Obamacare and Federalism
Federalism is a system of government in which the same territory is controlled by two levels of government. In the United States we have state and federal governments that share some responsibilities but can also be different. The 10th amendment states powers not given to the Federal government are given to the states. Obamacare is designed to help Americans who did not have health insurance, but had too much income to qualify for Medicaid. Obamacare relies on private health insurance but requires participating insurance companies to provide basic levels of coverage. The act provides government subsidies in many cases to help people pay premiums. “it represents the most significant regulatory overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965” (Harkness). …show more content…
If congress is regulating the american citizen’s decision not to buy health insurance makes this act an example of Coercive Federalism. The decision will affect the states immensely because “under the law, states and insurers have to be ready to sign up 32 million new enrollees either for Medicaid or private insurance plans by 2014 using online insurance marketplaces known as exchanges, designed to help individuals and small businesses shop around for acceptable policies” (HHS office). Every single state in the United States are required to have customer friendly application process to each of the low-income individual applying for the Medicaid program. The act ran into the problem “coercion precedents like South Dakota v. Dole (1987) involve situations in which the states were given an initial choice to cooperate, or not”(WSJ). This led the federal government to say that if you do not follow through on the plan, federal funding for the state will be cut. This once again is a great example of coercive federalism
Federalism is a system of government in which the same territory is controlled by two levels of government. In the United States we have state and federal governments that share some responsibilities but can also be different. The 10th amendment states powers not given to the Federal government are given to the states. Obamacare is designed to help Americans who did not have health insurance, but had too much income to qualify for Medicaid. Obamacare relies on private health insurance but requires participating insurance companies to provide basic levels of coverage. The act provides government subsidies in many cases to help people pay premiums. “it represents the most significant regulatory overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965” (Harkness). …show more content…
If congress is regulating the american citizen’s decision not to buy health insurance makes this act an example of Coercive Federalism. The decision will affect the states immensely because “under the law, states and insurers have to be ready to sign up 32 million new enrollees either for Medicaid or private insurance plans by 2014 using online insurance marketplaces known as exchanges, designed to help individuals and small businesses shop around for acceptable policies” (HHS office). Every single state in the United States are required to have customer friendly application process to each of the low-income individual applying for the Medicaid program. The act ran into the problem “coercion precedents like South Dakota v. Dole (1987) involve situations in which the states were given an initial choice to cooperate, or not”(WSJ). This led the federal government to say that if you do not follow through on the plan, federal funding for the state will be cut. This once again is a great example of coercive federalism