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The Unintended Consequences of the Affordable Health Care Act
debate over healthcare reform
debate over healthcare reform
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Healthcare in the United States has become one of the biggest, most debated issues in today’s society and people express concerns over quality, accessibility, choice, cost and dozens of other factors. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have tried to use healthcare issues to their advantage, Democrats talking about the right that all Americans should have to quality healthcare while Republicans hammer on the tremendous cost and its impact on the government’s deficit and on business. With the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) on March 23, 2010, the debate has intensified. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the US governmental agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid, found that the legislation would do little to stem the rise in healthcare expenditures which are expected to increase to more than twenty percent of gross domestic product in the next decade. However, at the same time, President Obama stated that “The Health Care Reform Bill we passed last year will slow these rising costs, which is part of the reason that nonpartisan economists have said that repealing the health care law would add a quarter of a trillion dollars to our deficit. My Administration projects significant savings from the health care reform.” This paper will not attempt to tackle the issue of whether the overall impact of the bill will be more positive or negative to the US economy. The goal of this paper is to outline why addressing healthcare is so important economically and then to explore some specific aspects of the PPACA legislation, such as the mandate for coverage, the elimination of pre-existing conditions and coverage rescissions, allowing dependent coverage until age 26, and the additio... ... middle of paper ... ...s provisions does not guarantee any degree of understanding of the overall impact this legislation will have. However it is possible to look at various aspects of the legislation and forecast the implications of those changes. Certain protections that the bill provides, like expansion of dependent coverage, elimination of pre-existing conditions and prohibition of rescissions of coverage, will positively impact some people but will generally cause higher health care costs. Other aspects of the bill, like the medical loss ratio requirements and the coverage mandates, will impact businesses differentially. I believe in its totality, smaller employers will get some benefit out of the legislation while larger employers are likely harmed. However, it will be years after this law is enacted, and likely modified, that the true impacts of the legislation are known.
One of the most controversial topics in the United States in recent years has been the route which should be undertaken in overhauling the healthcare system for the millions of Americans who are currently uninsured. It is important to note that the goal of the Affordable Care Act is to make healthcare affordable; it provides low-cost, government-subsidized insurance options through the State Health Insurance Marketplace (Amadeo 1). Our current president, Barack Obama, made it one of his goals to bring healthcare to all Americans through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. This plan, which has been termed “Obamacare”, has come under scrutiny from many Americans, but has also received a large amount of support in turn for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons include a decrease in insurance discrimination on the basis of health or gender and affordable healthcare coverage for the millions of uninsured. The opposition to this act has cited increased costs and debt accumulation, a reduction in employer healthcare coverage options, as well as a penalization of those already using private healthcare insurance.
The aim of affordable care act (ACA) was to extend health insurance coverage to around 15% of US population who lack it. These include people with no coverage from their employers and don’t have coverage by US health programs like Medicaid (Retrieved from, https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/affordable-care-act/). To achieve this, the law required all Americans to have health insurance which is a reason of controversy because, it was inappropriate intrusion of government into the massive health care industry and insult to personal liberty. To make health care more affordable subsidies are offered and the cost of the insurance was supposed to be reduced by bringing younger, healthier people to the health insurance system. This could be controversial, if older, sicker people who need the coverage most enter the market but younger group decline to do so. The insurance pool will be unbalanced and the cost of coverage will rise correspondingly.
Sever misinterpretation of the legislation distorted public opinion. Many people did not understand the impact that the ACA would have on employers and the coverage that they would be mandated to supply. Companies who employee greater than 50 employees are required to make coverage available and contribute to the cost or pay a fee; however, they qualify for the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) and are given tax breaks to help defray the cost (Reisman, 2015). Based on Reisman’s research, employers who have greater than 50 but fewer than 100 employees can obtain coverage for employees through state-based insurance exchanges and those who employee less than 25 full-time employees also qualify for tax breaks to help with costs. Another common misconception was that the ACA would afford illegal immigrants the opportunity to have healthcare. The ACA law excludes undocumented immigrants from these new coverage options and offers reduced benefits for those legally present (Shaffer, 2013). There are some parts of the Affordable Care Act that are hard to understand or conceptualize. One example understanding how the ACA will save health care dollars in the long run when it will significantly increase healthcare spending during
...ll have to provide nutrition facts to help communities as a whole become healthy or continue their healthy habits. This means the economy will have fewer people covered by government-sponsored health plans. The amount of coverage required to cover all the uninsured will not be enough. According to Daniel Fisher (2012), the laws that were in place provided coverage for the poor, elderly and even about 60% of Americans who get their insurance through their employer. The sole purpose for the healthcare reform is to fix a problem that each year costs extreme amounts of money. The Healthcare reform act is to help with the economic issue of people merely staying at their jobs just so they can continue with insurance coverage. The rising cost and the complexity of healthcare systems is an imperative factor that should concern both businesses and individual
Healthcare has been a topic of discussion with the majority of the country. Issues with insurance coverage, rising costs, limited options to gain coverage, and the quality of healthcare have become concerns for law makers, healthcare providers and the general public. Some of those concerns were alleviated with the passing of the Affordable Care Act, but new concerns have developed with problems that have occurred in the implementation of the new law. The main concerns of the country are if the Affordable Care Act will be able to overcome the issues that plagued the old healthcare system, the cost of the program, and how will the new law affect the quality of the health delivery system.
