Unemployment rates and the overall costs of living have been at an all-time high over the past few years. As more citizens struggle to make ends meet, guaranteeing good health becomes secondary to them. More people are concerned with providing food for their families and paying essential bills than adding on the burden of costly medical insurance. A large number of residents in America choose to overlook their sickness and bad physical conditions due to the high cost of a doctor visit. The government has been focusing on fixing this problem by proposing the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obama Care. It was created in large part to provide all Americans with affordable medical care and health insurance.
Currently 15% of Americans are uninsured in regards to healthcare. What happens when these 32 million people get extremely sick or physically injured? Recent studies show that a large amount of them use the emergency room as their primary care facility which, in turn, increases costs for everyone. "In a May 2012 report, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited a National Health Interview Survey that found that almost 80 percent of adults who visited ED's over a 12-month period said they did so because of a lack of access to other healthcare providers" (Doyle, 2013). Because of the increase in emergency room visits, hospitals have started requiring higher upfront fees such as co-pays before receiving treatment. Those who are uninsured can generally not afford to pay these fees either, leaving them with no other option than to forgo the doctor visit. With Obama care, all citizens will be provided with insurance, making it far easier to access health care and reducing costs of the additional fees. .
Obama care requires that all insurance plans cover the 10 essential health benefits which are: outpatient care, emergency room services, hospitalization, preventative and wellness visits, maternity and newborn care, mental and behavioral health treatment, prescription drugs, services and devices to help people with injuries, disabilities, or chronic conditions, lab tests, and pediatric care.