Pros and cons of the healthcare reform?

Answer 1

Advantages

· According to the Congressional Budget Office, the legislation will reduce the deficit by $138 billion over the first decade and by $1.2 trillion in the second decade, as compared to current legislation.

· There will be increased competition in the insurance market. It might be from a public option. It might also be from some kind of non-profit, state-specific co-operative. This might push the healthcare companies to lower costs and provide better service.

· Expand insurance coverage to more Americans while also tightening the reins on medical inflation.

· The cost of a given amount of insurance coverage could fall by 10 to 30 percent due to the reforms, for people who don't have employer-sponsored coverage

· No more pre-existing condition exclusions.

· Health insurers can no longer cap coverage. In other words, they will no longer say that they have spent enough on you and you're on your own for the next hundred thousand dollars. This should reduce medical bankruptcy, which is almost 50% of all bankruptcy filings.

· Closing the "donut hole" means cheaper prescription drugs for seniors.

· The bill contains a variety of pilot programs that may have a significant impact on cost and quality over the long-run. This approach ensures a constantly evolving bill which can take out parts which do not work and improve the ones that do.

· Adult children to stay on their parents' insurance plan until they are 26 years old.

Disadvantages

· The legislation would establish a mandate for most legal residents of the United States to obtain health insurance, which is considered by many to be unconstitutional

· Families earning more than $250,000/year will have to pay higher Medicare taxes.

· For the first ten years, it will cost about $100 billion a year. This is about the yearly cost of the Iraq War.

· Many employers will choose to pay a penalty rather than offer insurance as an employee benefit. The more firms do that, the more people will be looking to the government to subsidize care purchased on a new insurance exchange.

· The bill might increase the cost of health insurance. This depends on whether the gains from increased efficiencies and increased competition are outweighed by the cost of providing additional benefits.