The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
On March 23, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was officially signed into law. To some it is more commonly known as Obamacare. The goal of Obamacare is to give more Americans quality health insurance, and to reduce the growth in health care spending in the United States. This change to health care has led to a major impact on businesses. Some would argue good, some would argue bad. The changes and effects on the businesses will be discussed in the following essay.
First, let’s start off by talking about what Obamacare actually is. As stated previously the goal of Obamacare is to give more Americans quality health insurance, and to reduce the growth in health care spending in the United States. It comes with a number of new benefits, rights, and protections. For example, young adults can stay on parent’s plans until the age of 26. It also helps to prevent against discrimination according to things like gender and pre-existing medical conditions. Obamacare itself does not replace your current insurance, or Medicare, or Medicaid. It rather regulates health insurance from faulty practices.
Now, how does Obamacare affect businesses? To start we will take a look at the negatives. Some economists fear that over time it may inhibit employment and employment growth. It is not supposed to affect small businesses with less than 50 employees. However, what this means is that these small businesses could well be hesitant to expand over that magic number of 50. This hesitation could lead to the stunting of job growth that economists fear. An example of this was when Darden Restaurants, who own Red Lobster among other chains, announced they would start scaling back employment fr...
... middle of paper ...
...lions of Americans will now have access to affordable healthcare insurance. The number of uninsured Americans is expected to decrease due to cheaper policy rates. Also, young adults, up to the age of 26, can stay on their parent’s plans as previously stated earlier on. Obamacare also says that insurance companies also cannot discriminate against patients with pre-existing medical conditions which is a plus for those such people.
Now to get into the business aspect of how Obamacare affects businesses positively. Currently, insurance companies are required to pay for certain preventative services. These include but are not limited to mammograms, and colonoscopies. What this means is that the government may come in and intervene by saying that they must invest more money into preventative procedures regarding biotechnology or newer vaccines. How is this a positive?
To begin, one of the common reasons cited in support of Obamacare is a decrease in health and gender-based discrimination by insurance companies. The changes in requiring all Americans to have affordable coverage, as well as changes in how insurers can set premiums, will allow those with medical conditions and disabilities, as well as women who need pregnancy care the ability to have healthcare insurance without having to potentially be denied coverage or forced to pay a much higher than average price (The Pros and Cons of ObamaCare 1).
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.
Sever misinterpretation of the legislation distorted public opinion. Many people did not understand the impact that the ACA would have on employers and the coverage that they would be mandated to supply. Companies who employee greater than 50 employees are required to make coverage available and contribute to the cost or pay a fee; however, they qualify for the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) and are given tax breaks to help defray the cost (Reisman, 2015). Based on Reisman’s research, employers who have greater than 50 but fewer than 100 employees can obtain coverage for employees through state-based insurance exchanges and those who employee less than 25 full-time employees also qualify for tax breaks to help with costs. Another common misconception was that the ACA would afford illegal immigrants the opportunity to have healthcare. The ACA law excludes undocumented immigrants from these new coverage options and offers reduced benefits for those legally present (Shaffer, 2013). There are some parts of the Affordable Care Act that are hard to understand or conceptualize. One example understanding how the ACA will save health care dollars in the long run when it will significantly increase healthcare spending during
Whether we are in favor or opposed to the Affordable Care Act, it is important that we consider how it affects us and the world surrounding us. First of all, I find useful to mention what the Affordable Care Act (also known as ObamaCare) is and how it differs from any other healthcare acts. The Affordable Care Act provides Americans with health security by putting in place health insurance reforms that are supposed to expand coverage, hold insurance companies accountable, guarantee more choices to choose from, lower healthcare costs, and eventually enhance the quality of care for all Americans. It differs from other healthcare insurances because patients with pre-existing conditions can now be eligible to receive treatment and prevention of further illness.
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:
The Affordable Care Act benefits to reconstruct the healthcare system by giving more Americans access to superiority, reasonable health insurance and supports to curtail the growth of healthcare spending in the U.S. People with health insurance will have access to a number of new benefits, privileges, and defenses which ensure that they can get treatment when they need it. This helps over 32 million Americans afford health care who could not get it before. It not only helps the consumers but also our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the discrepancy by more than $100 billion over the next ten years. Since there are millions of people with health insurance, it will also increase the demand of healthcare provider as more jobs will be open which will help our economy (Mowrey, 2013).
...wing 56,000 new positions under ACA provisions. Florida businesses could also suffer if state lawmakers do not expand Medicaid. It could cost Florida businesses as much as $253 million a year in tax penalties, and companies with 50 or more employees may face IRS penalties if workers get subsidized health insurance through the new exchange under the Affordable Care Act. Deirdre Macnab, state president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, expressed her concerns about the stalled bill. "This is the largest economic stimulus opportunity that the state of Florida has had in decades and right now we only have one person that's saying no. That's why we've enlisted the business community because they are a very important voice in the state. They understand the power of an investment and good health has on their employees of the competitiveness of our state." (AP 2014).
The Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, is a new health policy created by the American federal government. Its purpose is to make healthcare more affordable and friendly for the people. Unfortunately in some way that does not prove to be the case. It is becoming apparent that Obama may have made some misleading statements to help get the ACA put into action. The ACA is sprinkled with many flaws that call for a reform such as people’s current plans being terminated, high costs, and at minimum some people’s hours being cut by their employers.
There are many health-related provisions that will take effect over the next four years. These new provisions include prohibiting denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions, increasing Medicaid eligibility, creating incentives for businesses to offer health care benefits, creating health insurance exchanges, provide support for medical research, and subsidizing insurance premiums (Kaiser Foundation).
Obamacare is necessary in America because it calls for all citizens to have health insurance. To understand Obamacare, health insurance, in general, must be understood. It can be defined as “coverage for medicine, visits to the doctor or emergency room, hospital stays, and other medical expenses” (health). Every insurance policy is different; different plans call for different coverage, different co-payments, and different treatment options according to Investor Words. However, until the Obamacare law was passed, millions of Americans were uninsured. In summary, Obamacare mandates that all Americans have health insurance while offering the in...
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 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...
One of the policies that ACA made to improve healthcare quality is to provide free preventive screening, immunization, and wellness visit. Since this policy took place, 76 million Americans now receive free preventive care. Moreover, under this policy doctors will get paid more so they can take more proactive approach to patient care and making sure patients are healthy, rather than only treating them when they are sick. Also by making the healthcare recorders electronic that increased the quality of healthcare. Creating EHRs decreased healthcare errors, decreased the amount of time spent on documenting and increased space capacity. Moreover, by creating EHRs this gave the healthcare providers extra time to spend with their
...ions are ageing and increasingly, people are living with one or more chronic conditions for decades (World Health Organization, 2011). If the government can assist in regulating preventive health measure for citizens it will years down the line prove to be a cost effective measure. World Health Organization (2011) states that many chronic conditions were avoidable had the person ben able to receive the preventive education and care needed. Business owners may experience a slight inflation in cost to insure their employees but it does not amount to nearly half as much that will be saved by all citizens having access to preventive medical care.
We are the wealthiest country yet we don’t have free universal health coverage. The insurance companies are attempting to manage cost through price controls and we’re still having to pay out of pocket for a lot of the expenses. Personally I think that The Obama Care (and the Affordable Care Act) will have little to no effect on me until maybe later in life because the insurance I have works great for me. I do have to meet my deductible every year, and it depends on which doctor I go to if I have a copay or