Introduction
Healthcare and Health Insurance are terms that are used interchangeably. Healthcare includes emergency room visits, preventive medicine, prescription medications, and so on. Whereas, health insurance means a type of policy that provides financial coverage for medical expenses. Through this article, you will learn all about ObamaCare and how you can qualify for it for free.
As the world advances, there are many health insurance services that have been introduced with the purpose of providing financial aid and coverage for all people. But note that, not everyone can afford health insurance resulting in heavy debts of medical expenditures when worse happens.
In fact, more and more companies are coming forward in providing health insurance to their employees as part of the bonus or perk!
Understanding the Obama Healthcare
Obama Healthcare in other words means the Affordable Care Act. This act was introduced as healthcare reform and signed into law on 23rd of March 2010 by the then President of the United States Mr. Barack Obama.
This law was originally named the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But it often goes by the name The Obama Healthcare due to obvious reasons.
This healthcare law is often termed as the most significant expansion of healthcare coverage ever since the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s! The introduction of this particular law came in as a blessing in disguise for all Middle class and low-income families who often had to worry about their health insurance and how to afford it.
Goal
The Obama Healthcare aimed at providing all Americans with health insurance coverage. This is why today through this scheme millions of Americans have positive benefits through this act. Many people have their health insurance covered at very reasonable rates!
The Affordable Care Act
From a person who is unemployed to people with low-paying jobs; and from a person with disability to a person with a pre-existing medical condition or a chronic disease, everyone is welcome to benefit from the Affordable Care Act or ACA!
The Affordable Care Act came into existence to reach out to all the lower income Americans, to have access to health insurance coverage at affordable rates.
This law comes with benefits like premium tax credits, which is to help lower the health insurance bill every month and cost sharing reductions. This basically means is to reduce the out of pocket costs for deductibles, copays, and coinsurance and out-of-pocket maximum. This means the total amount which you pay in a year for your covered health expenses.
Working of Obama Healthcare
The Affordable Care Act or Obamacare was first introduced in March 2010 with three primary goals; make affordable insurance, expansion of the Medicaid program, and support innovative medical care.
As mentioned earlier, Obamacare primarily focuses on giving health insurance to people of low income families. As there are many Americans that still live without any medical insurance, they go through financial stress when faced with unforeseen accidents.
Originally, Obamacare came with a tax penalty for people who did not purchase any insurance plan, known as the individual mandate. [s]
In a typical health insurance plan, you have to pay monthly to keep up with the plan. However; at Obamacare, they come with subsidies, almost like free, to qualify also known as tax credits.
These subsidies will then help the people with lower incomes to cover the cost of their insurance plans. The premium tax credits will help to lower the bills of your insurance every month and reduce the costs for deductibles, copays, and coinsurances. It will also lower the total amount you pay every year for all your health expenses. This act also expanded the eligibility of Medicaid and prevented insurance companies from denying coverage due to pre-existing medical conditions.
What does Obamacare cover?
Through this plan, also aimed to raise the quality of health insurance in the US. As for the medical emergencies that cover under Obamacare, it will be different for all people depending on the type of plan you chose and the medical emergency.
Following are some of the coverage for the medical services under Obamacare:
- Emergency services
- Preventative Care
- Ambulatory Patient Care
- Outpatient Care even when you are not admitted in the hospital
- Breastfeeding
- Hospitalization
- Family Planning
- Pregnancy, Maternity and Newborn Care services
- Mental Health and use of substance disorder services
- Prescription medications
- Rehabilitative and habilitative care services
- Wellness services
- Management of Chronic disease
- Paediatric care
- Laboratory services
Additionally, at Obamacare, it requires almost all insurance plans to qualify for coverage at no extra cost to all policyholders for a list of services such as free checkups, immunization, counseling, health screenings and extension of their Medicaid coverage as well.
Who is eligible to qualify for Obamacare?
Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act was mainly for individuals belonging to the lower-income group of families. This enactment was to ensure that all Americans get access to affordable healthcare services regardless of their income.
To qualify for Obamacare free you require to have a household income between 100% and 400% of the Federal Poverty Level or the FPL.
President Biden, the current President of the United States, came up with the American Rescue Plan Act on 11th March, 2021. This further increases the subsidies that were already in Obamacare in order to encourage millions more Americans to qualify for Federal assistance with the cost of their existing healthcare plans.
Not Eligible
However, remember that, although Obamacare is openly free for anyone who lives in the United States to qualify there are still some limitations.
