Individual Mandate Elimination: An Analysis of Changes to the Affordable Care Act
Overview
This paper examines the elimination of the individual mandate under the Trump Administration as a major change to the Affordable Care Act. The author argues against this elimination, contending that the individual mandate is essential for keeping insurance premiums low and ensuring affordable healthcare access for all Americans, including those with pre-existing conditions.
What this essay covers
- Introduction to the individual mandate and its definition as a requirement for US citizens to have health insurance or pay penalties
- Explanation of the mandate's purpose in controlling premiums by ensuring healthier individuals enter the insurance market
- Author's counterargument against elimination, highlighting how the mandate enables reform of discriminatory practices and maintains affordability
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Individual Mandate Elimination
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Individual Mandate Elimination
Among the leading changes made to the Affordable Care Act during the Trump Administration was eliminating the individual mandate. This concept refers to the requirement that all US citizens either have health insurance or pay the penalty. Hence, all citizens lacking insurance coverages either from their companies or other sources, and those who are not eligible for Medicare and Medicaid need to get coverage (Healthcare Management, 2020). Failure to do so could result in a penalty on their taxes. The mandate’s central focus was to help keep the ACA’s policies premiums low by ensuring that healthier individuals entered the insurance market.
I disagree with the proposed change. The reason is that individual mandate makes it easier to reform the individual insurance market. An ideal way to end practices such as health reform bans that tend to deny coverage even to people with pre-existing health conditions including cancer, diabetes, and autism or charging them higher premiums, ensures that almost everyone has health coverage. Without an individual mandate, such reforms tend to make the coverage relatively expensive to afford. Again, its elimination will lead to an increase in insurance premiums. Hence, the individual mandate should remain because it plays an integral role in enabling all Americans to access quality and affordable medical coverage.
References
Healthcare Management. (2020).