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Impact of ACA on health insurance
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Prior to the passing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), some employees were receiving plans that had poor coverage or had other barriers to accessing care, which affected individual who have a costly, chronic health conditions by having large bills and uncovered medical care. When the ACA passed in 2010, there were a few changes that impacted employee based insurance. Some of the changes include preventive services without cost sharing, pre-existing conditions exclusions, dependent coverage to age 26, annual out of pocket limit and prohibition on annual and lifetime limits. The ACA provided health plans to cover recommended preventive services without cost sharing. Individuals are able to receive screenings, immunizations and annual check ups
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
The Affordable Care Act introduced a plan that would allow Americans with pre-existing conditions to obtain health insurance without the hassle of being turned down or fear of being charged higher premiums. The Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan was effective as of July 1, 2010. It allowed patient access to affordable healthcare in which they were previously denied due to their pre-existing condition (Affordable Care Act Summary, n.d.). Patients were required to be uninsured for at least six months before they obtained this form of health insurance. In January 2014, the PCIP plans no longer exist due to funding issues so Amer...
The individual mandate and the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare”, is the idea that citizens should be required to have health insurance or otherwise pay a certain penalty. The Affordable Care Act essentially is the ability for all Americans to be able to afford health insurance. “One goal of the ACA, often referred to as the Affordable Care Act…is to bring down the costs of health care and make it available to more people.” (Will the Affordable Care Act improve health care in the United States?). The ACA was signed into law in March 2010 and currently ongoing. Although the Affordable Care Act does potentially have some positive effects to it, like bringing affordable health insurance to uninsured Americans; the Act does also have
One of the policies that ACA made to improve healthcare quality is to provide free preventive screening, immunization, and wellness visit. Since this policy took place, 76 million Americans now receive free preventive care. Moreover, under this policy doctors will get paid more so they can take more proactive approach to patient care and making sure patients are healthy, rather than only treating them when they are sick. Also by making the healthcare recorders electronic that increased the quality of healthcare. Creating EHRs decreased healthcare errors, decreased the amount of time spent on documenting and increased space capacity. Moreover, by creating EHRs this gave the healthcare providers extra time to spend with their
Health insurance, too many American citizens, is not an option. However, some citizens find it unnecessary. Working in the health care field, I witness the effects of uninsured patients on medical offices. Too often, I see a “self-pay” patient receive care from their doctor and then fail to pay for it. Altogether, their refusal to pay leaves the office at a loss of money and calls for patients to pay extra in covering for the cost of the care the uninsured patient received. One office visit does not seem like too big of an expense, but multiple patients failing to pay for the care they receive adds up. Imagine the hospital bills that patients fail to pay; health services in a hospital are double, sometimes triple, in price at a hospital. It is unfair that paying patients are responsible for covering these unpaid services. Luckily, the Affordable Care Act was passed on March 23, 2010, otherwise known as Obamacare. Obamacare is necessary in America because it calls for all citizens to be health insured, no worrying about pre-existing conditions, and free benefits for men and women’s health.
The ACA expanded Medicare/ Medicaid, strengthened employer based care, and included an individual mandate. Before the ACA there were 32 million people uninsured and “approximately half, or 16 million, will gain coverage through an expansion of Medicaid” (Barr, 2011, p. 292). To improve the cost of care the ACA required employers with more the 50 employees to offer plans and individuals would have to purchase plans from the government. “ACA does not address directly the issue of disparities in access of care based on a patient’s race or ethnicity, it does impose on providers the responsibility for collecting data on the race or ethnicity, primary language, disability status, and similar demographic characteristics of patients cared for” (Barr, 2011, p. 293). The ACA strives to give health coverage to all but the power still lies in the private sector.
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,
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. The Affordable Care Act was established to help eliminate the disparities found in those who are diagnosed with cancer. Although the ACA was set into action about a year ago, its ultimate goal is to improve the health of millions of Americans. However, enrolling millions of American into the right insurance plans is no easy task. It will require a lot of patience and surveillance. In addition, the ACA’s individual mandated penalty for those who opt out of insurance coverage is steep. There should not be a penalty for families or individuals who do not want to be covered by the insurance. It will be interesting to see how the ACA will impact the United States health care system in the future.
If the United States had unlimited funds, the appropriate response to such a high number of mentally ill Americans should naturally be to provide universal coverage that doesn’t discriminate between healthcare and mental healthcare. The United States doesn’t have unlimited funds to provide universal healthcare at this point, but the country does have the ability to stop coverage discrimination. A quarter of the 15.7 million Americans who received mental health care listed themselves as the main payer for the services, according to one survey that looked at those services from 2005 to 2009. 3 Separate research from the same agency found 45 percent of those not receiving mental health care listing cost as a barrier.3 President Obama and the advisors who helped construct The Affordable Care Act recognized the problem that confronts the mentally ill. Mental healthcare had to be more affordable and different measures had to be taken to help patients recover. Although The Affordable Care Act doesn’t provide mentally ill patients will universal coverage, the act has made substantial changes to the options available to them.
According to Roy, 2013 the issues of providing the affordable care act will unite both the supporters and offenders of the public policy, but in this current situation where the input costs are rising, it will become impossible for government in managing the public policy related to affordable health care. In order to provide affordable health care, majority of the US government has tried out different policies time to time, but unable to get success in realizing the actual policy goals. By providing the affordable health care to majority of the people who requires more amount as controlling the input cost is not possible (AAMC, 2013). Lack of doctors is one of the primary issue in providing high quality health care to the citizens especially those who are financially poor. The Supreme Court of the country passed an Act related to Health insurance as all should have Health Insurance to all the country people by the year 2014, but the at the same time government is concerned about constitutionality of these act (NYTimes, 2013).
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a healthcare reform passed by the 111th Congress and signed into law by former President Obama in March 2010. This healthcare reform expanded Medicaid coverage and Children Health Insurance programs to millions of low income and uninsured families in the United States. It also helped to remove denial of coverage indications due to preexisting conditions. When healthcare professionals work together to coordinate patient care practices, the results are a higher quality of care and lower cost to patients ("The Affordable Care Act: Helping Providers Help Patients," n.d.). The ACA has partnered with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to obtain support and resources to achieve this goal ("The Affordable
The medical cost coverage depends on the insurance plan one buys which includes bronze, silver, gold, and, platinum levels, and the high the premium equaling larger benefits and more coverage of medical costs (Blumenthal & Collins, 2014). Since the ACA has passed the direct affect was the increase of insurance coverage resulting in the uninsured rate falling to 13.4% in May 2012 with more than 20 million more people covered (Blumenthal & Collins, 2014). Even though the uninsured rate is at the lowest in recent history it is important to consider that the ACA does not replace existing private and public coverage, it is not universal coverage but a stepping stone to better healthcare, and the ACA market place is only open for the previously
Ever since the long and controversial political and legislative process of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that was enacted in 2010, it has created numerous opportunities to make health care accessible, affordable, and higher quality for all. Importantly, the ACA has improved the health care system regards into reducing health disparities in recent years. For the remainder of this research paper we will have further information to what the ACA is, health disparities that exist, improvements from the ACA, and the status and future of the act.
The purpose of ACA implementation is because many people are uninsured due of various reasons, some of the reasons are financial hardship, pre-existing conditions, and work status. The most effective solution to these issues was to formulate