Aetna and the Affordable Care Act Health insurance and the affordable care act is a major topic in the United States today. This being said, there are many questions that run through one’s mind when the topic is discussed. Questions such as, what exactly is health insurance? What is the Aetna-Humana merge, and how beneficial is it? Should healthy citizens help pay for citizens with prior known health issues? Should people with preexisting conditions even have the option to purchase insurance to help cover medical cost? Although the Affordable Care Act has been in effect for a few years now, there are still some problems today the health insurers face because of this law. Health insurance is a coverage that takes care of the cost of a family or individual’s medical expenses by either reimbursing customers or paying them directly. Health insurance is important because it helps people to be able to receive and afford the health care that they need. Aetna is a health insurance company that sells insurance for things such as medical and dental coverage to prospective customers. In the past few weeks, Aetna tried to merge with another health insurance company, Humana Inc., to reduce the insurance exchanges as well as cancel a planned expansion. …show more content…
This could be seen as immoral to some people of our culture because they want healthy citizens to enroll to get out of the debt that they have accumulated by opening up plans to people who already have preexisting conditions. Although people who just learned they will be facing significant health cost should not have the right to then go out and purchase health insurance because it is unfair to insurance companies that they have to cover extreme costs and untimely lose even more money from their company in the long
Health care has been a controversial topic of discussion for all Americans since it was put in effect many years ago. Currently the biggest debate of Healthcare up to date is Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is a Health care Reform that is a governmental attempt to make basic health care easily obtainable. However, there are no benefits without cost in situations like this, and upon that are different viewpoints on the subject thus creating political debates discussing if it is ethically correct. The overall goal that Obamacare hopes to accomplish is that through specific changes through insurance companies, industry standards, and patient guarantees a healthier America will be produced. Obamacare has its ups and downs for both the generally agreeing democratic viewpoints and the opposing republican side. Both viewpoints have their own beliefs about how Health care works and Obamacare is somewhat in between on this. Most arguments on Obamacare deal with Medicaid being constitutional and if Obamacare truly reduces the total cost of health care for individuals and in the government.
Health insurance comes as second nature to many of us. We grab that blue and white card and put it in our wallet and forget about it until we are sick or injured. When this happens, there it is, cushioning our fall like the extra padding it provided to cushion our wallets. This is not the case with everyone, however. Many Americans have no cushion to fall back on, no blue and white card to show the emergency room when they have an unexpected health concern. No HMO with a convenient co-pay amount when their son or daughter develops an ear infection.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been a topic of dispute since its introduction and continues to be discussed by politicians in the U.S. and throughout the world even after its passage. The Act has many opponents and is the cause of much controversy nationwide, primarily because it introduces higher healthcare costs for the richest citizens. Nevertheless, the ACA is an important stage in the American healthcare development process as it not only allows more people to receive healthcare services, but will also reduce the deficit. However, not everyone agrees. The policy is controversial in terms of cost vs. benefits, but the benefits ultimately outweigh the costs.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the new health care reform law in America, which is often called Obamacare. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a short for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). According to the Affordable Care Act summary, “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is made up of the Affordable Health Care for America Act, the Patient Protection Act, and the health care related sections of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act and the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. It also includes amendments to other laws like the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act and the Health and Public Services Act.”(2015). The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has made sure that access to health care is increased, and it
Insurance companies will have a guaranteed customer base which would allow them to inflate costs because citizens would not have cheaper alternatives. Also since insurance companies will have to cover individuals who are very sick and need constant hospital care, these individuals' hospital costs will be paid through higher premiums from the rest of the population's insurance. This would again reduce the amount of money going to citizens' pockets. In addition, insurance companies will have access to add coverage for diseases and treatments that may affect only a minute population but that the whole population will have to buy as it is the basic and cheapest plan. The best example to see what the effects of a health care mandate would be is to look at the state of Massachusetts. A mandate, similar to the one being discussed nationally, was passed in Massachusetts in 2006. The outcome was that "younger and healthier individuals [were forced] to pay higher premiums in order to subsidize premiums for the old and sick" (Tanner). The plan has "cost taxpayers a great deal of money, ... [resulted] in a projected budget deficit... and "between half and two-thirds of those uninsured before the plan was implemented remain so" (Tanner). The plan did not result in 100% coverage, which was its main goal, and also
‘Over 105 million people living in America today no longer have to worry about having their health benefits cut off’ (Secretary WH) . Since enacted, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been able to provide for millions of lower and middle class Americans a secure and reasonable healthcare plan that best suits their medical needs. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) also commonly refer to as ‘Obamacare’ was a solution implemented in 2010 to help reform the precarious healthcare system in the United States. The ACA imposed three key reforms adopted from the successful Massachusetts system of healthcare. First, the ACA established a “guaranteed issue and community rating requirements” which essential barred healthcare insurances
The affordable Care Act is the US healthcare reform law. The law makes health care and health insurance more affordable and move available to more Americans the official name is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 210, but is mostly referred to as Obamacare. This law was signed on March 23, 2010. Originally the ACA was enacted to increase the quality and affordable of health insurance, lower the uninsured rate by expanding public and private insurance coverage, and reduce the costs of health care for individuals. There have been several provisions made to the act since 2010. Within my paper I will be discussing the pros and cons of the ACA, changes that are taking place within the act and from the standpoint of the insurance companies that offer insurance through the marketplace, lastly explaining my ethical and Christian Worldview.
