The simple answer to this question would be the insurance plan under the current presidential administration, run by Joe Biden. Famously, a change in president’s (and especially a change in political parties) often translates to a shift in policies and practices in how the country is run during the administration’s tenure.
The Biden administration quickly introduced the campaign to Build Back Better shortly after taking office. This plan for the administration’s execution of policies and agendas focused on rebuilding the country and economy from the difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Biden health insurance agenda includes the expansion of access to health insurance by several actions. These include expanding and strengthening the Affordable Care Act, increase subsidies for various coverage plans, implement increased public options for insurance, and
In order to explain the Biden Care Health Insurance Plan, it is necessary to understand the predecessor, the Affordable Care Act.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was a major health insurance initiative under the Obama Administration throughout the two terms served. The amendment, which was signed into law in March 2010, was widely known as “ObamaCare”, named after the president. The plan transformed the insurance system by changing the individual insurance market and expanding eligibility of Medicaid recipients. The benefits were paid for using a tax that was assessed to the top 1 percent of income earners to enable the lower 40 percent of income earners to receive up to six hundred dollars in benefits.
The Affordable Care Act established a tiered system for coverage, using the terms, “bronze” , “silver”, “gold”, and “platinum”, each differing by the percentages of health care costs through premiums. These plans differ based on costs of the premiums, ultimately creating higher premium costs for lower out-of-pocket medical expenses and lower premium costs for higher out-of-pocket expenses.
However, these changes to the health care system also brought individual requirements for U.S. citizens. In 2014, an “individual mandate” went into effect, requiring most U.S. citizens and legal residents to have coverage under insurance. If they did not follow this mandate, a penalty of the greater of a $695 fee or 2.5% of taxable income would be assessed as income tax.
The ACA also created additional requirements and regulations for individual insurance policies. These regulations included the prohibition of insurance companies to deny a medical insurance plan to a person with a pre-existing medical condition. Companies only became eligible to charge a different premium based on location and age
Due to political opposition, individual states were able to choose whether or not they wished to participate in the federal exchange for health insurance but needed to provide a state exchange if they chose to opt out, thus leading to the differences in open enrollment periods and state-insurance portals.
During the previous Trump administration from 2016 to 2020, many of the Affordable Care Act’s policies were rescinded (including the fee for individual mandate violations of health insurance coverage). The administration also reduced funding for the advertisement of the act’s policies, reduced support for resources that assisted citizens with coverage sign-ups and reduced the open enrollment period to be 45 days in 2018.
However, the Biden administration returned to a state of support for the Affordable Care Act. The administration expanded the session of open enrollment for 2021 using a Special Enrollment Period due to impacts from COVID-19. The enrollment period extended until August 15, 2021. Biden’s Health Care Plan has also surrounded the implementation and wide-spread access to the COVID-19 vaccine. Utilizing tax funds, the vaccine is available at no cost to the patient.
Overall, the Biden administration supports the continuation of the Affordable Care Act in supplying millions of Americans with affordable options for health insurance. The current plan includes an increase in subsidies to ensure that an individual will not pay more than 8.5 percent of their income on health insurance premiums. However, this subsidy would end for individuals making more than 400 percent of the federal poverty line. These guidelines ensure that low to middle income individuals and families are able to receive these subsidies for insurance premiums. Biden’s Health Care Plan has proposed to add subsidies to “gold” level plans, creating an affordability for plans that have lower premiums (due to these subsidies) and lower out-of-pocket health and medical costs.
The Biden administration’s support of the existing Affordable Care Act should not come as a surprise. Since Biden served two terms as the Vice President under Obama, the support of similar policies for his administration is easily continued. As the country steps away from the era of the pandemic, it is assumed that Biden’s health care plans will shift towards the encouragement of health insurance enrollment under the Affordable Care Act and ensuring that all Americans are able to receive health care coverage.