According to the Huffington Post, 28-year-old Erica Chain, a worker at Rock Health, traveled abroad a few years ago to do volunteer work and slipped into a coma in her sleep. She came back to the U.S. for brain surgery, but was medically uninsurable due to her pre-existing condition and denied health insurance by every provider she approached.
Thanks to the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Chain was given health insurance when no other group would provide it to her. The ACA saved her from paying high costs for future medical issues due to her pre-existing condition.
The ACA, or Obamacare as it is more commonly referred to as, was signed into law on March 23, 2010. Obamacare opened enrollment in October 2013, and coverage began January 2014. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Obamacare will, among other things, not deny coverage to anyone with a pre-existing condition, lower the cost of health care and allow children to stay on their parents’ plan until age 26, which is useful for those who don’t want to or can’t get their own health care plan.
Although controversial, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is beneficial to Americans who previously went without health care due to high costs or ineligibility.
As a result of these benefits, 4.2 million people have already signed up for ObamaCare, which includes over 1 million young people (ages 18-34). This large number speaks for itself.
Previously, people with pre-existing conditions could be denied coverage or forced to pay increased rates for health care because their condition would make them a risk for health care providers the way Chain was. However, Obamacare can’t target every kind of financial situation; thus, it was made to help the majority of Americans.
Before Obamacare, some high-risk older people were forced to pay extremely high premiums or were simply denied coverage by insurance companies. Although young people are now forced to pay slightly higher premiums for insurance to help the elderly, this will eventually become beneficial for them as they become older because then their premiums will be lower.
The new law has many problems that need to be fixed, but as a whole, the reforms help many Americans and are a step in a better direction.