Source #1 Health for All: The Promise of the Affordable Health Care Act for Racially and Ethnically Diverse Populations The US government is struggling to implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. The ACA has four challenges, first, inequality, reducing health discrepancies among racial and ethnic minorities is a major focus of the law. Second, and perhaps the greatest challenge in the US health care system is inefficiency. The tremendous costs of the US system have worsened gaps for racial and ethnic minorities by making it difficult to afford health insurance. Even the ones who were able to afford it were only able to afford lowered end treatment. Persistent expansion of health insurance for minorities will require significant improvements in the efficiency of healthcare. Third, the US system is heavily relied on reliance on expensive, high tech care. For example, minorities without health insurance have commonly not had access to preventive services because of the expensive equipment that is used. Fourth, continuing public puzzlement is a problem for the implementation and political upkeep for the law. The only thing most people know about the act is the individual mandate that everyone has to have “minimum essential” health coverage. There was a poll released by Kaiser Health Tracking that affirmed this how uneducated people are on the ACA. The poll was released in April 2013, which revealed that 4 in 10 Americans are still unaware that the ACA is the law and is being implemented. Those who are aware of the law only half of them understand how the law will affect their family. For the people who are uninsured there is even a greater lack of understanding, 58% among diverse minorit... ... middle of paper ... ...e ACA is to be most effective there has to be a better way for allowing consumers to distinguish which plan is best for their needs. Ignoring the impact of the choice in plans could be an costly mistake. Johnson, Eric J., Ran Hassin, Tom Baker, Allison T. Bajger, and Galen Treuer. "Can Consumers Make Affordable Care Affordable? The Value of Choice Architecture." Ed. Thomas Boraud. PLoS ONE E81521 8.12 (2013): 1-6. Print. Source #5 (Book) Nowak, Sarah, Christine Eibner, David M. Adamson, and Evan Saltzman. Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Consumer Health Care Spending and Risk of Catastrophic Health Costs. N.p.: RAND Corporation, 2013. Stable URL: Http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/j.ctt5hhv2q. Web. Source #6 (Book) Jacobs, Lawrence R., and Theda Skocpol. Health Care Reform and American Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
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.
In this book, Bauerlein argues that technology as a whole has had the opposite of its intended effect on American youth. According to his argument, young adults in the United States are now entirely focused on relational interactions and, in his view, pointless discussions concerning purely social matters, and have entirely neglected intellectual pursuits that technology should be making much simpler. He calls on various forms of data in order to prove that the decline is very significant and quite real. This book is meant to be a thorough and compelling study on the reality of what technology has caused in the U.S.
Holahan, J. (2012). The cost and coverage implications of the ACA Medicaid expansion: National and state-by-state analysis. Retrieved from urban.org
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.
Peterson, Mark A. "It Was A Different Time: Obama And The Unique Opportunity For Health Care Reform." Journal Of Health Politics, Policy & Law 36.3 (2011): 429-436.Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
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.).
In the early years of 2009 to 2010 the political process pushed health care through legislation led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Health care and government, 2013). This process was extraordinarily tiring, as many defenders of the bills passing were present. Many congressional members “dug their heels in”, and wanted to slow down the process even more as confusion about the bill was posed (Health care and government, 2013). Despite opposition by many sides of the American people, a Democrat-dominated House of Representatives passed the bill and the Affordable Care Act was signed into action on March 21, 2010 (Hogberg, 2013). Indeed, all three branches of government were instrumental with the passing the Affordable Care Act into place.
Until Obama-care, The United States was one of the only developed nations that did not provide some sort of health care for its citizens. To most other nations that do provide healthcare, it is because it is considered a human right that all people should be entitled to. That hasn’t been the case in America, however, where only those who could afford it could have healthcare plans. Those who stand to gain the most from universal healthcare are the already mentioned 45 million americans who currently don’t have any form of healthcare. For many of these individuals, there are many obstacles that prevent them from gaining healthcare. 80% of the 45 million are working class citizens, but either their employer doesn’t offer insurance, or they do but the individual can n...
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 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.
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...
Reese, Philip. Public Agenda Foundation. The Health Care Crisis: Containing Costs, Expanding Coverage. New York: McGraw, 2002.
Provisions to expand Medicaid are central to legislation aiming to eliminate racial inequities. Minorities make up about one-third of the population, but account for over half of the total 47 million uninsured. This is a reflection of racialized economic structures that leave many minorities unable to afford insurance or access employer-based coverage. The ACA attempts to decrease the rate of uninsured for low-income individuals and families by expanding Medicaid to adults with incomes at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty line. Although this provision will help to expand coverage to some of the nations poorest individuals, the Supreme Court’s Decision to leave the choice to expand up to the states has a serious impact on the b...
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
The main advantage of the Affordable Care Act is that it lowers health care costs overall by making insurance affordable for more people. First, it wi...