The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Affordable Care Act (ACA) or “Obamacare,” is a revolutionary regulation aimed to change the landscape of American healthcare system.

The two major changes under ACA include expanding the number of subsidies available to people with lower income, and also providing insurance to people regardless of their pre-existing conditions. The Obama government wishes to enroll more people into the healthcare system through the establishment of ACA, and thus cover the deficit the government has been spending on healthcare industry. However, is it really going to work? Probably not.

If we take a closer look at how ACA works, we will be able to see the problem. The fundamental principal of Affordable Care Act is to use the money from young and healthy people to pay for the bill of unhealthy or elder people who have higher medical costs. Hence, the health insurance company should enroll younger demographics to balance the risk pool. According to a research conducted by California Association of Health Plans, people in their 20s will experience an increase in premiums by 33% under Affordable Care Act, whereas elder people will see an decrease in their cost of premiums. Now, here comes the question, will young and healthy people who only spend a small amount of money every year on visiting hospitals or doctors be willing to pay more for health insurance? Moreover, will they be able to pay that amount of money since they just start to live on their own? I guess most young people will find that hard.

In fact, although the health plan premiums for young people grow by over 30%, the benefits under ACA also increase by 42%, which means the health company is able to provide members with better services and networks. However, it seems that young people don’t care much about the benefits. According to a survey conducted by USC Annenberg students, the issue that concerns young people the most is the cost of health insurance. They use the word “expansive” frequently to describe the healthcare system. And most people admit that it’s the high cost of insurance that prevent them from enrolling in it.

Some people may argue that there are subsidies available for young people with limited income. Yes, there are. But the truth is, for those who earn a little more than the poverty line, it’s hard for them to choose whether to earn more with no subsidy or to earn less with a small amount of subsidy. More importantly, for those healthy people who usually don’t have health problem, they would rather end up with paying penalties instead of purchasing health insurance, which is far more expansive than the penalty.

All in all, the Affordable Care Act alone couldn’t make the healthcare system operate better. If the government tries to enroll more young people, they should definitely invest more on educating younger demographics the importance of purchasing health insurance. As long as people feel the necessity of doing so, they will be willing to purchase the health insurance initiatively.