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provisions of affordable care act
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The Healthcare Reforms Act 2010 or the Affordable Care Act introduces the universal form of health care. The ACA seeks to reduce healthcare costs and allow people to be more engaged in their own health care. The ACA intends to make healthcare more affordable and increase access of health care by expanding government’s Medicaid program to the financially disadvantaged, such as the low income earners, disabled people and people over 65 years of age (Arvantes, 2010). The healthcare reform ensures every individual in America has a government or private insurance to cater for their hospital bills. Besides this, 60% of America citizens have their health insurance covered by their employers. Most of these citizens are employees of small business or large companies. This means that the introduction of the healthcare reform has some differing effects on businesses. This paper seeks to examine the different effects that the healthcare reforms will have on both small and large businesses in the United States. The paper compares the impact of the current healthcare system on business with the impact that the proposed healthcare reforms will have on businesses (UDHHS, 2010). Some critics have raised concerns that the healthcare Reform Act of 2010, also known as “ObamaCare” would have some negative effects on businesses. This paper consolidates several rigorous studies that address the evidenced effects of healthcare reform on small firms and businesses. The paper also presents the impact of the healthcare reform on employer costs, coverage and offers based on a survey by the Urban Institute presented using a Health Insurance Policy Simulation Model (HIPSM). The government plans to accomplish this by controlling the insurance premiums incre... ... middle of paper ... ...p or prolonged illness (pre-existing conditions) to be able to afford the healthcare insurance coverage. One of the priorities in the American healthcare system at the moment is to develop health care initiatives affordable and accessible for the low income earners and the homeless in America (Barton, 2013). There is no doubt a dire need of healthcare reform in America. However, the proposed healthcare has some positive and negative aspects that impact on businesses. This paper has discussed these aspects in detail to set a framework that can receive certain considerations by the policy makers by reviewing those aspects that have dire negative impact on businesses. This would create an environment where both large and small business will be at an advantage to offer a health insurance covers to their employees, and everybody will benefit from the healthcare reforms.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted in 2010 and was designed to insure millions of people, who did not have health insurance, reduce out-of-pocket expenses for families and reduce costs for small businesses. In essences, when enrollment opens in 2013, the ACA law will target the 42 million Americans that according to a Census Bureau Survey are uninsured (Klein, 2014). Indeed, Obama Care from a utilitarian point of view is a huge improvement in medical services to a larger proportion of the population, that prior to this law did not have insurance available to them, including improved availability of health care services and reigning in out of control insurance companies.
The Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare” was designed to assure that all Americans regardless of health status have access to affordable health insurance. The Affordable Car Act was signed into law March 23, 2010. The primary goal of this act was to decrease barriers for obtaining health care coverage and allow Americans to access needed health care services (Affordable Care Act Summary, n.d). After the legislation is fully implemented in 2014, all Americans will be required to have health insurance through their employer, a public program such as Medicaid and/or Medicare or by purchasing insurance through the health insurance marketplace exchange (Affordable Care Act Summary, n.d). I will identify three parts of The Affordable Care Act that I believe are important. First, I will talk about the requirement that insurance companies are no longer able to deny coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions. Secondly, I will explain why physician payments are being shifted to value over volume. Lastly, I will discuss Medicaid expansion and why some states are not expanding at all.
The U.S. spending on health care is an outlier compared to other industrialized countries. On an individual basis heath care in the U.S is approximately double what other industrialized countries spend. On a total spend basis, the $3 trillion currently consumed in this sector represents the world’s fifth-largest economy. This high spending on healthcare is unsustainable in the long term. Businesses, individual consumers, and the government are consequently not insulated from the shrinking economic growth due to the ramifications of the high healthcare costs. In a global competitive market the U.S. business will lag behind other industrialized countries unless these high healthcare costs are curtailed. In addition, individuals, even those with insurance face the grim prospect of bankruptcy due to the high cost of care.
By addressing some of the negative factors of the current healthcare system, the Affordable Care Act attempts to reform the broken healthcare system.
In conclusion, the health reform begins with prevention. Focusing on improving the lifestyle and enhancing the quality of people’s lives their overall well-being will improve. With all the opportunities that are given by ACA to improve nation’s health through supporting fitness, discouraging smoking, encouraging healthy diet and weight management, by making health insurance affordable and implementing preventative services could result in enormous improvement in not just people’s health but in the economy as well.
