Cause And Effects Of Obamacare

Before 2010, millions of Americans suffered from the issues of not having health insurance. The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was signed into law with high hopes of reducing the number of uninsured by making health insurance available to all U.S. citizens regardless of having an employer or not and living with a pre-existing condition while reducing additional healthcare spending outside the deductibles and premiums. Even with the best intentions to solve the problem of uninsured Americans, another problem surfaced from the Act, the cost. Since the current Federal Health care system burdens millions of Americans with unaffordable cost, which are caused by rising prices in pharmaceuticals, hospital care, and inadequate health plan services, the Department of Health and Human Resources should reform, the Affordable Care Act by lowering deductibles for prescriptions and desist rising prices for generic drugs, reducing the cost of hospital care, and forming better health plans. Since the cost of medication is continually rising, many health care plans now make policy holders pay a separate deductible just for their prescriptions. This issue does not target anyone in particular, it affects many different insures including “the new Obamacare marketplaces include hefty deductibles for dugs of hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year. Even people who get their health insurance from large corporations, which tend to have the richest benefits, are expected to pay a growing share of their drug bill out of their pockets” (Sanger-Katz). Each patient’s health is different from another’s, so plans and deductibles should tailor to that one patient’s needs. If an insured patient who is primarily healthy with small needs like daily medications, their health care plan should not make them have an additional deductible for just prescriptions. Paying out of pocket or towards a deductible for a prescription is developing problems due to the price increase of generic drugs. Initially, generic drugs became available to allow patients to get medications at cheaper rates. These patients do not know the prices are rising when purchasing these generic drugs because “the skyrocketing costs are borne primarily by insurance companies, which subsequently raise people’s premiums to accommodate the greater expenses” (Lazarus), …show more content…
One of the main reasons why hospital visits have increased since Obamacare is there is a big difference in ratio between patients and physicians are with patients being the highest number. Tom Howell, a journalist for the Washington Times, explained it best by saying, “The biggest cause is lack of primary care doctors to treat the increased number of patients with health care coverage so the patients are turning to the emergency room instead – exactly what wasn’t supposed to happen” (Howell). Since Obamacare covers emergency room and hospital visits, patients will quickly go there instead of making appointments to be seen by a physician. If the Affordable Care Act could change the requirements about going to hospitals, the percentage of patients and the higher priced premiums would eventually fall. Going to the emergency room with a non-emergency need should not be covered under Obamacare. Time along with supplies are sometimes wasted to treat non-emergencies. If this small could change within the act, people use urgent care facilities and primary doctors for their non-emergency needs, the hospitals could run more efficiently and eventually the cost would probably go