In America the affordability and equality of access to healthcare is a crucial topic of debate when it comes to one's understanding of healthcare reform. The ability for a sick individual to attain proper treatment for their ailments has reached the upper echelons of government. Public outcry for a change in the handling of health insurance laws has aided in the establishment of the Affordable Healthcare Law (AHCL) to ensure the people of America will be able to get the medical attention they deserve as well as making that attention more affordable, as the name states. Since its creation, the AHCL has undergone scrutiny towards its effects on the government and its people; nevertheless, the new law must not be dismantled due to its function as a cornerstone of equal-opportunity healthcare, and if such a removal is allowed, there will be possibly detrimental effects on taxes, the economy, and poor people. 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... ... middle of paper ... ...013. Roy, Avik. "49-State Analysis: Obamacare To Increase Individual-Market Premiums By Average Of 41%." Forbes. 4 Nov. 2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. Sahadi, Jeanne. "Health reform's tax bite." CNN Money. 30 Mar. 2012. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. Smith, Dan. "Cloud computing can reduce business costs." Microsoft Business UK. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. "What is the Employer Shared Responsibility Payment?" Health Insurance Marketplace, Affordable Care Act. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. "Workplace health programs can increase productivity." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 23 Oct. 2013. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. Young, Jeffrey, Caroline Fairchild. "Rick Scott Shifting Stance On Obamacare: From 'Devasting' To 'High-Quality Health Care'." The Huffington Post. 25 Feb. 2013. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. Pickert, Kate. "What Obama's re-election means for health care." CNN Health. 9 Nov. 2012. Web. 7 Dec. 2013.
The 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.
Miller, H. D. (2009). From volume to value: better ways to pay for health care. Health Affairs
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.
Ghosh, C. (2013). Affordable Care Act: Strategies to Tame the Future. Physician Executive, 39(6), 68-70.
Healthcare professionals want only to provide the best care and comfort for their patients. In today’s world, advances in healthcare and medicine have made their task of doing so much easier, allowing previously lethal diseases to be diagnosed and treated with proficiency and speed. A majority of people in the United States have health insurance and enjoy the luxury of convenient, easy to access health care services, with annual checkups, preventative care, and their own personal doctor ready to diagnose and provide treatment for even the most trivial of symptoms. Many of these people could not imagine living a day without the assurance that, when needed, medical care would not be available to themselves and their loved ones. However, millions of American citizens currently live under these unimaginable conditions, going day to day without the security of frequent checkups, prescription medicine, or preventative medicines that could prevent future complications in their health. Now with the rising unemployment rates due to the current global recession, even more Americans are becoming uninsured, and the flaws in the United States’ current healthcare system are being exposed. In order to amend these flaws, some are looking to make small changes to fix the current healthcare system, while others look to make sweeping changes and remodel the system completely, favoring a more socialized, universal type of healthcare system. Although it is certain that change is needed, universal healthcare is not the miracle cure that will solve the systems current ailments. Universal healthcare should not be allowed to take form in America as it is a menace to the capitalist principle of a free market, threatens to put a stranglehold on for-...
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...
When the Affordable Care Act was put into place President Obama promised that it would not be a tax but it had 5 different taxes related to it. These were a total of $494 billion of taxes for
The purpose of this paper is to serve as an overview and summary of the major points found in “Health Care Reform and Equity: Promise, Pitfalls, and Prescriptions” (Fiscella, 2011) This article outlines both good, potentially bad of health care reform and possible solutions to improve on the program.
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.
Angell, Marcia. "ObamaCare Confronts a Fiscal Crisis: Why the Affordable Care Act Doesn’t Add Up." New Labor Forum (Sage Publications Inc.) 22.1 (2013): 44-6. Print.
There has been a lot of talk and debate lately over Health Care Reform, as people are trying to answer the question – Should a universally accessible health care system be implemented in the United States (US)? This ongoing highly debatable issue remains a hot topic among US citizens from all walks of life, from the very poor to the very wealthy. Health Care Reform affects everyone. The vast majority of the US population is very dissatisfied with the current state of health care. According to the ABC News and Washington Post cooperative poll, 57 percent of Americans aren’t satisfied with the overall system of health care (Langer, 2009). Consequently, the issue of the Health Care Reform was born, but before analyzing the actual aspects of this reform it will be wise to brush up on those major attitudes and concerns which occupy ordinary people and how they respond to the unfolding changes in the area of health care and social security.
According to Roy, 2013 the issues of providing the affordable care act will unite both the supporters and offenders of the public policy, but in this current situation where the input costs are rising, it will become impossible for government in managing the public policy related to affordable health care. In order to provide affordable health care, majority of the US government has tried out different policies time to time, but unable to get success in realizing the actual policy goals. By providing the affordable health care to majority of the people who requires more amount as controlling the input cost is not possible (AAMC, 2013). Lack of doctors is one of the primary issue in providing high quality health care to the citizens especially those who are financially poor. The Supreme Court of the country passed an Act related to Health insurance as all should have Health Insurance to all the country people by the year 2014, but the at the same time government is concerned about constitutionality of these act (NYTimes, 2013).
Everyone though out the United States is required to have some sort of health insurance since the enactment of the patient protection affordable care act that began in the beginning of 2014. The reform act basically states all individuals have to have some type of health insurance and if they fall to have the minimum required insurance then will face a tax penalty. However, with the way the law is written the information can be difficult to understand and even more difficult to determine what the impact will be if individuals fail to comply and obtain insurance (Suelzer). Although the coverage is mandatory there is a loophole in the act making some individuals exempt from being required to have health insurance. Individuals who have a religious belief, undocumented emigrants, incarcerated individuals, Indian tribe members, and families who have income that is below the taxable threshold all fall into the exempt status and are not required to have health insurance according to Marcia Richards Suelzer, MA, JD (Suelzer). My goal is to focus on health insurance showing it is not benefiting the people of the United States because of the extremely high costs.
"Impacts of the Affordable Care Act." USA Today. 16 Mar. 2012: A4. eLibrary. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.