The
Affordable Health Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, if passed will create a large impact on the younger generation entering the workforce in the near future. Without digging too deep in the puzzle that is Obamacare, certain provisions stand out in terms of effecting young adults.
The main, proclaimed, favorable benefits, that young people are led to believe, is that they can stay on their parent’s insurance plan until they are 26. Although portrayed as a convenient provision that will expand care for people 26 and under, might become detrimental when young adults decide to start an independent life. If citizens under 26 get married, they get get kicked off the plan, which scares young adults out of getting a job, getting married and declaring independence for themselves.
Obamacare’s expansion, will add about 20 million more Americans to the medicaid program. With state budgets already thin, funding the health care program will leave less money in the budget for education. For example, the Affordable Care Act will take over the student loan industry. In the past, the government subsidized private lenders so that they could create competitive interest rates on student loans. The health care act ends the subsidizing of loans and puts the federal government in charge of issuing loans. Since anyone can receive these loans, colleges are raising costs. This creates a timeline that adds even more debt to the financial issues of students and their families.
A simple refusal to owning health care seems logically constitutional, but if citizens choose not to accept the healthcare that is, a tax penalty will be enforced . According to usnews.com, starting in 2014, the penalty for refusing to pay for health insurance will be $95, but will increase to an estimated $695 per person in 2016; four times that amount for a family of four. The $695 tax is only imposed on the lower to middle class citizens that make between $9,500 and $37,000 dollars a year.
This country, already not being stable, cannot afford to give free health insurance to able-bodied adults, nor can it afford rebellious citizens that refuse to pay for the insurance that is forced under an expensive penalty. Unfortunately, the Obamacare ideology will not go away no matter how much the public complains and officials attempt to repeal it. After all, the “people’s government” knows what is best for its citizens.
