What is Obamacare?

The website healthcare.gov still only works intermittently.  Admittedly, its better, but it was down last night when I tried. 

Meanwhile, as the demonization of the law continues, I thought it might be useful to recap what exactly Obamacare does:

• It prevents insurance companies from discriminating based on age, gender or preexisting conditions
• It makes it illegal for insurance companies from cancelling your insurance because you are sick
• It mandates that you must be able to pick your primary care physician and Ob Gyn
• It mandates that kids can stay in their parents' plans till age 26
• It guarantees emergency care coverage
• It guarantees that there is no lifetime cap on your coverage - i.e. you can't be denied just because your treatment is too expensive
• It guarantees free preventive care - i.e. vaccinations, wellness visits, etc.
• It forces insurance companies to cap costs - only 20% of the total cost of insurance can be for non medical expenses
• It standardizes disclosures to make it easy for insurance plans can be compared
• It guarantees your right to appeal
• It standardizes plans ensuring that every plan covers:
• Ambulance
• Emergencies
• Hospital care
• Maternity and newborn care
• Mental health and substance abuse
• Prescription drugs
• Rehabilitation services
• Laboratory services
• Preventive, wellness and chronic disease management
• Pediatric services
• It creates health exchanges where you can compare and buy plans.
• It says, if you don't buy insurance, you have to pay $96 in taxes every year to cover the government's costs.
• It provides Medicare assistance based on income for poor people who can't afford the plan (but the Supreme Court has given states the right to opt out of this relief program)
• It mandates that employers with more than 50 employees should pay for their employees' healthcare (i.e. it says that if you can afford to have 50 employees, you have a responsibility to pay the employee enough to be able to afford insurance).

I listed these because in my limited experience, I have been unable to find anyone who has a major objection to any of these.  In fact, most people are surprised that these would need to be in a law.