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Provisions of the Affordable Care Act
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The background of the Affordable Care Act
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My viewpoint of the Affordable Care Act has changed significantly over the course of the past eight weeks but primarily because I know more about it now than I did when I started this class. My viewpoint about what the future of health care holds has probably changed even more significantly than my viewpoint on the ACA. Prior to the onset of this class, I simply assumed that health care would hold steady at its current status with a few “minor” tweaks here and there. I did not realize how much affect technology had on health care, nor did I realize that health care as we know it today, is in such a sad state of disarray. Health care has remained a core issue faced by Americans for many years. Young & DeVoe (2012), estimate that the cost of health care in 2021 will equal 50% of the typical household income and if it is allowed to continue to rise; by 2033 it will surpass the average household income. With my new found interest in the ACA, I feel that I will be watching the news more closely and monitoring the future happenings to be more “in the know” of things, as they happen. I feel that my opinions will wax and wane based on future financial changes that occur and the effects that it has on health care. …show more content…
The last five years have been an uphill battle for the ACA.
After the implementation, there have been multiple lawsuits disputing different elements of the new law. One of the primary sources of contention has been the use of tax credits. These credits make insurance affordable and increases the availability of insurance for Americans which is the overall goal of the ACA. If the supreme court upholds that paying these credits is unconstitutional health care will become unaffordable under the ACA. Congress could easily amend the laws to prevent these consequences but this is an unlikely scenario due to partisan gridlock (Henry, 2015). This will threaten the law’s future
survival. Another factor that would change the future of the ACA and health care in general; and a factor that I will play a part in deciding is the 2016 election for our next President of the United States. The election of a Republican president (not saying I am voting Republican or not) in 2016 would almost certainly cause the program as we know it to change drastically. It is possible that a Republican president may scale back, repeal or dismember the ACA either directly or indirectly by giving each State to modify the law to meet their needs (Henry, 2015). Policy changes have the possibility of creating even more unforeseen consequences for millions of Americans. It is kind of a wait and see game. I don’t think the Affordable Care Act actually meets all of the benchmarks that it was touted for. I do see both good and bad aspects of it but I think that we are going to see lots more changes before we land on anything specific.
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.
I am terribly ashamed to admit that prior to this class I really did not have a position on the Affordable Care Act (ACA). I simply ignored what was going on because I had insurance through my employer and I didn’t feel like the ACA would have that much bearing on my life. I was aware of some of the positive and negative aspects but had not really given it all a lot of thought. The one thing that did intrigue and interest me was the potential for Medicaid expansion. This was both exciting and troublesome because my job is totally structured around people who qualify for Medicaid. Increasing the rosters would have had a drastic effect on what I do and would have meant tremendous growth for my business but since Tennessee opted not to expand
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.
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 “Section 1342 of the ACA makes taxpayers responsible for bailing out insurance companies if the need to do so arises.” (MacKenzie, Tragic Problems With the (Un)Affordable Care Act). Although tax payers are legally obligated to finance federal programs such as the ACA, there are many who do not believe this is fiscally responsible. “Economist Laurence Kotlikoff estimates that average rates of taxation would have to rise 56% to cover projected increases in federal expenditures.” (MacKenzie, Tragic Problems With the (Un)Affordable Care Act).
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.
There is an ongoing debate on the topic of how to fix the health care system in America. Some believe that there should be a Single Payer system that ensures all health care costs are covered by the government, and the people that want a Public Option system believe that there should be no government interference with paying for individual’s health care costs. In 1993, President Bill Clinton introduced the Health Security Act. Its goal was to provide universal health care for America. There was a lot of controversy throughout the nation whether this Act was going in the right direction, and in 1994, the Act died. Since then there have been multiple other attempts to fix the health care situation, but those attempts have not succeeded. The Affordable Care Act was passed in the senate on December 24, 2009, and passed in the house on March 21, 2010. President Obama signed it into law on March 23 (Obamacare Facts). This indeed was a step forward to end the debate about health care, and began to establish the middle ground for people in America. In order for America to stay on track to rebuild the health care system, we need to keep going in the same direction and expand our horizons by keeping and adding on to the Affordable Care Act so every citizen is content.
Governing bodies for the prevention, treatment, and management of illnesses in America are now in a commotion because of the cost of care and patient access and the need for a more efficient system. There are approximately 50 or more million people currently in The United States that are without insurance today. In March of 2010 a country wide health care charge called The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed, that seemed to offer solutions to some of the major issues facing our health care system. June of 2012, this new health care law or tax was challenged in the U. S. Supreme Court on the Constitutionality of the bill with proponents wanted the Act repealed. A few weeks later the Supreme Court gave its answer, which was the law or tax is Constitutional and upheld it as tax. One of the biggest issues to this Act was the part where all Americans have to be insured by someone or be penalized, but the final analysis of this...
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 Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a federal that was signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010 to systematically improve, reform, and structure the healthcare system. The ACA’s ultimate goal is to promote the health outcomes of an individual by reducing costs. Previously known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the ACA was established in order to increase the superiority, accessibility, and affordability of health insurance. President Obama has indicated the ACA is fully paid for and by staying under the original $900 billion dollar budget; it will be able to provide around 94% of Americans with coverage. In addition, the ACA has implemented that implemented that insurance companies can no longer deny c...
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.
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...
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.
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.
The Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, is a new health policy created by the American federal government. Its purpose is to make healthcare more affordable and friendly for the people. Unfortunately in some way that does not prove to be the case. It is becoming apparent that Obama may have made some misleading statements to help get the ACA put into action. The ACA is sprinkled with many flaws that call for a reform such as people’s current plans being terminated, high costs, and at minimum some people’s hours being cut by their employers.
The Affordable Care Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on March 2010, offers middle class families more benefits in their healthcare. It ended insurance industry abuses, where it lowered health care costs, gave more choice to the clients, and enhancing the quality of life for All Americans (White house 2). The Patient’s Bill of Rights gave the control of healthcare to the client instead of the insurance company (White House 3). The insurance company no longer was able to deny the coverage request when the client is in need of it (White House 3). So even though the United States healthcare system is not perfect, it is being improved as each passing year goes by, Americans just have to wait a little longer in order to get their healthcare service they