Prior to the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, many Americans did not have access to health care. According to Shi and Singh, assess is an individual’s ability to obtain health services when necessary (Shi &Singh, 2010). “After implementation of the ACA, the proportion of the U.S. population that was uninsured dropped from approximately 16% to roughly 12% in 2014 (Shi & Singh, 2010, p 11). More low to middle income American are eligible for health care services through the Affordable Care Act. Advancements in health information technology have helped to improve and streamline medical services and have helped with the lower cost of health care. “Essential insurance benefits required by the ACA include preventative and wellness services, …show more content…
Requiring insurance company plans to cover people with pre-existing conditions, including pregnancy without an extra charge: insurance companies cannot reject a consumer’s application due to pre-existing condition or charge a consumer more due to the pre-existing condition
2. Provides free preventive care: Preventive care for adults/women/ children include abdominal aortic aneurysm one-time screening for specific aged men, alcohol screening and counseling, blood pressure screening, diabetes (Type 2) screening, immunizations for adults, and HIV screening, developmental screening, Autism screening, hearing screening, Hepatitis B, contraception , and STD screening.
3. Gives young adults more coverage options: young adults under the age of 26 can remain on their parent’s health insurance. The ACA offers student health plans for young adults who are enrolled in school (meeting certain requirements). Young adults who have low income or special circumstances can qualify for free or low cost Medicaid health care services.
4. Ended lifetime and yearly dollar limits on coverage of essential health benefits: insurance companies cannot set a yearly or lifetime dollar limit of how much coverage a consumer can spend on health
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Most nonelderly Americans gain insurance through employer based insurance plans. Some employers do not offer employer based insurances and of those Americans they still cannot afford health care. There are some states where Medicaid services are not available and those Americans are unable to pay for insurance and cannot afford the cost of the plans offered in the market place for the Affordable Care Act; some working Americans do not qualify for free or subsidized plans offered. Undocumented immigrant women who may be pregnant cannot obtain health coverage through the Affordable Care Act. According to a report, “While lawfully present immigrants under 400% of poverty are eligible for Marketplace tax credits, only those who have passed a five year waiting period after receiving qualified immigration status can qualify for Medicaid” ("Key facts about the uninsured population,"
Financial burdens greatly limit the system’s accessibility; however, many in the U.S. are unable to fully utilize either option. Census estimates from 1999 indicate that 43 million Americans live without health insurance even though 75 percent of them have a full-time job or live in a household with at least one member working full-time (Mueller, , 5) In addition to the totally uninsured, census estimates also reveal that approximately 42 million other people in the U.S. are underinsured. This means that they have some insurance, but are still unable to afford all of their needed prescriptions, tests, visits to physicians, or hospital
Large populations of Americans are uninsured mainly because of the high cost of insurance. Majority of the uninsured are the low-income working families’. The adults represent a higher percentage of the uninsured than children. Before the law, you could be denied coverage or treatment because you had been sick in the past, be dropped mid-treatment for making a simple mistake on your application, hence, the Affordable Care Act was implemented into law on March 23, 2010 by President Barrack Obama to make sure that every American irrespective of their status will be insured and have full access to proper health care benefits, rights and protection(1). To understand the
On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law. It was intended to provide the American people with better health coverage and care. Unfortunately, many people are still not covered due to a lack of information and because they simply cannot afford insurance even at a discounted price. Many feel that there is still a good deal of confusion regarding the ACA which can prevent people, especially women, from getting the coverage and care that they need. Women who are not used to getting medical care, may not know that programs now exist that make health care services free or very inexpensive. The women who are the least informed are the ones who need it the most as they experience high rates of unplanned births and chronic illnesses. It will be financially beneficial for local and state governments to find ways to get this information to women so as to prevent health problems that will cost the government millions of dollars in the long run.
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.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has survived both constitutional and statutory challenges which reached the United States Supreme Court. But opponents of the law are far from defeated. A large number of cases are still pending throughout the country.
