Seven Questions About Obamacare You Were Too Embarrassed to

SARADS M1
English - Text 1
2013-2014
Seven Questions About Obamacare You Were Too Embarrassed to Ask
1. What are the goals of Obamacare?
Passed in 2010, Obamacare is a national law with two goals: making health insurance better for people who
already have it and getting health insurance for more of the 60 million people who are uninsured.
2. Will it change a lot for most Americans?
5 About half of all Americans—about 160 million people—already have private health insurance, mostly bought by
employers. If this applies to you, Obamacare matters only if your plan was stingy. Under the law, insurers must
now pay for many things that used to be optional, like prescription drugs, having a baby, and mental health care,
among other services. The law also blocks any extra charges for routine checkups, cancer screening, and some
other stuff. Obamacare also limits your yearly out-of-pocket fees, such as co-pays for going to the hospital. It also
10 forbids insurers from kicking you out if you get sick.
3. What impact will it have on Medicare and Medicaid?
Moving on to the roughly one-third of Americans on Medicare (mostly for seniors) and Medicaid (for the poor and
disabled): Life won’t change much for seniors on Medicare, other than having an easier time getting prescription
drugs. However, Obamacare includes a big expansion of free health care for the poor, through Medicaid. Starting
15 now, nearly all families making less than $31,000 yearly could get free Medicaid, which means 17 million of the 60
million uninsured could be covered.
4. Who will be most affected?
Everybody else—the remaining 20 percent who don’t have private insurance and don’t qualify for Medicare or
Medicaid—has to go buy health insurance from an online government superstore called an exchange. You cannot
20 be turned away, and depending on how much money you make, the government kicks in anywhere from nothing
to a lot to help you out. Experts think 22 million people of the 60 million uninsured will comply. In the end, 20
million Americans still won’t have insurance, though.
5. How will it be financed?
All this isn’t cheap, so Obamacare cut payments to hospitals and created new taxes for rich people, medical device
25 makers, and health insurers, among many other tweaks to fund the law. According to the Congressional Budget
Office, these revenues plus projected savings in Medicare in the next few years should balance out Obamacare’s
cost.
6. Why did we need to change things in the first place? I was perfectly happy with the old system.
You weren’t the only one. According to Gallup, 82 percent of Americans were quite pleased with their health care.
30 The problem really was with the other 18 percent. People routinely got kicked off their plans for getting pregnant,
having a pre-existing condition, or losing their job. Afterward, no one would sell them insurance, which pretty
much screwed them. Many people also had bad health plans that imposed all kinds of restrictions. In addition, 60
million Americans had no health insurance at all, and as a result, many people lost their homes, endured
bankruptcy, and suffered other hardships trying to pay for treatment for their illness. Among industrialized nations,
35 the United States was an outlier in having no basic guarantee of health care.
7. Why are some people so mad about Obamacare?
Obamacare isn’t perfect by any means. But there are two groups that really hate it: those who wanted a
single-payer, fully socialized system, and those who claim to be free-market zealots.
Single payer folks think private insurance is wasteful, and they prefer the government to just pay for medical care
40 and eliminate bills, as in England. (Some people called this a “Medicare for All” option.) They dislike investing
additional money in a patchwork of private insurers. But such a plan is politically impossible in the foreseeable
future.
The free-market people are worried Obamacare will cost too much and also harm the quality of doctors’ care. They
believe the existing system had problems but worked well enough for most people. It’s true most Americans don’t
45 like being forced to buy insurance.
Adapted from Slate.com, September 30, 2013
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/09/
obamacare_explained_questions_answered_about_how_and_why_to_sign_up_and.single.html
SARADS M1
English - Text 1
2013-2014
Vocabulary to understand the text
but
santé
déjà
(non) assuré
la plupart de
environ
assurance
essentiellement
acheter
employeur
s’appliquer
être important
avare, pingre, radin
étai(en)t
ordonnance
médicaments
soin
parmi
frais, dépenses
dépistage
trucs
annuel
frais
ticket modérateur
interdire
exclure quelqu’un
malade
à peu près
handicapé
à travers
presque
signifier
tous les autres
rester
avoir droit à
magasin
bourse d’échange
refuser quelqu’un
intervenir
n’importe où
se conformer à
toujours et encore
cependant
bon marché
couper, réduire
appareil, système
ajustements
financer
selon
économies
équilibrer
coût
tout à fait
être exclu
enceinte
état antérieur
après, ensuite
vendre
mettre quelqu’un en difficulté
sortes
de plus
par conséquent
subir
faillite
difficultés
maladie
anomalie, exception
garantie
en colère contre
haïr, détester
unique, singulier
complètement
revendiquer
fanatique
gens
source de gaspillage
facture
ne pas aimer
prévisible
s’inquiéter
nuire, faire du tort à
assez
Comprehension
1. True or false? Justify with the text.
a. Obamacare will revolutionize the way most Americans are covered by their health insurance.
b. With Obamacare, poor Americans will have better access to health care.
c. With Obamacare, all Americans will be covered by a health insurance.
d. With Obamacare, some Americans will be forced to pay for health insurance.
2. Make a list of what is supposed to be better for Americans with Obamacare.
3. Make a list of the counter arguments.
4. What were the disadvantages of the previous system?
5. How will Obamacare be financed?