Open enrollment in the Health Insurance Marketplace begins Oct. 1 as part of the Affordable Care Act, also known as ”Obamacare”.
Individuals and small businesses will be able to shop online for competitive pricing on health insurance, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website. Beginning Jan. 1, 2014, all Americans who can afford it will be required to obtain basic health insurance, and the marketplace provides a way to shop for companies. For Georgians, HealthCare.gov is the web address to visit the marketplace to apply for coverage, compare plans, and enroll in the system.
There is much more to the Affordable Care Act than just requiring health insurance, though. Also effective Jan. 1, 2014, gender and health status discrimination regarding insurance rates will be outlawed, and Medicaid will be expanded with federal funding for three years. Tax credits will be given to families within 100 to 400 percent of the poverty line, and eligible small businesses may receive up to 50 percent tax credit.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau website, the percentage of 19- to 25-year-olds with any insurance rose 2.3 percent between 2008 and 2011. This means that the age group encompassing the majority of college students has seen an increase in the amount of people with health insurance. Many parts of the Affordable Care Act have a direct influence over this age group, including students at KSU.
Andrew Griffin, an undeclared freshman, said he has mixed feelings on the act. “It definitely has flaws, but we really do need some kind of social medicine,” Griffin said. “I think it should have been rethought before, but really they couldn’t because there would have been too much disagreement.”
Many students, like Kelsea Knudsen, a sophomore studying Biotechnology, admittedly do not know much about the program. “I should learn more about it, but I’m just not excited for it,” Knudsen said. “I’m sure it will affect my income, which affects me. Anything that affects your income or your job is upsetting.”
Diego Velasquez, also an undecided freshman, said he does not support the Affordable Care Act. “Basically it’s like taking everyone’s cup of water and pouring it into a jug, then pouring it back out equally,” Velasquez said. “It’s socialist. We should keep it traditional and pay for what you get.”
Marissa Epps, who works at the Commons, believes the Affordable Care Act will have a positive effect. “I don’t have insurance of my own right now, so I can stay under my parents for a while,” Epps said. “But it will help me get insurance when I need it on my own, and it’ll definitely help students who are struggling and need their own insurance.”
Economics professor Don Sabbarese said he believes that this system will lead to rationing in health care and that no form of social medicine is necessary for the U.S. “Access to specialists will become more difficult for many people in the system,” Sabbarese said. “The doctor-patient relationship for treatment will become
more limited.”
He also said that the medical systems were already broken and non-competitive. “Instead these were highly regulated sectors of the economy, which led to a lack of competition, limited quality of service and rising cost to cover the inefficiencies in both sectors,” Sabbarese continued. “If we allowed insurance companies to become truly competitive geographically across states and coverage wise, this would increase this industry’s quality of product and pricing.”
Luc Noiset, another economics professor, takes an opposing stand. “Our health care and insurance system is such an incredibly terrible system that something has to be done,” Noiset said. “The free market often does a poor job in providing health insurance because sick people will be more likely to buy it than healthy people, and insurance companies lose money when too many sick people buy insurance and not enough healthy people buy.”
Noiset points out that the government is already involved in the health industry via programs like Medicaid and Medicare. “I think that the law will need some significant tweaks but that, after a bit of a difficult period, the health care system in this country will be much improved because of the changes.”
Though the Health Insurance Marketplace opens Oct. 1, insurance will not be a requirement until Jan. 1, 2014.
