Nurse Janet Runbeck used to operate a free clinic in a janitor's lunchroom. When the Affordable Care Act came into effect, she no longer had to. The reason being is that her patients had access to health insurance, and they could no longer be denied by the insurance companies. The ACA has taken people with serious medical problems out of lunchrooms, and into fully staffed, well-maintained hospitals. If more success stories like this come along, will its critics still use the term "Obamacare" as a political insult? There are also economic benefits to this law too. Dr. David M. Cutler predicts that health insurance premiums will be lowered by $2,000 per family. Business correspondent Matt Yglesias points out that the ACA helps small businesses by granting them access to tax credits that help …show more content…
However, they fail to take into consideration countless studies that have proven their arguments wrong countless times. A study published by the Congressional Budget Office estimates that from 2013-2022 the deficit will fall by $200 Billion. In terms of healthcare costs, the naysayers are wrong again. In a study by the US Department of Health and Human Services, the authors show that anti-fraud efforts by the bill save $1.8 Billion in 2015 alone. And finally, the law's detractors are also wrong about the burdens on businesses. Small business owner Gene Marks points out that in his column in the Huffington Post that since the ACA will stabilize healthcare costs, previously subject to 15-20% increases, that budgeting will become far easier, reducing a colossal headache for business owners. While opponents of this law have some concerns about its impacts, their fears, as the data shows, are not based in fact, but in fiction. An objective look at the data will show that the ACA will expand access to health insurance, and reduce burdens and costs for
by Humera Gul After the 2016 presidential election, the United States of America has been welcomed with multiple new policies and ideas. Recently, President Donald Trump decided to close the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. This has been in the news a lot and there are many different opinions from both parties. Around 800,000 immigrants came to the United States as children to live their lives and work here legally. Now the question is, what is the DACA program?
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.
At the start of September, Donald Trump terminated a program and in turn put fear into the hearts of nearly 800,000 people and their friends and family. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, was a program that was made to replace the DREAM Act (a policy that was not approved by Congress which would have created a path towards citizenship for “illegal” immigrants that came to the United States as children). DACA was put into effect in 2012 by former President Barack Obama through an executive order. This policy protects immigrants who, as children, were either illegally brought to the United States or were brought legally but then stayed past their visas’ expiration dates. DACA provides this specific group of immigrants with protection from deportation, a social security number, and a work permit; however, it is not a way of gaining legal status. Not only are the qualifications for eligibility specific and limiting, but the application process itself is expensive, extensive, long, and it has to be done every two years.
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).
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 healthcare reform debate has been politicized in the United States for many years where there have been deliberate efforts by various stakeholders to ensure that they push for the reforms that are in line with the cost-benefit aspects that they have already envisioned. In this paper, I will attempt to prove that the reforms that have been witnessed in the healthcare in the recent years have not been effective and helpful to the society as a whole. When President Obama came into office, he promised to oversee great reforms in the healthcare which is his government he face much priority in the social policy aspects. The congress managed to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
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...
American people look at their insurance bills, co-pays and drug costs, and can't understand why they continue to increase. The insured should consider all of these reasons before getting upset. In 2004, employee health care premiums increased over 11 percent, four times more than the rate of inflation. In 2003, premiums rose 10.1 percent and in 2002 they rose 15 percent. Employee spending for coverage increased 126 percent between 2000 and 2004. Those increases were lower than expected. (National Coalition on Health Care, 2005, Facts on health care costs). Premiums have risen five times faster than workers wages, on average. If medical spending continues to rise by just two percent more than personal income, by 2040 Medicare and Medicaid would hit 18.5 percent of the gross domestic product, leading the federal deficit to be 20.7 of the gross domestic product. (Melcer, R., 2004, St Louis Post-Dispatch, Rising Costs of healthcare pose huge challenges).
...r the following year .According to Forbes , the government will spend $ 2 trillion to expand the traditional insurance coverage to about 30 million uninsured .The government for its part says that by repricing program for the insurance market , the Affordable Care Act has already saved consumers approximately one billion dollars.
... the coverage provisions and other provisions together, CBO and JCT have estimated that the ACA will reduce deficits over the next 10 years and in the subsequent decade. (CBO)"
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...
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.
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.