Nearly a year into President Obama’s second term, the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, continues to divide the American public.
The debate boils down to the question of whether the law will help or hurt Americans.
Its effects will be beneficial, particularly for young adults, because it helps insure Americans from unforeseen medical bills that they may be unable to afford.
Some groups, such as Generation Opportunity, a group for conservative young people, are encouraging young Americans to opt out and pay a penalty instead of acquiring health insurance.
Evan Feinberg, the president of Generation Opportunity, points out young people are not required to buy insurance as long as they pay a penalty. Mr. Feinberg also claims opting out will be a better and cheaper option.
This approach to health care is potentially more expensive and risky. If you choose to opt out, you may be fined up to $95 annually. Fines increase each year until they reach up to $695 per person in 2016. These fines are on a per-person basis; meaning penalties for families could potentially be much higher.
If you opt out, you have to pay the fine and are still responsible for your health care costs.
If you don’t get sick or injured, being uninsured might not be a problem, but if something does happen, you may be forced to go deep into debt.
According to Black’s Law Dictionary, the cost of having a broken arm set and cast ranges from $2,500 to $3,500. When factoring in penalties and medical bills, breaking an arm in 2016 will cost, on average, $3,000 to $4,000.
Annual tuition and fees for a De Anza college student taking 12 units per quarter comes to about $1,248.
A broken arm could cost a little more than double one year’s tuition and fees.
Treating a broken arm is one of the cheaper medical procedures.
A routine surgery, such as an appendectomy, can cost up to $186,000, according to The Washington Post.
Without insurance, victims of such injuries will have to pay all of the expenses out of pocket with interest, while trying to pay for regular day-to-day expenses such as rent, food and tuition.
Before the Affordable Care Act went into effect, insurance companies were allowed to withdraw coverage at any time, often when the costs of covering a customer became prohibitive.
The new law will require companies to remove lifetime and annual limits from all essential health services by 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Another effect is children can stay on their parents’ plan until age 26. In the past, insurance companies were allowed to drop young adults as soon as they turned 18, went off to college or stopped living at home.
The change in policy makes health insurance for young people available and affordable.
The Affordable Care Act needs to stay, because its protections are essential to the well-being of Americans, especially the young.