Obamacare Cons Essay

Even though ObamaCare does a lot right, it does have some consequences for specific groups of Americans. ObamaCare does hurt a small percentage of small businesses, has had a negative effect on insurance premiums and has made some reforms that have hurt some medical industries and their workers. Here are some of the cons of the healthcare bill: ObamaCare Cons: Taxes on Small Business  2% of firms in the US have over 50 full-time employees and will have to choose to insure full-time workers or pay a fine. To avoid this some businesses will cut employee hours or not hire. Some things worth noting are that the fine isn’t paid for your first 30 workers. Also, many businesses are coming up with solutions that don’t hurt the workforce such as passing the extra costs onto consumers. Please be aware that when politicians say, â€Å"small business† they are also referring to the top 3% of small businesses who include Hedge Funds which use loopholes to pass as small businesses. ObamaCare Cons: Religious Beliefs There is some argument over ObamaCare funding women’s health services like contraception. There are exceptions built into the law to refuse to provide these services to women based on religious grounds, but this has non the less been causing issues on the ground, in the political arena and in the courts. ObamaCare Cons: Rising Premiums ObamaCare doesn’t raise premiums itself. In fact, it reforms the insurance industry, finding ways to drive down costs, make the quality of insurance better and prevent insurance company abuses like . Unfortunately, many provisions of ObamaCare that offer protections to consumers do not go into law until 2014. In the meantime, premium rates have been rising at alarming rates. ObamaCare doesn’t offer a protection beyond allowing states to enact the provision against price gouging. Many States are enforcing this, while  others aren’t. ObamaCare Cons: ObamaCare Insurance Exchanges Another con of ObamaCare is that 21 states planning to or are opting out of the State Run Exchanges, letting the federal government run their exchanges for them. The claim is that this is a cost cutting measure for the State, however the truth is much more complicated. This provision was meant to be in the bill, but it is being abused as a way to avoid providing subsidies to low and middle income Americans and forcing the Federal taxpayers to take care of anti-ObamaCare state’s constituents. This has resulted in a 3.5% fee for insurance companies to sell insurance on the federal exchange. Learn more about the State Run Insurance Exchanges. ObamaCare Cons: Tax for Not Buying Insurance Come 2014, you must purchase insurance or pay a â€Å"penalty income tax†. The first year it is $95 or 1% of your income. In order for the program to work at its best ideally everyone would have insurance resulting in affordable quality insurance for all, the tax helps offset the estimated 6 million people will pay the fine in the first year instead of purchasing insurance. ObamaCare Cons: Big Business Taxes Medical device taxes and â€Å"drug innovator† taxes dig into the profits of some of the power houses in their respective industries. These taxes are a reaction to the large profit margins these companies have and the hold they have over the competition. They drive up the cost of health care, thus they are taxed to help pay for health care reform. However, taxes on large businesses may have unintended consequences in the job market and in aspects of the health care industry. We don’t have proof of their effects yet. ObamaCare Cons: Taxes on the 2% The top 2% of businesses and individuals in the US will pay some extra taxes.  You could argue that are closer to the 3% will get hit the hardest because the have the least extra cash to stay in the game with so it hurts them more. However, the most vocal opponents and the ones who fund the anti-ObamaCare campaigns are the big businesses who don’t like regulation, entitlement programs or any tax or program that affects their bottom line. Aside from the above mentioned consequences its important not to make their interests our own. ObamaCare Cons: ObamaCare Hurts Medicare ObamaCare cuts $716 billion from Medicare and reinvests the money back into the program. Since there is such a big overhaul ObamaCare set up a committee to oversee spending and effectiveness. Due to the sheer volume of reforms some of them, even though well intentioned, are sure to have unintended consequences and need adjusting. Although ObamaCare has already helped tens of millions of seniors save money on drugs and get access to better health care, there are some caveats. ObamaCare is projected to cost $1.1 trillion over the next ten years, and in order for the program to work as intended this is going to include funding from the tax payers and from the States. However, the end result of ObamaCare’s spending is a $200 billion dollar reduction of the deficit over the next decade, states also receive between 90 – 100% of funding for most ObamaCare related programs they set up. A few states, including Nevada and Michigan, have done studies that show how the States can save billions with ObamaCare. Health Insurance companies stand to make billions, despite a loss on profit per plan, since they will be insuring millions of new Americans.