Homework involved to apply for health insurance

1.    Associated Press. (2013, October 1).  Nation:  Homework involved to apply for health insurance.  Houston Chronicle, A4.

2.    Category of problem:  Health

3.    Level of problem:  National level

4.    The article concerns:  Applying for coverage for President Obama’s health care law may require more individual research than expected.

5.    Why is this important to families / individuals OR how does it affect individuals / families?

a.    With the new law for health care going into effect, many people who were without health insurance coverage are now eligible to get that coverage.  However, the accuracy of personal information, such as income, citizenship and identity may put a burden on those unfamiliar with how this law will work.  The process is not going to be as easy as previously suggested.

6.    What are your views on the issue / policy?

a.    The President’s Affordable Health Care Law is proving to be a challenge for many.  Already, computer glitches on the national websites for those applying for coverage are jammed and not functioning.  People have had to resort to filling out paper forms or, at least, contact call centers for assistance in applying for the coverage.  Apparently, the supporters of this law thought that the process would be as easy as buying an airline ticket online.  Well, many people who are applying have obviously never flown before because the system is not working very well.  The debates over the law over the last few years seemed to have not taken into account the level of intelligence of the people it was mostly designed for – the poor or needy who simply were not covered or under-covered who mostly got their health care from emergency rooms or charity hospitals.  Not that it’s their fault, but the process does not seem to be as easy for those who may be a little more technically challenged or do not have access to online applications.  And, what is the future of the law anyway?  More and more, we hear of the government giving exemptions to big businesses or cronies of the President and his ilk.  They seem to know it is a “train wreck”, which is how one of the framers and supporters of the law put it recently.  It is also at the heart of the government shutdown at present where the Republican majority in the House of Representatives (who hold the purse strings of the government budget) have forwarded a bill to fund the government, but not the health care law.  Of course, the Democrat-led Senate, as well as the Executive Branch, will not agree to this, so a stalemate is in place with no compromise in sight.  According to polls I have heard, over 70% of the people in the US are against implementing this new law, but the President and Democrats are not listening to the people.  It is a shame that they put their own interests ahead of the American public, the very people they were elected to represent.  I don’t know how this law will affect me in the long term – I don’t think anyone does – but the financial impacts already reported by small businesses and individuals make me think this is not a good thing in its present form.  The law was pushed through in the ‘middle of the night’ without enough vetting to see how it would affect any of us.  I think people should have insurance coverage, but not at the expense of the very livelihood that we will have to pay for it.