Journal of Law, Policy and Globalization www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-3240 (Paper) ISSN 2224-3259 (Online) Vol.24, 2014 71 Obama Healthcare Reform Plan for Americans: Challenges and Constraints Mahmoud Kamal Abouraia 1 Benjamin Balbuena Aguenza 2, 3, * 1. Business Administration Department, Ibn Rushd College for Management Sciences, PO Box 447, Abha 61411, Saudi Arabia 2. School of Health Science, Management and Pedagogy, Southwestern University, Villa Aznar, Urgello St., Cebu City, Philippines 6000 3. Support Studies Department, Ibn Rushd College for Management Sciences, PO Box 447, Abha 61411, Saudi Arabia * E-mail of the corresponding author: botchie1005@hotmail.com Abstract Healthcare reform is a set of criteria, employed for describing significant components of health policy development or changes but most cases, governmental policy that influences health care delivery in a place provided. In the United States, President Obama approved an inexpensive Health Care Act into law in March 2010, to capture adjustments in healthcare systems. Such changes, is to enhance the amount of people covered with insurance as well as to boost the quality of treatment while attempting to balance or decrease expenses. Under this legislation, everyone ought to have health insurance independently but majority of the employees in the United States depend on their companies’ healthcare coverage. In this issue, the accurate understanding of healthcare protection would appear to be essential for making clear decisions in selecting the finest plans that match the distinct requirements of a family. Various literatures revealed that most of the employees have little understanding of the scope and value of healthcare reform plans. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of Obama healthcare plans to American employees and discuss the significance, challenges and constraints of the policy to attract and maintain talented individuals. Generally, companies need to remain updated in the newest healthcare reform requirements and provide healthcare strategies to support employees make better choices in regards to the insurance coverage. Keywords: American employees, healthcare reform plan 1. Introduction Within the health economic advancement, healthcare reform has become a buzzword in scientific studies and numerous comments and content articles criticizing the aspects of the reform. Furthermore, various pharmaceutical scholars and scientists brought up this matter in the framework of costs such as U.S. healthcare costs (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2007), control prices and expenditures (Schweizer & Comanor, 2007), and measurements of costs and trends (Rice, 2007). But a narrow attention on the passage of healthcare reform is not clear, despite the fact that some authors take advantage of the phrase healthcare reform. Mullikin (2011) explained that affordable care implies “shared risk”. Risk is being exposed to economic reduction along with probability levels of loss. Risk is characterized by danger such as an illness or injuries. As providers, our system of care mitigates that hazard and the amount of loss hinges on the fully allocated costs of care. The two main distinct types of financial risk that the healthcare reform plan tests upon: performance risk such as “bundling” where the reimbursement is based on the cost of care delivered with a greater connection between the payment and clinical outcomes. The other type of financial risk is utilization risk which provides for new incentives to reduce the volume of care delivered. Residing between and overlapping these two types of risk is the quality of care or pay-for-performance from the Hospital Impatient Value-Based Purchasing Program (Health Care Advisory Board, 2010). Based on Frank’s exploration (2009), healthcare reform plan is a law passed by congress that was designed to help people in various income levels, employment situations and health status access health care. It goes by many names such as Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148) or simply called “health reform”. This law is intended to make sweeping changes to healthcare in the United States. Many of the law’s provisions are already in effect, while others will come in the next few years. Healthcare reform typically attempts to: provide universal access to healthcare for Americans, control the rising costs of healthcare, regulate