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. In 2010, President Obama signed into law the Affordable Care Act in order to bring reform to the current healthcare system. The law was designed to provide healthcare coverage for people that did not have access to healthcare, improve the quality of the types of healthcare provided, and contain costs (HHS, 2014). Some of the features of the law are: • Protection against losing or acquiring healthcare coverage due to a pre-existing medical condition. • End of limitations on coverage during a patient’s life time. • Allows children to be on their parent’s healthcare coverage to the age of twenty-six. • Preventative care is complimentary to the patient. • Limits the amount of administrative costs to be passed to the insured. • Requires healthcare insurance companies to justify rate increases (HHS, 2014). By addressing some of the negative factors of the current healthcare system, the Affordable Care Act attempts to reform the broken healthcare system. Access The Affordable Care Act promises the public access to health coverage. Many of the people who d... ... middle of paper ... ...nities in Criminal Justice, Homelessness, and Behavioral Health With the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. American Journal Of Public Health, 103(S2), e25-e29. doi:10.2105/ AJPH.2013.301497 Fontenot, S. (2013). Understanding the Affordable Care Act Bit by Bit: Will Transparency and Sunshine Shrink Costs?. Physician Executive, 39(5), 86-91. Francis, T. (2013). The Affordable Care Act: An Annotated Timeline. Physician Executive, 39(6), 64-67. Ghosh, C. (2013). Affordable Care Act: Strategies to Tame the Future. Physician Executive, 39(6), 68-70. Shay, P. D., & Mick, S. S. (2013). Post-Acute Care and Vertical Integration After the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Journal Of Healthcare Management, 58(1), 15-27. United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). (2014). About the law. Retrieved from http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/rights/
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Show MoreThe Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted in 2010 and was designed to insure millions of people, who did not have health insurance, reduce out-of-pocket expenses for families and reduce costs for small businesses. In essences, when enrollment opens in 2013, the ACA law will target the 42 million Americans that according to a Census Bureau Survey are uninsured (Klein, 2014). Indeed, Obama Care from a utilitarian point of view is a huge improvement in medical services to a larger proportion of the population, that prior to this law did not have insurance available to them, including improved availability of health care services and reigning in out of control insurance companies.
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.
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.
Wise, N., & Taylor, F. (n.d.) Moving Forward With Reform: The Health Plan Pulse for 2012 and Beyond. Retrieved January 16, 2012 from
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 people of the United States have been suffering from a number of serious issues, all related to health care: millions go uninsured every year, health care is too expensive, and the quality of care is poor, especially for the price. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obama Care, began addressing these issues. The ACA is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The law was enacted with the goals of increasing the quality and affordability of health insurance, lowering the uninsured rate by expanding public and private insurance coverage, and reducing the costs of healthcare for individuals and the government. Although several of the act’s promises have not come into effect yet, it has managed to extend healthcare to the repetitively uninsured. While many of the accomplishments that the act has already made, and aims to make, are no small feat, there are still issues within the policies and procedures. For example, Obama Care boasts that it is a universal healthcare system. However, it is unlike any other in the world, and is technically forced on citizens in a variety of ways. It has been debated, that for that reason, the new law may come into violation of several human rights. Another significant issue with the ACA regards a cap on citizen’s out-of-pocket expenses, and the fact that the administration decided to delay making a definitive decision, potentially costing many American’s unprecedented medical fees.
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 major goal and crowning achievement of Obamacare was the ability to provide healthcare to those who would not be insured otherwise. “Supporters of the PPACA [Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act] argue that the law is good policy that will finally make healthcare affordable and accessible [to] ordinary Americans” (“Affordable” 8). In order to make widespread health coverage become a reality, a large enrollment with various signers to Obamacare would be essential. The main targets were young people, so that Obamacare would carry on with the newer generations, and people who were in need of the health care, but did not have access to it. However, after the first five months, the results had not been promising: “just 25% of enrollees were between the ages 18 and 34 -- well below the 33% to 40% most experts believe is needed to create a balanced...
Obamacare, otherwise known as the ACA (Aaffordable Ccare Aact), will significantly change major aspects of theour health care system here in America. Without a doubt, our current system has its issues, especially the costs related to health insurance and medical care were rising far too quickly (Pattron, 2013). Some may believe chainsaws have been called in to fix issues that could possibly be fixed with a mere scalpel. In spite of everything, typically, our health care system contained many more strengths than weaknesses. Considering the number of patients that have come from various countries to seek medical care in the U.S., the entire world sincerely agrees. However, despite the many strengths, changes have and will arrive that will affect all who seek medical care in the U.S.
Another feature about Obamacare is to increase access to healthcare. If you are already insured you can get a bundle of new consumer benefits. If you are not insured you can enroll in Medicaid if you are low income. If you have a high income you can get health insurance through an exchange for a better price than with a private insurance company (Tate 17-18). The biggest goal of Obamacare is to insure the uninsured Americans. In the year 2000 the...
The Healthcare Reforms Act 2010 or the Affordable Care Act introduces the universal form of health care. The ACA seeks to reduce healthcare costs and allow people to be more engaged in their own health care. The ACA intends to make healthcare more affordable and increase access of health care by expanding government’s Medicaid program to the financially disadvantaged, such as the low income earners, disabled people and people over 65 years of age (Arvantes, 2010).
The Obama Care, also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has a potential to improve health care. This law made health care more accessible to citizens because it inhibits insurers to deny insurance, institutes the individual and employer mandate, established lower standards for health plans, and provides an affordable health coverage to low income families and individuals. Furthermore, to foster a higher quality health care delivery system, the new law created an amendment to the Medicare payment program (Martin, 2015). However, the lawmakers must increase the citizens’ awareness of the law and encourage the other states not participating in the program.
After the inception of ACA that is Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010 various policies and regulations has been proposed which has more controversy (www.healthcapital.com, 2013). Affordable health act has impact on the stakeholders in different manner. The main concern in the medical field is the input cost which is increasing continuously. This is the biggest challenge for the US government as the increasing cost makes it impossible for the government to allocate appropriate resources in managing the requirements of the ACA public policy. There are more initiatives taken by the US government in implementing the ACA in an appropriate manner by continuously improving the quality of health care at affordable lower costs (www.healthcapital.com, 2013). According to Kaiser Health Tracking Poll conducted in March 2013, about 40% of the public are against the ACA and 37% are supporting the ACA which satisfies the legislative requirements (www.healthcapital.com, 2013). Key issue in health care industry is the quality of doctors and the number of doctors available, this ACA mainly aims to address the issue of all citizens especially poor. The constituency of the act makes the US government to think about the Supreme Court Judgement about emphasising all citizens should have health insurance (NYTimes, 2014).
The presented article reviewed the impact that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has had on the US healthcare system following it being signed by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. As described in the article, much of the full effect of the ACA is yet to be determined due to its existence being only five years. However, within this time frame the ACA has greatly modified two key factors of the healthcare system; the expansion in coverage of health insurance and a reform in the delivery system of healthcare. Reform in these two areas came largely in part due to the federal government providing subsidies which allowed for 87% of the 11.7 million qualifying Americans to receive coverage, and secondly because of individual states being allowed to expand their Medicaid programs (Blumenthal, Abrams & Nuzum, 2015). The effects of the ACA on this 87%, have been that many were pleased with their coverage and report being
In March 2010, the future of health care system in United States changed when The Affordable Care Act (ACA) (most popularly known as Obama Care) was approved. The law expands quality Health Care to more than ten million of previously uninsured people in United States. The Health Care law opens the door for access to care, more affordable to the cost of illness and the possibilities to get the care needed for citizens to be healthy.