The Affordable Care Act benefits to reconstruct the healthcare system by giving more Americans access to superiority, reasonable health insurance and supports to curtail the growth of healthcare spending in the U.S. People with health insurance will have access to a number of new benefits, privileges, and defenses which ensure that they can get treatment when they need it. This helps over 32 million Americans afford health care who could not get it before. It not only helps the consumers but also our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the discrepancy by more than $100 billion over the next ten years. Since there are millions of people with health insurance, it will also increase the demand of healthcare provider as more jobs will be open which will help our economy (Mowrey, 2013).
The healthcare reform debate has been politicized in the United States for many years where there have been deliberate efforts by various stakeholders to ensure that they push for the reforms that are in line with the cost-benefit aspects that they have already envisioned. In this paper, I will attempt to prove that the reforms that have been witnessed in the healthcare in the recent years have not been effective and helpful to the society as a whole. When President Obama came into office, he promised to oversee great reforms in the healthcare which is his government he face much priority in the social policy aspects. The congress managed to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
More than half of the American population is convinced that the Health Care Reform is necessary and it must be carried out by the government. Hence, the government plays a huge role in the health care transformation as it provides the nation with the health care plans and outlines other possibilities for medical coverage like the health insurance exchange. President Obama suggests his own plan of stability and security for all Americans. This plan is to provide more security and stability for those who have health insurance as well as those who don’t. Obama believes that it will lower the cost of health care for American families, business and government (The Obama Plan: Stability & Security For All Americans). In general, 62 percent of the population supports the idea of the go...
The Quality, Affordable Health Care Insurance is for All Americans of the United States. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act accomplished a fundamental transformation of health insurance in the United States through shared responsibility. Systemic insurance market reform eliminated discriminatory practices such as pre-existing condition exclusions. Achieving these reforms without increasing health insurance premiums will mean that all Americans must be part of the system and must have coverage. Tax credits for individuals and families will ensure that insurance is affordable for
Due to the rising costs of healthcare in the last century, individuals in the United States have become reliant on insurance to pay for medical services. Insurance, initially born from single hospital plans, has grown into a national industry accepted by hospitals around the country (Fein, 1999). The growth of the healthcare industry, facilitated by increased medical technology, has enabled hospitals to treat diseases and extend lives. However, with medical advances has come an increase in price. Healthcare has become a commodity that very few can afford without the help of insurance. In the United States, healthcare and insurance are growing issues on the state and national level. Many of the current healthcare policies in the United States
The presented article reviewed the impact that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has had on the US healthcare system following it being signed by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. As described in the article, much of the full effect of the ACA is yet to be determined due to its existence being only five years. However, within this time frame the ACA has greatly modified two key factors of the healthcare system; the expansion in coverage of health insurance and a reform in the delivery system of healthcare. Reform in these two areas came largely in part due to the federal government providing subsidies which allowed for 87% of the 11.7 million qualifying Americans to receive coverage, and secondly because of individual states being allowed to expand their Medicaid programs (Blumenthal, Abrams & Nuzum, 2015). The effects of the ACA on this 87%, have been that many were pleased with their coverage and report being
Insurance premiums are rising much faster than overall inflation & worker’s wages. Learning the history of our healthcare system is the only way for consumers to understand how the rising costs affects the system today. As demand has grown, so has technology which has steadily increased cost. Higher costs, as well as for-profit insurers have created a crack in the system through which many Americans fall. The need for healthcare reform is apparent. The solutions and responsibility of those solutions is not.
The Affordable Care Act has improved the market failures of the health insurance industry by providing a platform for consumers to access more suitable coverages.
Starting in 2014 small business with up 100 employees will be able to purchase group coverage through state base small business health option program (SHOP) exchanges. The hope is that these exchanges will allow small employers to pull their resources and risk factors into larger groups and so qualify for less expensive insurance rate (eHealthInsurance). The first two advantages of purchasing health insurance for employees are offering group health insurance and the ability to pull several businesses together which will bring the cost of purchasing health insurance for the company much easier. The disadvantages of purchasing health insurance for employees are small businesses with more than 25 employees will not receive any tax credit due to the Affordable Care Act and individuals who do not get insurance through their companies will be required to purchase health insurance on their own. In sum, if we allowed our employees to receive government insurance the cost of group insurance will go higher which will have an effect on what we can offer in terms of salary and benefits. Consequently, it is in the best interest of the employer to find an appropriate and economical plan that serves the needs of both the employer
Businesses have a very strained relationship with that individual consumers, lenders, investors, and employees. This relationship became strained because of the global economic crisis and the general public in the United cynical business. The challenges faced by businesses in the twenty-first century will affect the community due to the strained relations. Therefore, countries need to rethink the health care community, to repair the social contract, and long-term financial position of the society. The countries need to give impetus to businesses to do business in the twenty-first century to solve the problem (Rosenfeld et al.,