Derrick McKinzie 3 of 20 | Page A Brief Analysis of the Individual Mandate . McKinzie, Derrick 8-31-2016 Introduction The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (hereinafter the "Affordable Care Act"), later amended by the Health Care Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, became law on March 23, 2010 and established a major expansion of access to health care for the citizens of the United States. Zelinsky, Edward A. "The Health-Related Tax Provisions of PPACA and HCERA: Contingent, Complex, Incremental and Lacking Cost Controls." New York University Review of Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation, Forthcoming (Yeshiva University - Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law), no. 301 (June 2010): 1-53. With this new ACA law, …show more content…
The current and overall examination has concluded that so far the ACA has been effective in establishing reductions in the cost of adverse selection within the health insurance coverage environment. Hackman, Martin B., Jonathan T. Kolstad, and Amanda E. Kowalski. "Adverse Selection and an Individual Mandate: When Theory Meets Practice." American Economic Review 105, no. 3 (March 2015): 1030–1066. However, insurance premiums are increasing with some insurance companies requesting premium increases in the range of 20-40% and others (mostly in California) requesting increases in the range of 4-5%. Pear, Robert. "Health Insurance Companies Seek Big Rate Increases for 2016." The New York Times, July 3, 2016: A1-A14. Reductions in health insurance coverage costs occurs largely through the reduction in costs obtained by the adverse selection related to the individual purchase of health insurance. Hackman, Martin B., Jonathan T. Kolstad, and Amanda E. Kowalski. "Adverse Selection and an Individual Mandate: When Theory Meets Practice." American Economic Review 105, no. 3 (March 2015): …show more content…
Two main policy provision aimed at this effort were the periodic expansions of Medicaid available to low-income individuals and the creation of the Children's Health Insurance Program; however, these policy provisions occurred using public insurance and the need to develop corresponding provisions in the private sector remained. Gruber, Jonathan, and Larry Levitt. "Tax subsidies for health insurance: costs and benefits." Health Affaris 19, no. 1 (2000): 72-85. With the passage of the ACA in 2010, this trend of micro-step expansions of health insurance coverage relegated primarily to the public domain experienced a dramatic change as enormous expansions of both public and private health insurance occurred. The
Due to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed into law on March 23rd, 2010; health care in the US is presently in a state of much needed transition. As of 2008, 46 Million residents (15% of the population) were uninsured and 60% of residents had coverage from private insurers. 55% of those covered by private insurers received it through their employer and 5% paid for it directly. Federal programs covered 24% of Americans; 13% under Medicare and10% under Medicaid. (Squires, 2010)
Healthcare in the U.S. has recently been affected by implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010. The intent is to create a healthca...
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.
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.
Ghosh, C. (2013). Affordable Care Act: Strategies to Tame the Future. Physician Executive, 39(6), 68-70.
Reese, Philip. Public Agenda Foundation. The Health Care Crisis: Containing Costs, Expanding Coverage. New York: McGraw, 2002.
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.).
Since the initiation of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, Americans have been put back in charge of their individual health care. Under this new law, a health insurance marketplace provides a haven for individuals without insurance to gain coverage. Just this year, citizens found out early whether they qualified for Medicare or the CHIP formally known as the Children’s Health Insurance Program. So much is to be learned about the Affordable Care act and this paper provides the roles of the different governmental branches, along with other important factors associated with this law.
sponsored programs, such as Medicaid, that try and offset medical problems of the poor youth,
In March 2010, under the Obama administration, the United States enacted major health-care reform. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 expands coverage to the majority of uninsured Americans, through: (a) subsidies aimed at lower-income individuals and families to purchase coverage, (b) a mandate that most Americans obtain insurance or face a penalty,
The author also believes that the Medicaid expansion extends beyond the politics, and has an aim to impact the life, health, and financial stability for the state and individuals. Medicaid expansion can be beneficial to many countries that have a large proportion of low-income people that are uninsured and or with disabilities. This can aid in saving the state money because much of the cost is provided and covered by the federal government, that encourages healthier behavior and results to a reduction in chronic disease due to lower health care costs. Although Texas opted out in adopting the expansion, legislators should decide on the advantage and disadvantage of participating in the Medicaid expansion to improve the welfare of the state. The expansion of Medicaid coverage will give low-income pregnant women the chance to reduce the rate in infant mortality and provide an opportunity for those that were unable to get coverage to be
Taxes in relation to the new healthcare reform is a prominent topic when one examines the supporting and opposing sides of the law. New taxes on businesses producing medical equipment and new Medicare taxes on investments have been established. For individuals and businesses choosing not to participate in purchasing health insurance there will be a penalty called a "shared responsibility" tax. The accrued money from these taxes is being used, among other things, to provide low-cost insurance plans on the marketplace and to create subsidies for those purchasing the plans. Through these subsidies, "any individual making up to $45,960 or a family of four with household income up to $94,200 is eligible" ("Obamacare tax guide") to qualify and get assistance at the end of each year to off-set the cost of the insurance even more...
Medicaid is a broken system that is largely failing to serve its beneficiary’s needs. Despite its chronic failures to deliver quality health care, Medicaid is seemingly running up a gigantic tab for tax payers (Frogue, 2003). Medicaid’s budget woes are secondary to its insignificant structure, leaving its beneficiaries with limited choices, when arranging for their own health care. Instead, regulations are set in order to drive costs down; instead of allowing Medicaid beneficiaries free rein to choose whom they will seek care from (Frogue, 2003)
Health insurance facilitates entry into the health care system. Uninsured people are less likely to receive medical care and more likely to have poor health. Many Americans are foregoing medical care because they cannot afford it, or are struggling to pay their medical bills. “Adults in the US are more likely to go without health care due to cost” (Schoen, Osborn, Squires, Doty, & Pierson, 2010) Many of the currently uninsured or underinsured are forced accept inferior plans with large out-of-pocket costs, or are not be able to afford coverage offered by private health insurers. This lack of adequate coverage makes it difficult for people to get the health care they need and can have a particularly serious impact on a person's health and stability.
Market imperfections in the health insurance market create incentives for inefficient levels of coverage. With the ACA, U.S. citizens are required to purchase insurance or pay a fee for declining insurance. The goal of the ACA is to force all the healthy people into the insurance pool to moderate the cost of health insurance. Since asymmetric information causes adverse selection in the insurance market, it is difficult for healthy people to receive actuarially reasonable rates. The ACA is hoping to achieve that all people are to be covered at a reasonable rate. The Council of Economic Advisers finds that the ACA is, “(1) a genuine containment of the growth rate of health care costs, and (2) the expansion of insurance coverage”,( The Economic Case for Health Care Reform). On the contrary, this forced health insurance causes insurance companies to raise rates to cover cost of the increased number of consumers who are unhealthy. Healthy people find that paying the penalty for not having health insurance rather than buying insurance is cheaper. Healthy policyholders began dropping out of the insured pool, and the average health becomes more skewed because the insured pool would become increasingly uncertain with asymmetric information forcing insurers to raise their rates again, (Kuttner, 2014). Evidence that adverse selection is