The Pros and Cons of Obamacare for the Average American

The Average American will most likely see a reduction in their insurance premiums and 30 of the 44 million without insurance will gain access coverage via the "Obamacare" exchanges, Medicare or Medicaid. Obamacare offers a number of protections and benefits to all Americans. Beyond the 10 essential health benefits mandated by Obamacare, additional benefits range from chipping away at pre-existing conditions to expanding health services.

One of the cons of Obamacare is that since many Americans work for larger employers, some employees may have the new costs involved with insuring their workforce passed onto them. Other workers will see a decrease in quality of plans offered by employers, to avoid the employer paying an excise tax on high-end health insurance plans. These cons will affect less than 1% of businesses, and only a small fraction will deal with the new challenges by cutting worker hours and benefits or not hiring new workers.

Overall, the quality of health care is increased, while the cost, in theory, will be reduced. Middle income Americans (those making between 133% - 400% of the federal poverty level), and employees will be able to use tax credits and subsidies on the exchanges to save up to 60% of the current cost of premiums making insurance affordable for up to 23 million Americans. Affordable insurance is defined as costing less than 8% of your annual income.