Is Obamacare bad?
It isn’t great but it isn’t that bad either. It is based on the system they have in Switzerland where everyone has to buy health insurance and the poorest people get help to purchase it.The trouble is that the US system is very complicated. It is like a farm house that has had a bunch of additions over the years and they don’t really make sense with one another.If you are a Vet, your health care is through the VA, which is even more socialized than the NHS. All of the doctors work for the government.If you are Native American, your heath care is through BIA, which is as socialized as the VA.If you are over 65 or have kidney failure, your health care is through Medicare, which is like the Canadian system where you go to any doctors you want and the government pays the bill.If you work full time and get benefits, your employer pays for your health insurance and gets tax breaks for doing so. The health insurance companies and plans are all very different from each other.If you are very poor, you are on Medicaid, which covers the very basics.If you are a poor child, each state has a health insurance program that covers more than Medicaid.If you don’t fall into any category and don’t have health insurance, you can go to the emergency room for treatment or pay out of pocket but the hospitals and doctors don’t have to tell you what they will charge until after the treatment.There are probably more categories that I have forgotten. Obamacare was supposed to allow people who didn’t have have health insurance to buy it individually because it wasn’t offered to people on an individual basis before that. Obamacare also let young adults stay on their parent’s plan until 26 and didn’t let insurance companies tell you they wouldn’t cover you because of preexisting conditions.It was a step towards universal health care. However, it has a great deal of opposition because health care is a big money maker for a lot of people in the US.Here is an answer I wrote that goes into more detail about why it is opposed by the Republican party:Sara Erickson's answer to What is the gop's problem with health insurance? Do they want only rich people to stay healthy?