Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act facts for kids
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a law in the United States. People often call it Obamacare. President Barack Obama signed it into law on March 23, 2010. This law changed how health care works for many Americans.
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What is the Affordable Care Act?
This health care law has many important parts. It aims to make health care more available and affordable for people.
General Health Care Rules
Now, health insurance companies cannot put a time limit on how long someone can receive health care. If an insurance company wants to charge more for health coverage, they must explain why to the public. Also, the money people pay for health insurance, called a premium, must be used for health care. It cannot be used for other things, like paying company workers.
Many people can now get preventive care for free. This means check-ups and shots that help you stay healthy. Health plans also give people more choices for their doctors. You can also get emergency health care at hospitals not covered by your main insurance.
How the Act Helps Children
Because of this law, children can stay on their parents' health insurance until they are 26 years old. This helps many young adults get coverage. Also, insurance companies must offer good health insurance to children under 19. They must do this even if the child was very sick before getting insurance. This means companies cannot refuse to cover children who have health problems.
The Individual Mandate
The law said that most people in the U.S. needed to have health insurance. If they did not, they might have to pay a tax. This rule was called the individual mandate. The Supreme Court of the United States said the government could collect this tax. The amount of this tax increased each year until 2016. Some people did not have to pay this tax, like those who were too poor to afford insurance.
Rules for Companies and Workers
Starting in 2015, companies with more than 50 full-time workers had to offer them health insurance. A full-time worker is someone who works over 30 hours a week at one job. Companies with fewer than 50 workers did not have to follow this rule.
The Health Insurance Marketplace
If you did not have health insurance, you could buy it on the Health Insurance Marketplace. You could also use it if you were not happy with the insurance your job offered. People could buy insurance on the marketplace website, Healthcare.gov. To get insurance by January 1, 2014, people had to sign up by December 15, 2013. If they signed up later, they might have to pay the tax from the individual mandate. Help was available if people had trouble signing up.
Every health plan on this marketplace must cover certain things. These include prescription medicine, emergency care, maternity care (for pregnant women), mental health care, and rehabilitation.
Expanding Medicaid
Medicaid is health insurance for people with low incomes. It is paid for by the states and the federal government. The law wanted to expand Medicaid so more people could use it. States could choose if they wanted to expand Medicaid. If they did, the federal government would pay most of the cost.
Why Some People Disliked the Act
Not everyone agreed with the Affordable Care Act. There were several reasons for this.
Worries for Companies
Some people were worried that companies would not hire new workers. They also worried companies might make people work less than 30 hours a week. This would mean companies would not have to pay for health insurance for those workers. There were some stories about this happening, but no official numbers to prove it.
Medicaid Expansion Disagreement
Many states were not happy about expanding Medicaid. The Supreme Court said that states did not have to expand Medicaid, even if the federal government wanted them to.
Government Shutdown in 2013
In October 2013, the U.S. government stopped working for 16 days. This happened because Republicans and Democrats could not agree on how to pay for the Affordable Care Act. This disagreement led to the government shutdown. Over 800,000 government workers were not paid during this time. The government had to pay them back after the shutdown ended.
"Death Panels" Claim
In 2009, Sarah Palin, who was once a candidate for vice president, said something about "death panels." She claimed the Affordable Care Act would create groups of people who would decide if older people should get health care or die. Many news groups and researchers showed that what she said was not true.
Related pages
Images for kids
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The President and White House staff react to the House of Representatives passing the bill on March 21, 2010.
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Jim Clyburn and Nancy Pelosi celebrate after the House passes the amended bill on March 21.
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President Obama signs the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010.
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John Chafee
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Mitt Romney's Massachusetts went from 90% of its residents insured to 98%, the highest rate in the nation.
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President Obama addressing Congress regarding healthcare reform, September 9, 2009
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Tea Party protesters at the Taxpayer March on Washington, September 12, 2009
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U.S. health insurance coverage by source in 2016. CBO estimated ACA/Obamacare was responsible for 23 million persons covered via exchanges and Medicaid expansion.
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This chart illustrates several aspects of the Affordable Care Act, including number of persons covered, cost before and after subsidies, and public opinion.
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Excise taxes percentage 2015
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States that expanded Medicaid under ACA had a lower uninsured rate in 2018 at various income levels.
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The distributional impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) during 2014. ACA raised taxes mainly on the top 1% to fund approximately $600 in benefits on average for the bottom 40% of families.
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Coverage rate, employer market cost trends, budgetary impact, and income inequality aspects of the Affordable Care Act
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Congressional Democrats celebrate the 6th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act on the steps of the Capitol.
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Tax Cuts and Jobs Act—number of additional persons uninsured
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See also
In Spanish: Ley del Cuidado de Salud a Bajo Precio para niños
