Chapter 12.4 Reading Check

The federal program that provides health insurance to seniors and the disabled is called

• Obamacare

• Medicare

• Medicaid

• Affordable Care Act

The federal program that provides health care for low-income individuals is called

• Obamacare

• Medicare

• Medicaid

• Affordable Care Act

Although Medicare and Medicaid are still a growing part of the federal budget, that growth is expected to level off by:

• 2080

• 2020

• 2050

• 2030

Why did both Democrats and Republicans agree that the U.S. health-care system needed reform in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries?

• No health-care reform had been attempted for over a century at that point in American history

• The overwhelming popularity of Medicare and Medicaid made an expansion of the government's role in health care feasible

• The expanding role of the government in health care had brought the entire system near to collapse

• The United States has the highest medical care costs in the world

Which was not a way that the Affordable Care Act improved access for the average American?

• It expanded Medicaid benefits for low-income Americans

• It created health-care exchanges where small businesses and individuals could find and purchase insurance

• It required employers of a certain size or larger to provide health-care insurance to their full-time employees

• It expanded hospital networks and paid for more emergency rooms with longer hours.

What did two of the major provisions of the Affordable Care Act, the requirement for employers to provide health-care insurance and the requirement for individuals to obtain health-care insurance, have in common?

• They were both struck down in Supreme Court cases

• They both went unimplemented in most states due to lack of federal funding

• They both require payment of a penalty if they are not followed

• They were both repealed by the Republican Congress during President Obama's second term

What is the advantage of the individual mandate, according to supporters of the Affordable Care Act?

• Requiring more people to purchase health-care insurance takes the burden off the government and businesses to provide it for them

• Requiring more people to purchase health care causes the overall cost of health care to go down

• It removes the need for government interference in the health-care insurance marketplace

• It ensures that health-care plans from insurers cover the most conditions possible.

How do supporters of school voucher programs argue that they could improve school systems in the United States?

• They encourage all schools to compete for students

• They distribute funds more equally to all schools

• They are a source of greater funding for struggling public schools

• They simplify the process of choosing a school to attend

Opponents of school vouchers argue that such programs:

• endanger the financial health of both private and public schools

• only benefit low-income children and children of color

• fund a few schools at the expense of the many

• fail because public schools are still very popular