What To Expect If The Affordable Care Act Is Stopped

The Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act aims to provide quality and affordable coverage to millions of Americans. The law has already helped improve the lives of more than 100 million people. Recently, the law has been under attack as the predominantly Republican House of Representatives voted to repeal it. Let’s take a look at some consequences should the Affordable Care Act fail:

Affordable Care Act removes preexisting conditions

Undermine efforts to stop insurance company abuses. Starting Jan. 1, 2014, health insurers can no longer deny applicants with preexisting conditions. Without this provision, more than 125 million people with chronic conditions like asthma, diabetes, and high blood pressure would likely suffer high prices and denial of coverage.

Health insurers may deny coverage to children with preexisting conditions. Children who have chronic conditions are protected from abusive practices some health insurers have been doing for several years. Insurers have been asking to have this part of the law thrown out the window. Without this major provision, sick children are at risk of being dropped from coverage so that health insurance companies can increase profits.

High prescription drug prices for seniors. The Affordable Care Act allowed 6.3 million seniors to save $6.1 billion on prescription drugs. Repeal would result in higher prescription drug prices. Furthermore, the ACA strengthens and protects Medicare and eliminates waste, fraud, and abuse.

Young  adults and the affordable care act

End health coverage for young adults under their parents’ health plans. Because of the Affordable Care Act, more than 3 million young adults have health insurance. While children under 19 can be covered by Child Health Plus, the ACA’s new key provision allows children up to 26 years old to have coverage through their parents’ policy.

Getting preventive care will be more expensive. Under the new healthcare law, all new private health insurance and Medicare must provide preventive health services without co-pays. These services include HIV screening, mammography, and immunizations. Millions of Americans have already benefited from this provision.

No more tax credits for small businesses. The Affordable Care Act offers tax credits to small businesses to help them provide health insurance coverage for their employees. Without the tax credits, many small companies might be unable to offer their workers coverage.

Consumers will no longer receive rebates from overcharging health insurers. The Affordable Care Act mandates that only 20 percent of the consumers’ premium can be used for administrative costs. Any amount that goes beyond this number should be reimbursed to the customer. Last year, 12.8 million insured Americans received $1.1 billion in rebates.