It’s nothing new that our nation is always coming up with something in stirring up a plan to create ideas on how this will affect individuals. Well the chances that’s affecting this nation is our healthcare system where you have millions of Americans struggling in trying to keep up with payments of the prices, is it really that serious that the healthcare companies are asking them to pay way more than what they should be originally paying for. It’s no wonder why so many families are losing money left and right and having to suffer bankruptcy in order to have the care they need for their loved ones and so forth.
The United States (U.S.) has a health care system that is much different than any other health care system in the world (Nies & McEwen, 2015). It is frequently recognized as one with most recent technological inventions, but at the same time is often criticized for being overly expensive (Nies & McEwen, 2015). In 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) (U. S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.) This plan was implemented in an attempt to make preventative care more affordable and accessible for all uninsured Americans (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.). Under the law, the new Patient’s Bill of Rights gives consumers the power to be in charge of their health care choices. (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.).
The health of the American people lags behind those from other developed countries. Federal public health agencies have a wide range of responsibilities and functions which includes public health research, funding, and oversight of direct healthcare providers. It has been a long time since changes have been made to the way the federal government structures its health care roles and programs outside of Medicare and Medicaid (Trust, 2013). With healthcare reform on the horizon now is the time to invest time and money in prevention, not medicine, making it a top priority to improve health and prevent disease. Funding efforts at all levels of the public health continuum need to focus on developing programs aimed at such leading initiatives as tobacco cessation, improving nutrition, supplying safe workplaces, and increasing physical activity in all ages of the population. People should have equal access to quality preventative medicine and education.
Prior to the PPACA, certain divisions of the medical field made the reach of health care coverage far smaller than it should be. This reach widely affected individuals who have a small pre-existing income and rely on social welfare for many needs, needs such as health care. With this diminutive range of coverage, it makes it difficult for the government to support funding for welfare, and in turn funding for the Department Human Services. Now with the PPACA, this problem has been eradicated, but some still debate whether the act has hurt the economy in an effort to make up for the lack of funds . This has been a matter which has led to many debates and controversial statements, but still no clear decision on the argument has been made.
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).
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed by President Barack Obama is a significant change of the American healthcare system since insurance plans programs like Medicare and Medicaid (“Introduction to”). As a result, “It is also one of the most hotly contested, publicly maligned, and politically divisive pieces of legislation the country has ever seen” (“Introduction to”). The Affordable Care Act should be changed because it grants the government too much control over the citizen’s healthcare or the lack of individual freedom to choose affordable health insurance.
The people of the United States have been suffering from a number of serious issues, all related to health care: millions go uninsured every year, health care is too expensive, and the quality of care is poor, especially for the price. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obama Care, began addressing these issues. The ACA is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The law was enacted with the goals of increasing the quality and affordability of health insurance, lowering the uninsured rate by expanding public and private insurance coverage, and reducing the costs of healthcare for individuals and the government. Although several of the act’s promises have not come into effect yet, it has managed to extend healthcare to the repetitively uninsured. While many of the accomplishments that the act has already made, and aims to make, are no small feat, there are still issues within the policies and procedures. For example, Obama Care boasts that it is a universal healthcare system. However, it is unlike any other in the world, and is technically forced on citizens in a variety of ways. It has been debated, that for that reason, the new law may come into violation of several human rights. Another significant issue with the ACA regards a cap on citizen’s out-of-pocket expenses, and the fact that the administration decided to delay making a definitive decision, potentially costing many American’s unprecedented medical fees.
In America the affordability and equality of access to healthcare is a crucial topic of debate when it comes to one's understanding of healthcare reform. The ability for a sick individual to attain proper treatment for their ailments has reached the upper echelons of government. Public outcry for a change in the handling of health insurance laws has aided in the establishment of the Affordable Healthcare Law (AHCL) to ensure the people of America will be able to get the medical attention they deserve as well as making that attention more affordable, as the name states. Since its creation, the AHCL has undergone scrutiny towards its effects on the government and its people; nevertheless, the new law must not be dismantled due to its function as a cornerstone of equal-opportunity healthcare, and if such a removal is allowed, there will be possibly detrimental effects on taxes, the economy, and poor people.
Obamacare: the Temporary Solution to an Evolving Issue The need for universal health care within the United States has been evident, and needs to be addressed. The old healthcare system was plagued with issues, including expensive premiums that were on the rise, along with an inflated average infant mortality rate and limited average life expectancy, which ultimately led to many people being left uninsured (“Affordable” 2). In the 2012 presidential election, one key issue was how to reform America’s broken health care system, and to instate a successful universal healthcare system that has resolved the previous issues. Being one of the last influential and competitive countries in the world without universal healthcare, the pressure was on for the United States to develop its own system.
Less than a quarter of uninsured Americans believe the Affordable Care Act is a good idea. According to experts, more than 87 million Americans could lose their current health care plan under the Affordable Care Act. This seems to provide enough evidence that the Affordable Care Act is doing the exact opposite of what Democrats promised it would do. On the other hand, this law includes the largest health care tax cut in history for middle class families, helping to make insurance much more affordable for millions of families. The Affordable Care Act has been widely discussed and debated, but remains widely misunderstood.