Today ProCon.org published its nonpartisan review compiling responses from legislators and health care experts to 62 frequently asked questions about Obamacare.

The 128-page review titled "Obamacare: A Nonpartisan Review of What It Is and What It Is Not" took an excess of 500 hours to complete and features 62 questions of which 39 have clear yes or no answers while the other 23 are debated using sourced pro and con responses.

ProCon.org selected 62 questions about Obamacare after reading hundreds of articles, studies, speeches, and reports from diverse sources including the Department of Health and Human Services, Institute of Medicine, Kaiser Family Foundation, Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, Congressional Budget Office, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid, Harvard School of Public Health, and others.

 

Some questions asked and answered include: 

* Will Obamacare raise any federal taxes? (yes)

* Under Obamacare, can insurance companies cancel coverage if a person gets sick? (no)

* Does Obamacare fund abortion services for cases other than rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother? (debated)

 

"Obamacare: A Nonpartisan Review of What It Is and What It Is Not" is available for free at healthcarereform.procon.org.

ProCon.org President, Kamy Akhavan, said "We hope that our work helps provide people with the facts about Obamacare and the best pro and con arguments in the debate over the ramifications of this hard fought legislation."

The 964-page legislation of Obamacare is comprised of HR 3590 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (905 pages, signed into law Mar. 23, 2010), HR 4872 Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (55 pages, signed into law Mar. 24, 2010), and Executive Order 13535 "Ensuring Enforcement and Implementation of Abortion Restrictions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" (4 pages, signed into law Mar. 24, 2010). Even experts who have read all the text have come away with different conclusions about it.

Proponents of Obamacare have called it a "historic victory" and "landmark legislation" that reforms the US health care system by making health care affordable, insuring millions more people, and protecting consumers from unfair insurance practices. They say the law will reduce the nation's deficit by more than $100 billion by 2020 and by $1 trillion by 2030.

Opponents have called Obamacare a "socialist" and "unconstitutional" government takeover of the health care system that will increase the cost of health care and decrease the quality. They say the law will cost more than $2.5 trillion over 10 years and drive the US deeper into debt. Several congressional representatives and presidential candidates have vowed to stop Obamacare.

Health care is the largest industry in the United States, employing more than 14 million people. Health care expenditures totaled over $2.5 trillion – 17.9% of the entire US economy – in 2011. 

Whether people love Obamacare or hate it, ProCon.org believes that a nonpartisan view of Obamacare is important to many of the 300+ million residents of the United States.

[N.B. The 62 questions and corresponding answers in the review are more current than the 38 questions on the Health Care Reform ProCon.org website which will be updated to match the review by Friday Oct. 26, 2012.]