When the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, aka ACA) became federal law in March of 2010, there were many assumptions about what the law would and would not do. As everyone knows, it has become known simply as “Obamacare,” because President Obama was the one who wanted health care reform. Here are some misconceptions about health care reform.
One of the first statements made was that the new law was tantamount to “a government takeover of healthcare.” For this to be true, the government would need to inform every citizen that they were being enrolled in a federal healthcare program, sort of like Medicare, which is a federal health care program for any qualifying citizen or permanent resident over the age of 65. In fact, there is no federal alternative to private health insurance today. Since most if not all health insurance companies that were doing business in 2010 are still insuring millions of policyholders today, it is safe to say that there has not been a government takeover of healthcare. It is also true however, that many people would like to see that happen. They would love to see Medicare expanded to include everyone; but that is very unlikely for many years to come, if ever.