The HEAL for Immigrant Women and Families Act of 2017 is seeking to expand access to healthcare services from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to lawful permanent residents (green card holders) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program recipients (H.R. 2788, 2017). The act is intended to break down barriers for women and their families by expanding the definition of “lawfully present” instituted under the Social Security Act in the Medicaid-Section 1903. By amending subparagraph (A) to expand the definition of “lawfully present” to include “such an individual who is granted deferred action or other federally authorized presence other than as a nonimmigrant” (H.R. 2788, 2017). Currently, from the 6.5 million lawful non-citizen women in the US from the ages of 15 to 44, 36% are uninsured in comparison to the 11% uninsured naturalized citizens and 10% the US-born citizen women in the same category (Guttmacher Institute, 2016). When taking a closer look at these women, researchers found that 51% live below the federal poverty level (FDL) and are often ineligible for healthcare programs such as Medicaid (Guttmacher Institute, 2016). By expanding the definition in the subparagraph (A) of the Social Security Act of 1903, it would expand eligibility to all federally funded health care programs through the ACA and cause the five-year gap to be
Allowed young adults age 26 and younger access to remain on their parents health insurance
The healthcare system underwent reformation in 2010 in the form of The Affordable Care Act. The main goal of the ACA was to extend health care throughout the nation; irrespective of this intention, some people regard the Affordable Care Act as being paternalistic. Chapter 9 covers the issue of how ethical the imposition of new restrictions on people by the ACA is.
Before the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted, when children aged out of foster care, only 20% were eligible for public insurance. The Foster Care Independence Act and Affordable Care Act have extended Medicaid coverage up to the age of 26. The Congress planned to provide this coverage through the ACA and to create parity between these individuals and their peers who can stay on their parents
Some the ten were most covered by existing plans, but not all ten. Under the ACA preventive care, maternity and newborn care, mental and behavioral health treatment, services and devices to help people with injuries, disabilities, or chronic conditions, pediatric care that includes vision and dental care are included within all insurance plans. Hospitalization was not a part of all insurance plans, but it is now covered in all plans. (Amadeo, 2015)All of these aspects of the medical field promote illness prevention and reduces expensive emergency room visits. Moving millions of Americans to the preventive side of medicine instead of the reactive side provides a healthier American public. This decreases days away from work and increases employees’ wages. The ACA does not allow insurance companies to deny applicants due to preexisting conditions or raise premiums once they seek medical attention. This helps many Americans that have had health issues in the past and were unable to obtain health insurance due to these
Thanks for your input, I understand that the new health care law remarks the importance of a suitable job and a stable income. Under the Affordable Care Act law, everyone with a steady job could have access to health care benefits and services besides a stable income will provide the opportunity to pay for a private health care insurance. Indeed, the marketplace is income based and included not just the family incomes but also the income of any individual who lives in the same household even though they are not applying for an insurance, however the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) is the factor used to determine the eligibility and the access to health care benefits so if the Income is between 100% and 400% FPL the individual will qualify for
Under the Affordable Care Act, health insurance companies cannot refuse anyone coverage or charge a higher amount for any health problems that existed before a new health coverage plan begins. However, with the Republican agenda to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, coverage for pre-existing conditions could be on the chopping block. The proposed Graham-Cassidy Health Care Bill gives flexibility to the states to design their own health care systems. With this, states could waive the provision that caps how much insurance companies can charge; thus, they could charge those with pre-existing conditions more (Collins, 2017). Furthermore, this plan would also allow states to waive certain essential health benefits covered
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.
Under the Affordable Care Act, providers cannot have a set amount that they will cover in a year or for a person’s lifetime (2011, April). Nobody’s health coverage will ever run out, no matter what the amount adds up to be for health care. When amounts have reached what the lifetime amount is, people will still be allowed to have health care insurance (2011, April). This applies to dental, doctor visits, prescription drugs, maternity care, and any additional services that would add up the amounts.
Obamacare, though, low income earner get subsidy to supplement the pricing of insurance policy purchase through the market place and other means, some are still not able to afford insurance. I would modify and allow students stay on parent policy up on till 30 years of age simply because some student take longer years to finish their program depending on what their major or future profession is. They shouldn't have to worry about health