Owing to the heated debate in the Congress over enforcement of President Barack Obama’s healthcare bill, dubbed as Obamacare, for the first time in 17 years, the U.S. government has entered into a shutdown phase.

According to estimates, nearly 700,000 federal employees would be hit by the shutdown. They will receive little or no payments for an unspecified amount of time. Those still working will only be in those departments which are absolutely necessary like air traffic control, postal service, national security and nuclear weapons and power. The other, non-essential services like travelling, leisure and historical landmarks, will remain closed till further notice. Furloughed employees will have no guarantee of receiving retroactive payments once the deadlock is over.

The shutdown has affected most of the government’s departments, and healthcare is no exception. The Office of National Coordinator (ONC) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are among the hardest hit. At the ONC, out of a total staff of 184, only 4 employees will be retained. At the HHS, 52% of the staff will be on furlough, meaning some 40,000 employees will be in limbo for an indefinite period of time.

The ONC will suspend its Standards and Interoperability work. Privacy and security policy activities, as well as maintenance of the Certified Health IT Product List will also be suspended.

However, as per the HHS, departments which are providing essential health services, like the Indian Health Service (IHS), will retain most of their staff, but other agencies, like AHRQ and SAMSHA, will be working without most of their human resource.

The shutdown has affected most of the healthcare departments, so it was inevitable that patient care was going to be hit as well. The National Institutes for Health (NIH) will keep their focus on current patients, but will not be taking in any new patients or protocols. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will suspend its influenza program, along with its local health bio surveillance department.

However, the one bright spot in all of this, is that the CDC will continue responding to outbreak and emergency centers, while Medicare and Medicaid will continue receiving funding from the CMS.

Amidst the shutdown, Obamacare, the bone of contention between the Republicans and Democrats, was launched by the government on October 1. According to the President himself, the federal website for healthcare received more than 1 million hits before 7am on Tuesday, signifying interest from the millions of Americans who are without health insurance.

However, the reason why the bill has drawn a lot of criticism, is that it accounts for only 15% of uninsured Americans, thereby putting more pressure on the pockets of those who already have health insurance coverage.

Obamacare or not, one thing that has happened is that a large number of people are without jobs, and might not be able to pay their bills as well as other expenses. Similarly, people who require government healthcare facilities are also affected.

Let’s hope the shutdown is not as long as the one that happened 17 years ago, because it will begin to have serious effects, on not only the healthcare services, but also on the financial standing of the government itself.