Obamacare politics: Affordable Care Act

The Health Care and Patient Protection Act

The Health Care and Patient Protection Act, also known as Obamacare, is in danger of being replaced by Trump’s current administration. Obamacare, which was enacted in 2010, was meant to extend health insurance services for American citizens. During his presidency, Obamacare managers were involved in a drive to encourage more people to sign up for health insurance benefits. These people, who are in charge of the Obama Health Care Act on behalf of the legislature, are now attempting to rescue the Act from the government. They are now focusing their private efforts on increasing the number of Americans who sign up for the coverage. They have launched a campaign slogan dubbed “Get America Covered.” This is intended to counter the hostility that the Affordable Care Act is facing from the Trump administration. The new government that is led by President Trump has shortened the enrollment window and also slashed the budget that was set aside for promoting sign-up. “Get America Covered” aims to remind people of the enrolment deadlines and other benefits of Obamacare that Trump administration is reluctant to show American populace.

Analysis

The people that have launched the campaign called “Get America Covered” have realized that as president and one with powers to promote health care bill, Trump is not interested in Obamacare and would want to see it fail (Magan 4). During his presidential campaigns, President Trump pledged to scrap Obamacare within few months into office (Jervis 12). Mr. Trump promised to bring the cost of healthcare coverage down by promoting the free market solutions. However, this has not succeeded yet, and his effort to replace Obamacare failed severally and hence the reason for frustrating effort to get people sign up (Magan 5). Cutting the budget to fund Obamacare as well as shortening the window period of enrollment is just but a show of anger because of his failure to offer better healthcare coverage solution to the American citizen (Oberlander 2). If not repealed as he promised on his campaigns, it will be a setback to his presidency and people who backed his bid for the presidency. Left with no other choice, President Trump can now only deny people access to information about signing up(Oberlander 3). This is what has forced the group that was running the Obamacare on behalf of President Barak’s government to put some efforts to save it, and this time from the government.

The Role of Private Citizens

The private citizens have now taken the role that should be played by the government to get more people sign up for health care coverage because the government does not want to be a party to it. Another reason why Trump may be interested in repealing Obamacare may be due to his hatred he has towards the former president (Oberlander 1). It is, therefore, his happiness to destroy Mr. Obama’s legacy even if it hurts American people. He, in the past, claimed that Barak was not American but a Kenyan born and did not deserve to be president. On the other hand, the “Get America Covered” crusaders want to use their little influence not only to save Obamacare from Trump frustrations but also to save their legacy (McKay 21). One can only guess that Mr. Obama is behind the campaign and is aimed at frustrating Trumpcare which is yet to be initiated.

The Future of Obamacare

How the next few months in American politics would unfold is for everyone to wait and see. The Trump administration is busy preparing the new health care bill which, if passed would render Obamacare irrelevant, but those who voted supported former President Obama are not giving up in sensitizing people to sign up for Obamacare. More interestingly, some Republican senators supported Obamacare and even voted in favor of it in the house when its repeal bill was first introduced (Lanford and Jill 620). What makes America stand out among the countries of the world is its democracy. People do not support ideas just because it is sponsored by their party, but with their independent mind after analyzing the benefits as well as harms of such bill if passed.

In Conclusion

In sum, there are lots of controversies surrounding Obamacare as spelled out by the new administration. Obama through this group is defending it against the government and not for the government the way they did in Barak’s administration. They have even made it difficult for Trump to launch his new healthcare bill. All that this group is doing is to save Obama’s legacy from being watered down by the new administration and perhaps prepare a strong foundation for the next general election.

Work Cited

Magan, Dan. “The people who used to run Obamacare are now trying to save Obamacare”. CNBC Article 4 Oct.2017:4-6

Jervis, Robert. Perception and misperception in international politics. Princeton University Press, 2017.

Lanford, Daniel, and Jill Quadagno. “Implementing ObamaCare: The politics of medicaid expansion under the affordable care act of 2010.” Sociological Perspectives 59.3 (2016): 619-639.

McKay, David. American politics and society. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.

Oberlander, Jonathan. “The end of Obamacare.” New England Journal of Medicine 376.1 (2017): 1-3.