Healthcare Reform Implementation
According to Nies &McEwen, 2015, the United State health care system is dynamic and multifaceted and is not comparable with any other health care system in the world. The health care reform also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was pass by the congress, sign into effect by president Barrack Obama in March 2010. This reform was put in place to provide many Americans with health insurance coverage, it’s also provide protection to consumers and gives them more option to shop for health insurance from different providers. The health care system consists of private and public, the private system is a personal care services from different sources and include, profit and nonprofit agencies, while the public care system is focused on population and include, Federal, State and Local Government. The purpose of the paper is to discuss health care reform implementation, examine the status of the system in my State, positive and negative outcomes of health care reform, it impact in the community and its effect on the economics of the State of Ohio (Nies &McEwen, 2015).
Healthcare reform or affordable care Act in Ohio is also known as Medicaid Expansion. It is implemented under the Kasich administration it has helped 650,000 people whose uncovered health-care costs were being shifted onto and burdening employers and individuals struggling to pay their already-high health insurance costs. It is also implemented in that it has enrolled most Ohioans into a new Ohio Medicaid system that made 38 different reforms over five years. In 2015 alone, it saved Ohio taxpayers $1.9 billion compared with the original state-budget target. It held the program’s per capita cost growth below 3 percent while cutting the sta...
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...rs can choose from at a lowest cost. However, buying a private insurance can cause consumer to underpay for coverage or overpaid to get an insurance coverage (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2015).
Conclusively, the implementation of health care reform has been beneficial to more American and Ohioans in particular because, more people, especially the low and middle income earners are able to obtain insurance through the ACA and Medicaid expansion. Those with pre-existing condition can buy insurance premium at an affordable cost, though it affects the young Americans who could buy at a lesser rate for their premium to go up and more spending for the State and Federal government for Medicaid expansion.
Nevertheless, ACA has been very effective in providing coverage for more Americans and safe life through its preventive policy and expansion of Medicaid.
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.
For decades, one of the many externalities that the government is trying to solve is the rising costs of healthcare. "Rising healthcare costs have hurt American competitiveness, forced too many families into bankruptcy to get their families the care they need, and driven up our nation's long-term deficit" ("Deficit-Reducing Healthcare Reform," 2014). The United States national government plays a major role in organizing, overseeing, financing, and more so than ever delivering health care (Jaffe, 2009). Though the government does not provide healthcare directly, it serves as a financing agent for publicly funded healthcare programs through the taxation of citizens. The total share of the national publicly funded health spending by various governments amounts to 4 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, GDP (Jaffe, 2009). By 2019, government spending on Medicare and Medicaid is expected to rise to 6 percent and 12 percent by 2050 (Jaffe, 2009). The percentages, documented from the Health Policy Brief (2009) by Jaffe, are from Medicare and Medicaid alone. The rapid rates are not due to increase of enrollment but growth in per capita costs for providing healthcare, especially via Medicare.
Sommers, B. D., & Epstein, A. M. (2010). Medicaid expansion—the soft underbelly of health care reform. New England Journal of Medicine
Under the Affordable Care Act one of the most important provisions is to expand health care to low income families through Medicaid. This could have an effect on over eight million people who do not have access to health care currently. However 25 states have decided against expanding Medicaid benefits, leaving 13.5 million people less likely to receive basic health care and preventative ...
The purpose of ACA in America, as well as in Ohio, is to make health care easily accessible, more affordable, and to improve the quality of health care for the consumers (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2015). By being able to sign up for health insurance through the Marketplace, residents of Ohio are able to choose the coverage at a cost th...
Implemented (along with Medicare) as a part of the Social Security Amendments of 1965, Medicaid’s original purpose was to improve the health of the working poor who might otherwise go without medical care for themselves and their families. Medicaid also assisted low income seniors with cautionary provisions that paid for the costs of nursing facility care and other medical expenses such as premiums and copayments that were not covered through Medicare. Eligibility for Medicaid is usually based on the family’s or individual’s income and assets. When the ACA came into effect in 2010, it began to work with the states to develop a plan to better coordinate the two ...
Above all, if all states have decide to follow through ObamaCare's Medicaid Expansion they will conjointly pay $76 billion to insure up to 21.3 Million individuals who don't have access to health insurance for over the next decade. Regardless of what state, the federal government will help pay for 93% of the state cost of healthcare. Medicaid Expansion is a great way to help families below the federal poverty line get insurance and stay healthy. Without it, they will fall between the cracks forcing them to use Obamacare. In that case, it is projected to drive up cost of insurance for Americans.
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.
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.
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...
Many changes in health care insurance have been made to increase the amount of individuals with health insurance coverage. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted in 2010 in efforts to help solve some of the biggest issues that Americans faced with health care and its availability (The White House, 2016). As of today, more than 9 out of 10 Americans have health insurance (The White House, 2016). This means that 20 million people have gained health insurance since the ACA was enacted (The White House, 2016).
Therefore, the Affordable Care Act increased access to healthcare. The group that benefited the most was the individuals with pre-existing conditions. Prior to Affordable Care Act, insurance companies had the right to deny the application of those with pre-existing condition like asthma and diabetes. However, with the ACA, insurance companies cannot deny their application and they can’t increase their premium. Another group that had advantages of this new act are the poor people. People who are up to 138% of poverty level or the individuals that make less than $15,854 a year will be eligible for
Health reform and health policy has taken over in the United States in recent years. Medicaid is one of the top policies being implemented throughout our nation today. To understand how Medicaid and federalism cross paths with each other one must understand the basic definitions and concepts each one brings. Federalism is “system of government in which the same territory is controlled by two levels of government. Generally, an overarching national government governs issues that affect the entire country, and smaller subdivisions govern issues of local concern.” In short, federalism is a government system that has an overseeing central government over state government. While, “Medicaid is a health insurance program for low-income individuals and families who cannot afford health care costs. Medicaid serves low-income parents, children, seniors, and people with disabilities.” Medicaid is a test based welfare program for United States Citizens. Now the question is how does Medicaid intersect with federalism? These two intersect because Medicaid is a need-based program that is funded by the federal government and the state government and administered at the state level. The issue with Medicaid is that if it expands then a crowding-out effect may occur. Meaning, that the more the government spends on Medicaid then less they would be able to spend on other programs such as: education, transportation, or other state priorities. Medicaid is supposed to provide access to health insurance for approximately half of our nations uninsured citizens. Without Medicaid a vast amount of low-income citizens will go without having a healthcare insurance plan.
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,