two-years-under-obamacare-a-look-at-whats-changed_5029160b5b895Republicans contend Obamacare is unpopular with and harmful to Americans, but polls such as this one from the Kaiser Foundation indicate that the more people understand the law, the more they like it. Don’t be seduced by rhetoric. Don’t hate something you don’t understand. Don’t hate Obamacare just because it has Obama’s name in it. Learn about the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, and then decide for yourself. (Apparently a lot of folks still don’t realize the ACA and Obamacare are the same damn thing.)

And if this Obamacare truths list isn’t enough, here’s more.

  1. $95. Yes, you totally can skip insurance and just pay a penalty. It starts in 2014 at $95 or one percent of your income, whichever is greater, but will go up from there. For the record, the idea behind this penalty has conservative roots.
  2. 8 percent. Hate the idea of paying a penalty? If you can’t find a plan that costs less than 8 percent of your income, you’re exempt from the requirement to purchase health insurance. There are several other exemptions as well.
  3. 97. Small companies with less than 50 employees – which amount to 97 percent of all American businesses – do not have to subsidize full-time employees’ health care insurance.
  4. Zero. Undocumented immigrants won’t get any subsidies. But legal immigrants can buy insurance via Obamacare and qualify for subsidies if their income meets certain requirements.
  5. $328. The average monthly cost of an Obamacare plan. It’s highly possible that’s less than what you pay now – according to the Kaiser Foundation, the average worker currently pays $467.
  6. 20 percent. The maximum amount of revenue from what you pay for your insurance that your insurance company is allowed to spend on nonessentials – like marketing or lobbying – that aren’t related to your actual health care costs.
  7. Obamacare-face-full

  8. 3. Concerned about how we’re paying for Obamacare? It’s not just willy-nilly, equally priced insurance for all. For example, the elderly may still be asked to pay nearly three times more than their younger counterparts.
  9. 200,000. Another way Obamacare is being funded is, yes, through taxes. But the tax increases only affect those individuals with adjusted gross incomes of more than $200,000 and couples with combined incomes of $250,000.  These folks make up only 4.2 percent of American taxpayers.
  10. Under 30. In addition to the different tiers of insurance with various premium prices corresponding to levels of coverage, there is an inexpensive, barebones, “catastrophic” insurance plan for individuals under 30.
  11. 1 in 2. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, an estimated one in two Americans has a preexisting condition that they could be denied health insurance for. Obamacare ensures you can no longer be denied coverage or treatment because of your current health.
  12. $109 billion. According to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office and the U.S. Joint Commission on taxation, repealing Obamacare would increase federal budget deficits by $109 billion over the 2013-2022 period. Read more here.
  13. 80 percent. The 80 percent of Americans who get insurance through their employer or the government will likely never even need to interact with Obamacare.
  14. 1. We are number one at having the most expensive health care in the world – and costs continue to rise exponentially – but according to the World Health Organization, we rank 37th worldwide in quality of that care. This is unsustainable, and something needs to be done to fix it.

Obamacare is that something.

About The Author

Emily Lemiska is a writer and communications professional from Boston. She was born with a rare degenerative spine defect called Klippel-Feil Syndrome, a condition in which two or more vertebrae are fused together.

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