During the State of the Union address on January 28, 2014, President Obama discussed how his health care reform policy, commonly nicknamed “Obamacare,” fits into his bigger agenda for decreasing the gap between financial inequality.
Currently there are 3 million people who have enrolled in private health plans under the federal and state exchanges. Initially, the goal was to have 3.3 billion people enrolled by the end of 2013. Still, this is not far behind the goal even after the appeals and technical difficulties. As many frustrated Americans are aware, the health exchanges rolled out with a rocky start due to the website failures on HealthCare.gov and the cancellation of millions of American’s insurance policies after they did not meet the law’s new standards.
Despite these setbacks, President Obama argues that he is still trying to help hard working families who have been broken due to high medical expenses.
He believes this is a policy that will protect Americans and ties in closely with his goals for increasing the minimum wage and retirement savings. In the end, President Obama asked the Republican party for support rather than more battles. “Let’s not have another 40-something votes to repeal a law that’s already helping millions of Americans like Amanda. The first 40 were plenty.”
For more information on the current status of the Affordable Care Act, please feel free to contact us.