Affordable Care Act ( Aca )

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 considered to be one of the most radical health care moves in legislation after Medicare. The reason being that it will provide universal health coverage to everyone regardless of circumstance. An evaluation of ACA’s influence on health care will be evaluated in this paper.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a health reform law that was signed by President Barrack Obama on March 23, 2010. The full name of the law is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). One week later the President also signed a law called the Health Care Education and Reconciliation Act (HCERA), which was a supplement that made several changes the PPACA. What the country currently refers to as the ACA or "Obamacare" is both of these laws combined. (McDonough, 2012)

Understanding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) can be problematic, the goal of the ACA is to address the fact that millions of Americans do not have health insurance, yet they are contributors to the health care market, consuming health care services for which they do not pay. While this may seem to be a great idea, many Americans are not really sure how they are affected by this Health Care Reform. The goal is to make health insurance affordable, secure, and reliable for all. The ACA is a minimum coverage provision, individuals are given health insurance by amending the tax code. There is an individual mandate which stipulates all non-exempt individuals must maintain a minimum level of insurance or pay a tax penalty. ACA extends Medicaid, states have to accept or they will not receive Federal funding. The act also includes an employer mandate to obtain health coverage for employees. The Affordable Care Act has changed the way health care is provided and the way individuals will participate (The Affordable Care Act Cases. (n.d.). Retrieved September 3, 2015)

The ACA is made up of a series of additions of and changes, to the multiple laws that are made up from the legal framework of the U.S. healthcare system. This act establishes the basic legal protections that have been nonexistent to the United States, will now guarantee access to affordable health insurance coverage for Americans, from when they are born, all the way through his or her retirement. The act hopes in cutting the number of uninsured Americans by more than half of the U.S. population (Rosenbaum, 2011, p.130). This law hopes to result in health insurance coverage for about 94% of the American population (Rosenbaum, 2011, p. 130). This will reduce the population of uninsured Americans by 31 million people, and increase Medicaid enrollment by 15 million recipients (Rosenbaum, 2011, p. 130). Approximately 24 million people are still expected to remain without a coverage plan. The act has several goals. For instance, one goal of the ACA is to have a close to universal coverage system, with the help and responsibility among individuals, employers, and largely, the government. The second goal is to improve the fairness, condition, and affordable prices of health insurance coverage for Americans (Rosenbaum, 2011, p. 130). Lastly, a third goal is to improve the quality of health care through value, excellence, and effectiveness while trying to reduce inefficient spending and making the healthcare system more reachable to a diverse population (Rosenbaum,

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was created by President Obama back in March 2010 to help reduce healthcare costs and improve healthcare quality for uninsured Americans. The ACA was implemented to reduce the cost that was growing with Medicare and Medicaid because they have increased over the years threatening the entire federal budget (Amadeo, 2017). People who are not working and are unable to cover their healthcare expenses usually end up on Medicaid which is paid for by the government. The others who are over the age of 65 are on Medicare and have their premiums supported by the federal government. However, people who make too much money or who are too young to qualify for either

Since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) signed into law in March 2010, a few things have changed in the provision of physical therapy services, in specific productivity standards and reimbursement in outpatient physical therapy clinics. The Affordable Care Act has resulted in an increased demand for physical therapy services primarily due to the construction of the Health Insurance Marketplace. This created new health insurance options to help Americans acquire health insurance, who previously were not able to afford it. Although the ACA is a very extensive and complex piece of legislation, it has ultimately resulted in more individuals who are eligible for physical therapy services. This increased demand not only comes from the ACA but also from reimbursement cuts from insurance companies, subsequently causing physical therapists to overload their schedules as a means to offset these cuts. These demands are without factoring in the aging baby boomer population, which is expected to increased the physical therapist need by 30% from 2008 to 2018 (cite). Physical therapy is about providing the best patient care, however patient care is also a business and businesses are centered on revenue. Below are some of the current proposed solutions along with personal solutions and insight on the productivity issue.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) added to the Social Security Act has increased the financial accountability of healthcare organizations for preventable readmissions. Hospitals have increased their awareness and are looking for system ways to assist in the reduction. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have initiated a process for decreasing the reimbursement for readmitted patients within a 30-day period. CMS identified readmission measures for applicable conditions of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure (HF), pneumonia and in 2015 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and hip and knee replacement which are included within the measurement to calculate the readmission payment adjustment for

Primary care access is a growing concern for all Americans and the reason behind this concern is an imbalance between demand for care and capacity to provide care. Demand is growing as the population expands, ages, and faces chronic illnesses and the capacity is shrinking as the ration of primary care clinicians to population drops (Ghorob & Bodenheimer, 2012). A primary goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to improve access to quality health care for uninsured Americans, largely through public and private insurance expansions (Polsky et al, 2015). At the same time, the architects of the law recognized the need to increase the availability of primary care providers to meet the increased demand for health care (Pg. 538, 2015).

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been a primary debate topic since it was enacted in 2010. The conservatives completely disagree with the Affordable Care Act and believe that “Democrats used it as an assertion of power than they used it to improve health care conditions” (“Republican Views on Health Care”, 2014). They believe that the act was a waste of taxpayer’s dollars and would inevitably ruin our health care system. In contrast, the liberals supported the ACA and “pride themselves on the fact that health care costs are growing at the slowest rate since 1960” (“Democratic View on Health Care”, 2014). The liberals believe that every American should have access to health care by making premiums affordable. However, in order to do so

The Affordable care act (ACA), all so known as Obamacare, was signed into law on March 23, 2010. The ACA said that every taxpayer must have health insurance, if they have not enrolled by the deadline they will face a penalty of having to pay for not having health insurance. People were told that with the ACA that health insurance would be more affordable and for some it did but for others it changed what they already had and they can no longer afford to have insurance. Ilyma Somin wrote that because of the Commerce, Tax and the Necessary and Proper Clause because basically they say that ACA offers economic effects in some way or another (Somin, 2012).

The primary social problem that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted to address was for everyone to have insurance. The goal was to make insurance accessible to everyone and decrease the number of people without health insurance. The most important provisions of the law were preventive care, birth control, and prohibit exclusion of an individual with preexisting conditions, and Medicaid expansion. They addressed these problems by covering all well visits, making birth control free, allowing people with preexisting conditions get the help they need, and expanding Medicaid for the childless adults that are poor. According to Sanger-Katz and Bui (2016), the uninsured rate has gone down but there have been some difficulties with the Medicaid

The most radical reform made in the United States of America in the past 45 years has been the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010 ("Key Features of the Affordable Care Act"). The purpose of the ACA is to redesign companies within the insurance industry in the United States, mandate everyone in the country to have health insurance, expand public insurances while private insurances subsidize, introduce newer taxes, and transform the country’s largest health insurance, Medicare. As the country slowly integrates itself to this new health care act, people feel they must come to a decision of joining the ACA or finding another way to be covered by insurance.

The highest court in all of America is the Supreme Court. They decide and uphold

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.