everyone.
At the present time, when people without health insurance get sick, they often go to a hospital emergency room for treatment that costs much more than it would in a doctor's office, and this costs all taxpayers, including the insured, even more.
Obamacare will provide subsidies on a sliding income scale to help all Americans buy health insurance coverage. For example, a single person earning $43,320 or a family of four earning $88,200 would be subsidized 70 percent ($30,324 or $61,740 respectively) for out-of-pocket costs for health insurance protection.
In spite of what you may have heard about Obamacare, health insurance will be affordable for most Americans in 2014, thanks to the individual mandate requiring the purchase of health insurance coverage.
Recently, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives voted for the 33rd time unsuccessfully to repeal Obamacare. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), that legislation would have increased federal budget deficits by $109 billion and would add that amount onto the national debt over next ten years.
The Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, isn't perfect, but it provides something in the way of healthcare for almost all Americans, including the young and the elderly, and the CBO says that it will actually shrink federal budget deficits over the next decade.
Obamacare adds health insurance coverage to an additional 30 million uninsured Americans and lowers federal budget deficits. What's wrong with that?
David L. Faust
Selinsgrove
