The Affordable Care Act, more commonly referred to as Obamacare, is the most significant development in health care reform in the United States since the implementation of Medicare and Medicaid in the mid 1960s.
It has also become one of the most controversial and confusing. One Google search under the term Obamacare will yield hundreds of articles, thousands of blogs, numerous charts and no doubt – tons of misinformation.
In the early stages, Obamacare was a dirty word. It was thought to be a socialist notion and brought on horrific images of higher taxes, death panels, invasions of privacy, and even a mass implanting of microchips. President Obama has since embraced the term and supporters of the Affordable Care Act have energetically accepted the task of setting things straight on the topic of health care reform.
“It is an extremely complicated bill,” said Dr. Eric Wright, director of the Center for Health Policy at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. In the case of Indiana’s decisions as far as the new laws are concerned the term “extremely complicated” is an understatement, he said.
Although the individual mandate states that by Jan. 1, 2014, every citizen must have some form of health insurance coverage in lieu of a fine, each state is not required to participate in the federal expansion of Medicaid. Indiana is one of those states who have yet to make up its mind.
Gov. Mike Pence and other Republican leaders have opposed Medicaid expansion due to perceived exorbitant costs to the state and have instead decided to negotiate with the federal government for an extension of the current Healthy Indiana Plan. According to the governor, “This health care law is weighing down our economy. It’s costing jobs, discouraging investment and making the future bleak for too many families.”
The Healthy Indiana Plan touts a waiting list of 8,000 according to its website. It is the first plan where a state can use Medicaid funding to provide a benefit package modeled after a high-deductible plan and health savings account to previously uninsured adults, as explained in a 2008 report by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. The report also reveals details that expose Healthy Indiana as a plan that is not cost-effective, and problematic over time for enrollees due to mandatory payments which if not paid could result in an individual losing coverage for a year.
According to Dr. Wright of IUPUI, if you’re an individual whose income puts you at 200 percent or below the poverty line, you are not eligible to apply for the federal insurance exchange. For those individuals living in states that haven’t expanded Medicaid, there may be no options as far as securing a plan for coverage.
As things currently stand, lawmakers plan to revisit expansion under the Affordable Care Act in 2015. This decision to wait may result in a lack of health insurance for thousands of Indiana citizens.
When asked what citizens could do now to prepare, Wright stressed the importance of education. “Go to the healthcare.gov website,” he said. “Also, attend public education campaigns.” One will be led by Wright on Sept. 10, at All Souls Unitarian Church.
Earlier this week, opponents and supporters of the Affordable Care Act met at the Statehouse. Moments before a town hall meeting organized by the conservative group Heritage Action for America, which wants to defund Obamacare, supporters of Obamacare rallied on the steps. According to state Rep. Ed Delaney, D-Indianapolis, the Affordable Care Act has already benefitted many Hoosiers and will continue to benefit them come October, when open enrollment begins for the federally mandated coverage. “Do we want to make people afraid of health care,” Delaney asked. “Or do we want to make them informed about health care. That’s the whole dispute.”
