Analyzing a Social Policy: Obama Care
Introduction
In pursuit of social and economic justice in modern, capitalist societies, it is evident that ideology has played an important role. Yet, if we are determined to make any progress in this incredibly important effort, we have to try to transcend limitations imposed by ideology and political demagogy, and establish grounds from which to carry out a rational debate on some of the most important issues in our societies. One of the crucial issues of today, as seen by Jimenez (2010) is the issue of health insurance and availability of quality health services to all the members of the society. In this area, the phenomenon of Obama Care has been one of the best examples of how ideology and politics can cause a lot of problems on the way towards establishing a just and more humane society. This essay is a fact-based analysis of the intentions behind and effect of the US health care reform of 2010, known under the name of Obama Care.
The social problem that got its solution in the form of Obama Care was essentially the fact that the American health care industry, prior to the instatement of this law was in a deep crisis. Around 50 million people had no health insurance, which meant that in case they got sick they would have to cover all the costs of treatment, which can be measured in tens of thousands of dollars. Further, people with pre-existing conditions were disallowed from getting health insurance because there was a chance that the companies would not profit from them. Also, companies were able to cancel the contract with a person for almost arbitrary reasons in cases when people were in greatest need of health insurance (Obama Care Facts). All in all, the situation was catastrophic, and urgent change was needed. The Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law by Barack Obama in 2010, is essentially a piece of