Approval ratings for Obamacare have remained relatively lowwith46 percentof Americans viewing it unfavorablysince the policy was implemented in 2010.
You’ve probably heard the phrase “Obamacare individual mandate” a lot lately.
Or you could purchase a private health care plan.
Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images
The individual mandate quickly became one of the most unpopular features ofObamacare.
At the time, 46 percent of the public reported feeling unfavorably about the policy as a whole.
Also worth noting: In a December 2009 ACA vote,39 senatorscalled the act “unconstitutional.”
Why?Many peoplewere upset that the government was telling them they had to buy health insurance.
In a 5-4 decision, SCOTUS ruled that yes, it was constitutional.
The government was allowed to issue a tax penalty to people who didn’t have insurance.
So if people hated it so much, why did it exist at all?
The administration had their reasons, I promise.
TheACAwas signed into law in 2010 with the goal of helping more Americans access high-quality health insurance.
For one thing, the ACA expanded Medicaid.
The ACA also made it possible for young adults to stay on their parents' insurance through age 26.
This helped approximately2.3 million adultsin the first three yearsObamacarewas in effect.
Depending on the insurer, these pre-existing conditions could includepregnancy,obesity, and a history ofsubstance abusetreatment.
Will all these advancements, Obamacare insured an additional16 million Americansbringing uninsured rates down from15.7 percentto 10.4 percent.
“I had to console people in tears on a regular basis,” Beckham wrote.
Unfortunately, Beckham’s company probably wasn’t the only insurer to do this.
Insurance companies are businesses.
For many, affordable health insurance coverage just wasn’t an option.)
As we’ve already established, insurance providers need to make money to survivejust like any other business.
How do you reconcile this conflict?
The answer is in the risk pools.
Insurance clients can be classified as “low-risk” or “high-risk” based on their medical histories.
(Pregnancy could mean impending maternity care expenses.
A history of in-patient mental health care could mean more in-patient mental health care treatment in the future.
These riskier people are put into something called a “high-risk pool.”
In short, the ACA made insurance more accessible to people who fall into those high-risk pools.
Like I said before, the ACA gave people in high-risk pools more access to insurance.
Obamacare tried to balance the interests of insurance providers and individual Americans by requiring everyone to buy in.
And we get itthat’s pretty frustrating.
What if you desperately want insurance, but keep getting denied it?
But like we said, we understand.
You totally have the right to understand why the mandate exists andstillfeel frustrated by your expensive insurance costs.
But for some, there’s a silver lining.
Let’s say you’re a healthy person who bought insurance because of the ACA.
Without insurance, you would have had to pay those costs out-of-pocket.
Basically: People don’t like the individual mandate, and politicians know that.
We know that it might not seem fairand we’re not even necessarily saying it is.
Under Obamacare,16 million additional Americanshave received health insurance.
The act has brought uninsured rates down to 10.4 percent, which is the lowest of all time.
It’s not perfectpolicies rarely ever arebut it has helped a lot of people get insurance coverage.
And it needed the individual mandate to do that.
Feeling motivated to act?
There are tons of ways to make your voice heard.
SELF’s resources onfinding activist opportunitiesandgetting involved in policy decisionsare great places to start.
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Also:Trump Targets Obamacare With His First Executive Order
