Applied Economics and Management
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Yufei Zhang
CMN 101
I. Introduction
1. Attention Getter: All people may get sick sometimes during their lives. And currently it is expensive to pay for the medical expenditure. An effective way of risk-aversion is to purchase a health insurance. Imagine one day you do not feel well and go to see the doctor. He gives you some prescription drugs. If you do not have a health insurance, you need to pay for all the expenses. For a person having a similar condition but with a health insurance, this person ends up paying much less than you. (AA)
1. Benefits to Audience: You should listen to my speech today because some of you are currently citizens of U.S. and you need to consider purchasing a health insurances. Even for international students, you have to buy a health insurance during your college lives. Thus, it is really useful to know more about the current health insurance system in America and you will make proper decision on purchasing health insurance plan in the future. The health insurance act I will discuss today is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and is called the Obamacare by the public.
1. Thesis: So today I am going to talk about the Obamacare passed in 2010, which has a significant impact on the society.
1. Preview: In this presentation, I will first talk about the detail of the Obamacare, and then I will move on to discuss the effects caused by this act.
Transition: First, I will talk about what this act is
II. Main Point 1: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as “the Obamacare”, was a federal law signed by President Obama in March 2010, which was a reform to U.S. Health system.
1. Before we can talk about this act in detail, it is important to know the reason that Federal Government decided to carry out this act. It is due to the high-uninsured rate in America and related issues.
1. According to the U.S. Census Bureau in Sept. 2014, the uninsured rate has increased substantially for three years before 2010, exceeded 15 percent. That is a huge number for the society. Having insufficient health insurances for people will lead to instability for both individuals and the economy. (EX)(ST)
2. For example, imagine one person suddenly gets sick and is unable to work. If he does not have a health insurance, he needs to bear the expensive medical expenses plus the lost of wages during that period. (EX) Those losses prevent both the individual and economy from being productive. We may have a similar situation in the future. So we must be concerned about the health insurance system in America. (AA)
B. Based on the issue on health insurance, the Obamacare was carried out to reduce the uninsured rate and raise people’s life satisfaction.
1. According to the New York Times published in July 2012, Obamacare generally requires all Americans to buy health insurance, or to pay a penalty on that. This act also provides subsidies called insurance exchange to make insurance affordable for those low-income people (DEF).
2. For example, if you’re currently uninsured or having an unqualified health insurance for more than three months, you will receive a tax penalty. This penalty will be applied as your income tax. According to the New York Times published in Feb. 2015, in 2014, the penalty rate was 1 percent of your taxable income and this rate will grow continuously in the future. (EX)(ST)
Transition: Now that I have discussed the background of Obamacare and its purpose, I would like talk about its impact.
III. Main Point 2: There are several effects caused by obamacare..
A. The clearest effect is the uninsured population in America has been greatly reduced.
1. By providing subsidies, the health insurances are more affordable. By using tax penalty, people are required buy health insurances. These two factors lead to a dropping uninsured rate.
2. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Sept. 2014, the uninsured rate has dropped from 16 percent in 2010 to 13.1 percent in 2014. Furthermore, the major deduction on the uninsured population