For instance, you are not eligible to apply for Obamacare if you
- live outside America; you are incarcerated or not a U.S citizen
- U.S national or is lawfully present in the United States
- And above all, if you are covered by Medicare
Exceptions for certain group of people
Some exceptions are also for the immigrants living in the U.S. Such as, if the person is a:
- lawful permanent resident or green card holder
- refugee
- Cuban or Haitian entrant
- immigrant granted conditional entrance before 1980
- battered spouse, child and parent
- immigrant paroled into the United States
- victim of trafficking along with their family like the spouse, child, sibling or parent
- Temporary Protected Status
- non-immigrants with worker visa and student visa
- Deferred Enforced Departure
- member of a federally recognized Indian tribe or an American Indian born in Canada
- and those with an administrative order issued by the U.S Department of Homeland Security.
How to apply for Obamacare?
There are many ways how you can qualify and sign up for free Obamacare either on your own or through an agent or a broker!
- Visit the official website
- If you are not sure on how to proceed by yourself, select the Find Local Help tool to locate the nearest in-person assistance near your area of residence like an agent, broker or a navigator.
- Fill up the basic details like your name, address, household size and projected household income.
- Start your application process by directly through the official website of the certified enrolment partner like a privately owned health insurance company.
- Enrol yourself by making a contact to the Marketplace call center which is available 24 hours and 7 days a week except for holidays, at your disposal.
- You can then mail them your application after rechecking all of your details in the form.
Note that, if you are eligible to receive any of the premium tax credits, you can use them through healthcare.gov or a certified enrolment partner. Moreover, you can get health insurance only through the official website at healthcare.gov. [s]
#ObamaCare #HowToQualifyForObamaCare
Types of plans available at Affordable Care Act
The Obamacare plans are categorized into four types of metal tiers. This will help you to determine the cost of your insurance plan and care.
Bronze
This comes with the highest costs with the lowest monthly premium.
Silver
This plan is the benchmark of all plans as it comes with moderate costs and moderate premiums. To qualify for the reductions of cost sharing, it is advisable to choose the silver plan.
Gold
This plan consists of high monthly premiums but with low costs when need to cover your expenses
Diamond
Just as the name suggests, this plan comes with the highest monthly premiums but at the same time, you also get the lowest costs when you need care!
Advantages and Disadvantages of Obamacare
Like any other healthcare insurance services, the Affordable Care Act or the Obamacare also comes with its fair shares of pros and cons. [s]
The Pros
- With the introduction of the Obamacare, millions of Americans who did not have insurance prior to this law were able to qualify and obtain their respective health insurance coverage for free within the first five years of its enactment.
- Since the primary objective of the Obamacare was to provide health insurance to the lower income group, health insurance became more affordable for this section of people. Although insurance coverage is never free, people had more options for the coverage plans at their disposal.
- Another important advantage is that, anyone with pre existing health conditions such as cancer and other terminal illnesses can now apply for the insurance coverage without having to fear for application rejection again!
- There are no time limits on the amount of money that an individual spents. This is convenient for people with chronic health problems.
- Unlike other health insurance services, the Obamacare covers wider health screenings and preventive services. And, of which it usually consists of low copays and deductibles.
- When the Obamacare was first enacted, it assured of making prescription drugs less expensive and to make it affordable for all Americans. This has benefited many people especially the senior citizens who have to constantly rely on prescribed medications for their daily day to day lives.
For immigrants and non-immigrant foreigners
- Immigrants and non-immigrant foreigners living in the United States can also apply for the Obama; provided, they currently live there within the U.S border. This includes a lawful permanent resident or green card holder; refugee; Cuban or Haitian entrant; immigrant granted conditional entrance before 1980; victim of trafficking along with their family like the spouse, child, sibling or parent; Temporary Protected Status and etc; and other non-immigrant foreigners such as people in America with a work visa or a student visa.
The Cons
- With the introduction of the Obamacare, premiums rose for a lot of people including for those, who already had health insurance.
- Another disadvantage is that, you will face penalty if you are not insured. And for which, many people found it intrusive. And, people felt like their personal life was being invaded by the government.
- Due to the introduction of the Affordable Care Act, taxes in America have gone up. And there was increase in taxes on the higher income group.
- Many businesses have started to cut down the working hours of their employees to avoid healthcare insurance coverage for their employees.
- On the day of the enrolment, one should prepare thoroughly to wait and with all the necessary important documents as well. This is because the official website goes through many technical issues and as such it may require you to wait for longer period of time than usual.
The Bottom Line
The Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act was introduced by the then President of the United States Barack Obama. The main purpose of this act was to provide all Americans living on minimum wage or lower income to have access to health insurance at lower costs.
And although this has been in existence for more than a decade now and in all these years of its running, it experienced bumpy rides here and there but which insurance company or service doesn’t right?
Despite facing criticisms from other politicians, political parties, and the public alike; we cannot ignore the fact that Obamacare did bring about a significant milestone on the expansion of healthcare coverage ever since the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s!
And thanks to this act, today millions of Americans are insured which is a huge relief. This is because the world of pharmaceutical medicine will only get higher as the years go by. People will have to rely on their insurance money to get proper medical treatments if and when the worst happens!
