I came to the health care presentation with relatively extensive prior exposure to the details of the American Care Act, but surprisingly little knowledge of the debates surrounding the health care reform. From listening to the news I was aware that there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding the law, but it was only while researching that I discovered the details of why each political party, as well as the Catholic Church, supports or opposes the law. Knowing this, I have formed the opinion that, while the structure of the American Care Act is imperfect and the implementation leaves much to be desired, this piece of health care reform will still be an overall good for Americans and is superior to any of the alternatives reforms suggested. I learned from the research on the Democrat’s platform that the Democratic Party largely supports the bill. The platform states that, ““The Affordable Care Act is not the end of efforts to improve health care for all Americans,” indicating that they would like to see the reach and effectiveness of the law expanded (The 2012 Democratic National Platform: Moving America Forward, Democratic National Committee). The Democratic platform cites the Affordable Care act as responsible for covering more working families under Medicaid, preventing those with preexisting conditions from being denied coverage, and insuring 30 million previously uninsured Americans (The 2012 Democratic National Platform: Moving America Forward, Democratic National Committee). Since being uninsured is correlated to negative health outcomes, the benefits quoted by the Democratic Party would seem to support my argument that the American Care Act is a good for Americans because it covers so many people who would otherwise... ... middle of paper ... ..., it also helps Americans by garenteeing that their medical care will not be based on others religious beliefs. The debate surrounding the contraceptive mandate could therefore either strengthen or weaken my argument. The Affordable Care Act is not perfect. It presents barriers to both legal and illegal immigrants when it comes to obtaining health care and creates conflicts between financial necessity and religious teaching for certain employers. Compromises and amendments to protect these groups would greatly strengthen the law. The law also has suffered from a jolty suffered, seeing less than expected enrollment during the first open enrollment period. However on the whole, the law has done a lot of good in protecting the poor and particularly those with preexisting conditions, who would not be satisfactorily served under other proposals for health care reform.
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.
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.
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.
Although aggressive opponents of the law call it Obama care, Obama accepts this nickname as it does accurately reflect his care for those who were going bankrupt due to sickness. The PPACA brings more than 30 million uninsured Americans under the attention of the obligation that everyone acquire insurance in exchange for security that the sick cannot be denied coverage (Woodward, 2012). The Affordable Care Act benefits to reconstruct the healthcare system by giving more Americans access to superior, 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 that 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.
In recent years, the number of Americans who are uninsured has reached over 45 million citizens, with millions more who only have the very basic of insurance, effectively under insured. With the growing budget cuts to medicaid and the decreasing amount of employers cutting back on their health insurance options, more and more americans are put into positions with poor health care or no access to it at all. At the heart of the issue stems two roots, one concerning the morality of universal health care and the other concerning the economic effects. Many believe that health care reform at a national level is impossible or impractical, and so for too long now our citizens have stood by as our flawed health-care system has transformed into an unfixable mess. The good that universal healthcare would bring to our nation far outweighs the bad, however, so, sooner rather than later, it is important for us to strive towards a society where all people have access to healthcare.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I disagree with this statement because the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been beneficial in a variety of ways. The ACA has many different components that facilitate better outcomes for patients such as insurance reforms that end pre-existing conditions as well as individual and employer mandates. I believe that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will achieve its original goals of expanding access, making healthcare more affordable and improving the quality of care for millions of Americans. The ACA expands access through a variety of means. The Medicaid Expansion is one example. It provides medical coverage to Americans who were once limited to health insurance related to cost reasons. The Medicaid Expansion will benefit childless and low income adults who currently are disqualified from Medicaid regardless of income. This in itself will help millions of Americans gain access to healthcare if their state has opted in. Also, the ACA expands access through employer and individual mandates. The employer mandate will allow large employers to provide health coverage to their full time employees at descent rates and the individual mandate will allow Americans to purchase federal subsidized...
Robert Creamer. "Protecting Access to Birth Control Does Not Violate Religious Freedom." Current Controversies: Politics and Religion. Ed. Debra A. Miller. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Lee’s Summit High School. 31 Oct. 2013
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.
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,