Trumpcare vs. Obamacare Simplified

Obamacare or Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was signed into law in 2010 was upheld by a supreme court in 2012. Starting from 2012, it reformed the health insurance rules and the American health care system. ACA was created to make insurance more affordable and available for 44 million uninsured American citizens. This law on health care in America required all Americans to have health insurance by 2014.  Otherwise, they would pay a fee called the shared responsibility provision (the individual mandate).

There has been much debate about the new Trumpcare or American Health Care Act (AHCA) and what we know is that Trump promised to keep the two most popular Obamacare benefits. More on these benefits can be found here.

Now, let’s see how Trumpcare is different in comparison to the still active Obamacare.

 Pre-Existing Conditions

With Obamacare, people with pre-existing conditions were able to get the full coverage without any higher insurance rates.

With Trumpcare, the states can decide on whether insurance carriers can charge people with pre-existing conditions more for their healthcare.

 Individual Mandate

With Obamacare – The individual mandate requires all eligible citizens to have health insurance, which makes coverage affordable nationwide.

With  Trumpcare – There will be no individual mandate here. There will also be something called continuous coverage as a new requirement. If someone fails to keep coverage, he’ll pay 30% more a month.

 Cost Assistance

With Obamacare – People who earn up to four times more over the federal poverty line can get cost assistance to buy insurance they want in the marketplace. It was stated that 85% of people who sign up for this actually qualify.

With Trumpcare – It provides tax credits to people who need help paying for their insurance. The basic difference here is that this assistance is based on the person’s age and not their income.

 Prescription Drugs

With Obamacare – There were some bipartisan attitudes towards overseas drug importation in the past. Still, there were no provisions that specifically addressed this.

With Trumpcare – Trump thinks that allowing people to purchase prescription drugs from foreign countries will lower the actual costs.

 Tax Deductions

With Obamacare – People are allowed to deduct medical expenses if these costs are over the 10 percent of the household’s adjusted gross income.

With Trumpcare – Here, people can deduct the full cost of their federal tax returns every year.

 Essential Health Benefits

With Obamacare – Every policy offered in the marketplace had to cover the 10 essential health benefits. Therefore, even bronze plans had some base level of coverage.

With Trumpcare – It allows the states to decide whether they will require insurance carriers to cover the 10 essential health benefits or not.

 Medical Funding

With Obamacare – Medicaid funding is based on an open-ended matching system. The federal government guarantees at least $1 for every $1 spent by the state.

With Trumpcare – Trump has rolled back the Medicaid expansion given by Obamacare. This means that fewer people will qualify for Medicaid assistance.

 Age Rating Ratio

With Obamacare – Health insurance carriers were not allowed to charge the old people more than three times as much as to the younger people, meaning the ratio was 3:1.

With Trumpcare – Here, the age rating ratio will be 5:1. This practically means that carriers can charge older demos even five times more for insurance than a person of a younger demo.

 Health Savings Accounts

With Obamacare – Individuals have the option to use the health savings accounts, but most people don’t use it because they require high-deductible health plans and significant funding.

With Trumpcare – Health Savings Accounts, which are tax-advantaged medical savings accounts, will be improved.

Here, you can find some additional facts explained about the American Health Care Act (Trumpcare). Moreover, here are its Pro’s and Con’s. 

Generally, there are many people who are against this new health care law, given by president Trump. These people say that for many people (actually for about 24 million Americans), it will mean no health insurance coverage. Some people with certain pre-existing conditions also claim that for them, this new law will mean only one thing — ‘pay or die’.