Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Many Low-Income Workers Say "No" to Health Insurance
The Affordable Care Act, while having the intended effect of making healthcare insurance more accessible to those of low socioeconomic status, has not been entirely successful. Met with fierce opposition, this controversial law includes a mandate requiring employers to offer healthcare insurance to their employees. However, surprisingly few low-income workers have bought health care from their employers, as it is still not reasonably affordable. Many such workers are instead forced to go without health insurance so that they can cover their other expenses; if they are lucky, they rely on health insurance provided by their spouse's employer. These workers who are offered health insurance by their employers, even if it is not affordable for them, are no longer eligible for subsidized health insurance, which still leaves many unable to afford healthcare. Also, low participation makes insurance companies hesitant to sell policies to employers. And some employers still opt out of offering insurance plans to their workers and instead choose to pay tax penalties. How can these problems be addressed? What revisions should be made in order to ensure the Affordable Care Act has its intended results?
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The article gives an example of a couple who still can't afford healthcare - their wages are barely enough to pay for their rent and for necessities like food. This is true for many other Americans. So either the Affordable Care Act needs to be revised to make healthcare even more accessible, or additional legislation needs to be passed to improve wages. If more Americans can actually afford healthcare, participation will increase.
ReplyDeleteThe Affordable Care Act, while a step in the right direction, fails to meet the needs of many. The country should adopt a single-payer healthcare system, like many European countries already have. However, passing such a overhaul of the healthcare system would be nearly impossible in the current political climate, so the best we can do at the moment is raise wages or adjust the conditions of the Affordable Care Act to provide subsidized care to those who cannot afford their employer's insurance.
ReplyDeleteLike you stated in your summary, the healthcare provided by employers under the Affordable Care Act is not actually affordable to its intended client base. This is counteracive to the intentions of this act. Like others have said, either the act needs revision to make the healthcare offered by employers actually affordable to their employees or legislation must be passed to raise wages so that the affordable care act can make can preform the task set out in its name a make care affordable
ReplyDeleteWhile there are many ways to address these problems, not many of them would work because of the complex nature of the political structure over healthcare. Like Seth said, I think that the country should start making moves towards a single-payer system. This would cause higher taxes, but the cost of living would go down because you no longer have to pay for health insurance.
ReplyDeleteThe Affordable Care Act has a good purpose, but it just needs some revisions to work now it was intended. The first step would be to lower the cost so workers can actually afford. To most families other needs come before health care so they can't spend everything on it. After that is accomplished and possible other regulations are met it'll show progress.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ryan, there are numerous ways to fix these problems. These solutions are not all practical. An overhaul of our healthcare system would be very challenging but I feel there's needs to be a solution to how employers provide healthcare to their employees.
ReplyDeleteWhile the Affordable Care Act had a good starting point, it shouldn't stop there. Serious revisions need to be made to address the problems between the insurance companies, the employers, and the workers. The cost needs to be lowered because there's no point to putting this act in place if it's not going to benefit anyone. Also, if this act is supposed to be taken seriously, then work needs to be done to get those currently paying the tax penalties to pay for the insurance.
ReplyDeleteSomething as essential as health care needs to be fixed to affordability. The Affordable Care Act isn't working, and I think something like what Seth had mentioned ^ would be a more effective alternative. With an absence in paying for health care, many American families would be able to bounce back and pay for their basic needs, along with having the money to pay for the taxes we'd be increasing so they can get direct, "free" healthcare.
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