President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton pose at the Democratic National Convention.
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney may continuously attack President Obama for his signature health care act, but he still supports some of the bill’s more popular provisions — including one that helps young adults, especially those struggling to find jobs.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, among an extensive list of provisions, has drawn considerable criticism for its “individual mandate,” which requires citizens to purchase health insurance or incur a penalty. With the Supreme Court ruling in June that the “individual mandate” was permissible through Congressional taxing powers, Romney allies went on the offensive to brand it as an Obama tax increase. But mandate aside, Romney and Obama still have some similarities when it comes to health care.
The provision that enables children under 26 years old to remain under a parent’s health care plans, which Romney supports, would save young adults from burdensome medical bills as they navigate one of the worst job markets in history for college graduates.
However, if graduates still don’t have a job after they’re 26 years old, the Affordable Care Act will slam them with a penalty if they choose to not seek coverage. And this could be an unwanted expense for a low health-risk demographic known as the “young invincibles.”
“These are people who don’t have health insurance and don’t buy health insurance because they’re pretty sure they’re not going to get sick,” said Philip Joyce, a public policy professor. “For a large percentage of them, that’s probably true. They’re sort of rolling the dice and they’re saying, ‘Well, I’m not going to get sick, so I don’t want to pay out whatever it is that’s necessary in order to buy health insurance.’”
While Joyce said Romney may try to eliminate the less popular provisions in the law, all elements of the law are necessary to fund the less controversial aspects, such as extending the age for parental coverage or covering those with preexisting conditions, which Romney also supports.
“The whole concept of insurance is that you’re taking a whole pool of people and they’re sort of sharing the risk,” Joyce said. “If you have a whole group of people out there who don’t buy health insurance, then that potentially raises the cost for everybody else.”
Young adults could face further health care uncertainty because projections suggest the current Medicare program is not sustainable, and likely will not be available when they retire. Even with the Obama campaign claiming a Romney presidency would “end Medicare as we know it,” the existing system will not survive through another generation, said finance professor Michael Faulkender.
“We have got to find a restructuring of Medicare that’s going to make it long-term viable, because the existing system is not,” Faulkender said. “It is going to run out of money way before 26-year-olds retire.”
Although Romney has pledged to entirely repeal “Obamacare,” as he and other political pundits have often called the health care law, on his first day in office, finance professor David Kass said he would likely face sizable Congressional opposition — even to more targeted changes to some of the provisions.
“There won’t be any major changes assuming Gov. Romney is elected president,” Kass said. “In order for him to repeal the legislation or him to make any changes to it, he’ll have to go through Congress.”
Republicans are projected to secure a majority for a second consecutive term in the House of Representatives, but the Democratic-controlled Senate is not as likely to see a dramatic shift.
“If the Democrats continue to control the Senate, I think there will be certain limitations on what Romney could do,” Kass said.
Despite being an outspoken opponent of Obama’s legislation, Romney passed a similar health care bill as governor of Massachusetts in 2006, further leading voters to question if he would dismantle the national law. And if Romney doesn’t embrace the entire law, that could put the economy in an even more detrimental state, Joyce said.
“It strikes me that the parts of Obamacare that Gov. Romney likes tend to be the parts that give people things,” Joyce said. “The end result of that, it seems to me, would likely be that the deficit effects of the Obama health care reform would be greater if Gov. Romney keeps the things that he says he wants to keep and gets rid of the things that he said he wants to get rid of.”
