Running Head: THE TASTE TO DIE FOR

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 THE TASTE TO DIE FOR 2

The landmark Affordable Care Act, loosely referred to as Obamacare, was signed into law in 2010. This marked
one of the country’s most significant healthcare overhauls and introduced regulatory reforms and expansion
programs. The underlying principle behind the push for health reforms through the ACA was equitable access to
basic care. By the time Obama left office, the uninsured section of the population had been cut by half; over 24
million Americans are now covered thanks to this landmark legislation. The push for affordable healthcare in
America has encountered political opposition from the right wing section of the house over the years. Another
key challenge was facing legal tussles with the Supreme Court at one point declaring parts of the ACA illegal.
Even with these massive challenges, then ACA has had a considerable impact in pushing for more equitable
access to basic health services and millions of low income earners are now insured.

In 2012, the landmark National Federation of Independent Business v Sebelius decision was issued by the
Supreme Court following a drawn out legal process. In a 5-4 decision, the court upheld the constitutionality of the
two provision of the ACA: individual mandate and Medicaid expansion. The court had agreed to hear the case
challenging the constitutionality of both provisions. Under the individual mandate, buying insurance is mandatory
for all those who are not covered by Medicaid, Medicare, and employer-sponsored insurance. The provision is
also referred to as the ‘buy insurance of pay a penalty’ clause. It was specially designed to introduce mandatory
insurance as well as to put certain reasonable limits on open enrollment for the purpose of avoiding an insurance
death spiral considering that a considerable number of people delay insurance until they fall ill. When people
delay buying insurance until they are sick, the resultant scenario would see major insurers charging a higher
premium for relatively sicker Americans. This, in turn, creates a vicious cycle in which more people will prefer to
drop their insurance coverage to caution themselves.