Historic Measure Expands Health Coverage
The bill aims to insure 32 million additional Americans. But costs worry health care providers.
25 March 2010
A sign questioning patients about their medical insurance is posted in Jamaica Hospital in New York on Monday
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
President Obama has signed legislation to reform the health care system in the United States. The main goal is to insure about thirty-two million additional people. That is about ninety-five percent of Americans who are not already covered by Medicare, the government insurance program for older people.
About sixteen million people will be added to Medicaid, the government health plan for the poor. The law will require Americans to have health insurance, with a few exceptions, or pay a fine starting in four years.
Also, in four years, employers with more than fifty workers will have to offer their employees a health insurance plan. Employers will pay a fine for each uninsured worker. Smaller businesses will receive tax credits to help pay for health plans.
People not covered by employer plans, Medicaid or Medicare could buy health insurance in marketplaces called exchanges. The idea is that competition among plans will drive down costs. States will provide these exchanges by twenty fourteen.
The law is the biggest change in American health care since nineteen sixty-five. But it is not a government operated health care system like the ones in other countries. President Obama says it provides limited reform.
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