In February 2017, the news was dominated by stories and video of town hall meetings with constituents telling their representatives stories of how the ACA had benefitted them or their loved ones in one way or another (Colliver, 2017). There is no doubt that the law has helped thousands, maybe even millions of people across the country. There have also been stories of individuals who have health insurance, but are unable to use it because of high deductibles, which effectively render the insurance policies these people hold emergency only plans (Luhby, 2016). This is most certainly an unintended consequence of a law that was written with good intentions, but which needs to be modified to work with the real life situations the citizens of this country are faced with.
When the Affordable Healthcare Act passed in 2010, I like many others thought it was a good idea and would make health insurance attainable for the millions of Americans who were not insured. The Affordable Healthcare Act was supposed to lower premiums for households between 100% and 400% above the poverty line through tax credits, and support innovative methods designed to lower healthcare costs. Unfortunately, this is not the case 7 years into the ACA, and millions of Americans can no longer afford the insurance offered to them through the healthcare exchange and must make sacrifices to avoid the penalty. This rise in cost has not only impacted the consumers of the exchange, but has also impacted the majority of Americans who purchase
For the past several months, the news feeds have been full of stories on Obamacare, more accurately described as The Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act is the largest mandated healthcare change in the United States since Medicare and Medicaid began in 1965 (Mayer, 2013). It was signed into Law in 2010 designed to give all Americans access to healthcare. Whether you are for or against The Affordable Care Act one thing is above dispute, it has caused a Nationwide uproar. Now that we are in a new Presidential era, steps are being taken to “Repeal and Replace” Obamacare.
The Affordable Care Act now makes it possible for patients to purchase coverage plans where otherwise they would have been refuted. Once intimidating and incapable of compromising their strict policies to suit each individual, the reform now holds them accountable for providing insurance to those who previously would have been deemed ineligible. Along with these early changes, young adults under the age of 26 can now partake in their parent’s insurance policies if their current employment neglects to offer them worker’s health coverage. By 2014, despite the seemingly flawless benefits, all citizens of the country are mandated to acquire health insurance or suffer the consequence of paying an annual fine, a fearful situation for low income families. Some additional restrictions placed on insurance agencies such as Medicaid are that they can no longer rescind a present client’s contract if they are diagnosed with a serious illness and now anyone can appeal a claim denial when formerly only this right was limited to only some policy holders. Though it specifically targets the connection between insurers and patients, many facets of society such as employer-employee protocols, important tax regulations, and even the country’s governmental budget are affected by supposed outcomes of the reform. Like any bill newly passed into law, there are
In 2010, under the Obama administration, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or what is known as Obamacare was implemented. This act was intended to provide citizens in the United States with insurance if they could not afford it beforehand. Also under ACA, a standard of coverage and the management of insurers was put into place (“Obamacare Summary” 2016). But as with everything else in life, Obamacare had its downsides. One of them being, healthy people ended up paying more for their health insurance than those
On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) (Niles, 2016). The act was designed to provide insurance to a large number of Americans, also improve the quality of the United States healthcare system and to protect consumer’s rights. The act will hold accountable insurance companies for the quality of plans that they provide to consumers and make it better for consumers to understand their coverage plan. There were a lot of controversy and resistance about the act. This complex dilemma continuous to be this way to this day. For people who was happy about the law, there was a realization that they would soon be able to have health insurance and they could not be rejected for pre-existing
The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as “Obamacare”, has drastically altered healthcare in America. The goal of this act was to give Americans access to affordable, high quality insurance while simultaneously decreasing overall healthcare spending. The ACA had intended to maximize health care coverage throughout the United States, but this lofty ambition resulted in staggeringly huge financial and human costs.
Health insurance in the United States is very dynamic and costly to most citizens; however, it is necessary to ensure healthy living and protection from outrageous debt owed to health providers. With the recent changes due to the Affordable Care Act started by President Barack Obama, people now are being pushed to get health insurance.