On March 10, 2013, President Barack Obama put the Affordable Care Act, also referred to as Obamacare, into law.  The Affordable Care Act has more than a thousand pages of improvements to health insurance and healthcare in order to cut healthcare spending and to give Americans health care and insurance that is affordable. This law was put into place to ensure that insurance companies wouldn’t take advantage of their customers and to provide health care to a greater number of citizens. Before this law, an individual was not able to have health insurance if he or she was sick in the past (a pre-existing condition); also, policies for women would often cost more.

According to PBS’s The Healthcare Crisis, produced in 2000, 44 million people are unable to get health insurance in the United States.

According to www.whitehouse.gov, the Affordable Care Act creates a new Bill of Rights that protects citizens from abusive practices. The Affordable Care Act intends to end pre-existing condition discrimination. The website also said that insurance companies can no longer deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions like asthma.

When the Affordable Care Act was propososed and later made into a law, there was clear division among government representatives and the general public.

Jeff Long, a hall monitor at Hammonton High School, is not happy with the legislation.

“It is a disaster. [I feel like] it was shoved down people’s throats without details, and it’s coming back to haunt the president.”

Many of Long’s concerns about the act are related to the economy.

“It will create a crisis, and the country [might] collapse in debt,” he said.  “[The economy will not improve] unless spending is cut.” He thinks the act will be devastating to people who already have plans.

Taryn Cregan, a local telecommunications employee, supports the Affordable Care Act because she feels that healthcare is something every person should have, and this law intends to make it easier to get.

Cregan does not believe it will have the large-scale impact on the economy like Long fears.

“It’s not going to effect it at all. It might [however] affect individuals and families.”

She is hopeful that the economy can be improved.

“It wasn’t too long ago that we had a surplus with Bill Clinton. Unfortunately, wars were fought and were expensive, but in time it will be fixed.”

She explained that the Affordable Care Act was already helping her because her medicine has no co-pay, and it provides health care for her daughter, which is important to her.

Debt and the decline of the economy is the main concern for many opponents of the legislation. As of Novemeber 11, 2013 at 4:30pm the national debt was: $17,140,359,315,906. The nation’s federal spending was $3,471,324,465,933. The debt per family was $752,245, the debt per citizen was $189,615 and the savings per family was only $6,471. The largest budget items are ‘Medicare/Medicaid’ at $776,139,165,934, followed by Social Security at $808,262,785,038 and Defense/Wars.

With or without the Affordable Care Act, the country still dealing with significant debt that does not have  quick fix.