Policy-making in the Federal System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Policy-making in the Federal System - Essay ExampleThe Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly cognise as Obama distribute, was signed into law by President Obama in March 23, 2010 and is considered to be a major overhaul in the U.S healthcare since 1965. This paper explores how Obamacare works, the classs pros and cons, if it is achieving its objectives and federalism issues raised by the program. Summary of the History of Obamacare The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was introduced as a bill in 2009 during 111th sex act session and passed on November 7, 2009. John Dingell of Michigan, who was also the House Dean, sponsored the bill. President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law on March 31, 2010 (Tate, 2012). The ACA is aimed expanding insurance entranceway to approximately 32 million uninsurable Americans, emphasizing prevention and wellness, increasing consumer protections, improving quality and system performance, increasing the work force in health care and curbing escalating cost of health care in the United States (Tate, 2012). The one-on-one mandate, which is a major component of the ACA, is perceived by many to be unconstitutional. The individual mandate of the ACA requires millions of Americans to purchase health insurance from a private company for the rest of their lives or face annual penalties (Sekulow, 2012, Para 10). ... The Constitution of the United States protects the casualness of the citizens (Benedict, 2006). Historically, the ACA presents the very first incident where the U.S Congress mandated American citizens to buy a private company product. According to Sekulow (2012), under the Commerce Clause, the Congress has no jurisdiction to compel any individual to purchase any product from a private company. Therefore, the mandated ACA has raised issues of federalism because the provisions of the Act are deemed unconstitutional. The Main Pros and Cons of Obamacare Despite the item that the Obam acare has been under intense criticism, it comes with numerous benefits, particularly for low and middle income earners. However, it also has some cons, but these should not be the cause for its rejection as it was purely do out of good intent for Americans. Pros of Obamacare Increased accessibility to affordable health care insurance to millions of uninsured Americans More than half of uninsured individuals will come free or low cost health insurance via state Health Insurance Marketplace. Expansion of CHIP to cover a maximum of 9 million children Expansion of Medicaid to 15.9 million females, males and children who are 138 percent below poverty line Small businesses stand the chance benefit from tax credits of up to 50 percent of health insurance costs on their employees Obamacare curbs high cost of health care Cons of Obamacare Making insurance available and affordable to millions of uninsured individuals involves increase in taxes, especially for high-income earners. Individua l mandate demands that every American must obtain health coverage by January 2014. The expansion of Medicaid is done exploitation Federal