Introduction
The new health care reform bill introduced by the Obama administration in 2010 is ‘Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’ (ACA). The bill is also popularly known as Obamacare. The bill pushes to cover millions of uninsured Americans. The health plan was openly created in order to get broad support from both the parties. ACA mandates all to have health insurance failing to do so might attract a penalty tax. The fate of the ACA bill has been uncertain since 2010. ACA was a major achievement for the Obama government and the Democrats. The bill passed through Congress without even a single vote from the Republican Party. The Budget Office of the congress estimates that even after policy implementation the number of uninsured U.S. residents will roughly remain at 30 million. The trickiest challenge in long-term facing the government is cost control. This new policy in healthcare initiates an array of new measures in the field of medical care and payment reform (Eric Julian, 1073).
This paper discusses the Public policy, the surrounding public opinion on the policy, a review of various interest groups and ongoing polls with a breakage of results on various factors.
Public Opinion & Polls over ACA
The public opinion is intensely separated on the new healthcare reform law since its inception in March 2010. There also lingers the political challenge to gathering support for ACA from more Americans. Obamacare has more Americans critical than appreciative of the law. This division of public opinion echoes a partisan polarization. Myths spread by the antagonist stir up the public fears. Those fears are continuing as 39% of Americans think that ACA empowers government to end the Medicare beneficiaries, and another of 22% have no idea about the policy and its implications. Low-income voters are the least supportive of the new law and mostly in the Republican-voting states. An income-based variation is significant as the members of the Congress are more receptive to the view of their richer Constituents. Income and age are exceedingly projecting of an individual’s attitude on the policy issue (Gelman Lee Ghitza).
Factors Impacting Polls
According to a poll by kkf.org, there have been numerous factors impacting the poll results. It distinguishes the trends into several groups that are divided by affiliation to any particular party, income, age, gender, race/ethnicity and the current insurance status.
The poll was conducted, and results evaluated over a period of three years from January of 2011 to January of 2014. The party affiliations reveal that Democrat, Independent-Leaning Democrats were strongly favorable to new ACA law, Independent were neutral and swayed over the period while Independent-Leaning Republican and Republicans were most unfavorable to the policy. The variation on income groups is such that low-income groups were more favorable than those with high-income group. Similarly, people in the age group of 18-64 were more favorably incline than those who were 65+. Across genders, the response was similar. Men and Women were equally biased and unbiased towards the new law reforming the healthcare industry. Based on ethnicity it was revealed that black and Hispanics were more supportive of the new law than white people. People who were uninsured especially from the low income groups were much more supportive of the Obamacare policy than those who were previously insured (Kff.org).
Interest Groups
The decision of Supreme Court in June 2012 keeping the ACA's constitutionality made a severe blow to those opposing the law. With the coming back of President Barack Obama and Democrats to office, the law has more chances of stabilization and implementation. The poll of kff.org also shows that there have been two interest groups created one following the Democrats and others following the Republicans. Among the supporters of Democrats are people from their constituencies and Independent-Leaning Democrats and Independents while Republicans are supported by Independent-Leaning Republicans as well in their opposition of the policy (Gelman Lee Ghitza).
Government Actions and Policies on Obamacare
The government and much of the leadership of both the congress parties respond to the health care emergencies much as they respond to the financial crisis. Obamacare policy copies the unbeaten formula that Massachusetts used to augment access to insurance for the general public. It remains to be observed if the Obamacare policy will have the same force in those states where the citizens are less compassionate to the reforms and where the local political leaders resist the law. Cost control will require a strong leadership from the government I order to set goals or control the spending on medical expenses and also regulate the risk pools and expenses of the administration. Competition is also an indirect way to contain the costs in the lack of strong regulatory bodies. The challenge resides in the execution of the new law across various states and also in those areas with resistance to the policy. The disparities of the likeness of the ObamaCare law also possess a challenge on future government policies. Historically, the United States has been disinclined to regulate the private insurance industry. Obama government made significant strides in that direction (Eric Julian, 1077).
Recommendations
The Obamacare Healthcare reform policy has a mixed response with people accepting and opposing the new law in equal propensity. It comes as a challenge for the government to implement the policy across the country as many opposition leaders also come to oppose the law. It is highly recommended that the government must approach the issue with caution, empathy and care. Below are the two measures tat are recommended in order to effectively tackle the issue:
- Spread awareness among the citizens to gather their support for participating in the healthcare reform. Engage more people in the activities pertaining to the healthcare reforms.
- Implement the policy phase-wise with the most receptive states first and generate success stories and enthusiasm among the citizens, and then implementing the policy in the states resisting the change.
Work Cited
Gelman, A., Lee, D., & Ghitza, Y. (2010). Public opinion on health care reform.
In The Forum (Vol. 8, No. 1).
Eric M. Patashnik, Julian E. Zelizer. (2013) The Struggle to Remake Politics:
Liberal Reform and the Limits of Policy Feedback in the Contemporary American State.
Perspectives on Politics, 11(04), 1071-1087
Kff.org., 'Health Tracking Poll: Exploring the Public’s Views on the Affordable Care
Act (ACA)'. N.p., 2014. Web. 03 Nov. 2014.
