Affordable Health Care: Provide and Protect! As Americans, do we not have the right to provide and protect our families? The Declaration of Independence guarantees us the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In order to secure these American rights, our families need to be healthy, but unfortunately many Americans had not had the ability to obtain or pay the costs of health care insurance. Finally, in 2010, the largest overhaul of the health care system since Medicare began with legislation for The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act(PPACA), also known as Affordable Care Act(ACA) or commonly identified as Obama Care. This legislation supports American families that had never participated in a health care program or …show more content…
Mercifully, access to health insurance has undergone much-needed revision since the implementation of the ACA, eliminating the lack of access for families to secure a quality health care package. Without a doubt, the citizen’s most affected by these changes presented by this legislation are of low-income households. These families may newly qualify for free or subsidized health insurance through the Health Insurance Exchange (Thompson). Expansions provided to Medicaid through Obama Care has unblocked access to free services including but not limited to, wellness programs and preventative care. Health care policies must also include access to outpatient services, chronic care, emergency services and many more services (Miller). Therefore, providing families with the greatest need access to care for the first time while offering access to preventive care to keep our families healthy.
When we speak of health care, we must also talk about affordability. Having a medical plan is only the beginning step in the process. Having the ability to pay premiums is a necessity, families should not have to choose between eating and health insurance. Provisions specified in the ACA provide families below the poverty level the capacity to receive medical insurance at no cost as well as, families that earn above the poverty level and meet certain income criteria will be awarded tax credits through the government
The existence of Affordable Care Act have been a promising act for millions of citizens, especially the effort to end homeless, to put low-income on a better care at a reasonable price, and the access to healthcare through a variety of healthcare insurance choices. Its’ purpose is to reform healthcare, creating new policies, and establishing a better accessibility to physician and hospital with a cost that fit within both side budgets. The Act guarantees subsidies to all patient with an offering to better practitioner and treatment options to create a strong incentives to improve the quality of cares and services (Meek, 2012, pg. 15). Nevertheless, The Affordable Care Act face many barriers such as
What I currently view as an Economic issue would be the rising costs of Health Care, everyone needs Healthcare, but because of how expensive it is, most of the population cannot afford it. Even if people do have Health Care, they cannot afford paying the high premiums, out of pocket and high deductibles. Health care might not seem like an important topic, but is necessary for the daily lives of people, nobody knows what will happen in the next second of their lives. Everyone needs affordable health care and I think that reducing the cost of health care and making it possible for everyone to afford it would make everyone happy.
Medicaid is a social health care program that covers nearly 60 million Americans, including children, pregnant women, seniors, parents and individuals suffering with disabilities. Medicaid is the biggest source of funding for health related services and medical needs for the people with low income in the United States. This program is funded jointly by the state and federal level governments, but it is the state’s responsibility to manage this program. The Medicaid program is not a required program that states have to use, but all 50 states have implemented this program. With the introduction of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and its passing in 2010, the ACA unveiled its plans to expand Medicaid eligibility to nearly all low-income adults as an addition to the other groups that fall into the Medicaid eligibility. The Medicaid program had “many gaps in coverage for adults” because it was only restricted to the low income individuals and other people with needs in their own specific category. In the past, the majority of the states who had adults that did not have children dependent on those parents were not eligible for Medicaid. These low income adults without dependent children would be without medical insurance assistance before the ACA was introduced. Medicaid is now available to all Americans under the age of 65 whose family income is at or below the federal poverty guideline of “133 percent or $14,484 for an individual and $29,726 for a family of four in 2011” (NSCL).
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
Recently the Untied States top priority has been to provide accessible and affordable health care to every American. Those that lack access to coverage find it much more difficult to seek proper treatment and when they do they maybe left with astronomical medical bills. The CommanWealth Fund found that one-third or thirty three percent of Americans forgo health care because of costs and one-fifth or twenty percent are thus left with medical bills that have problems being able to pay. The federal government, through the Affordable Care Act (2010), has mandated that every person have health coverage in order
The rapidly rising cost of health care in the United States has made access to medical care difficult for many citizens. Additionally, the number of uninsured is increasing because of job loss and reduction of employee benefits. This trend is projected to continue. The negative effect of reduced access to health care may have alarming effects on the economic well-being of the nation. The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) marks the beginning of significant transformation in the United States’ health care systems. After multiple attempts to reform health care over the years, the nation’s leaders have succeeded in pushing through this landmark legislation that will ensure most Americans will have access to
In today’s day and age, American households can all agree that health insurance is not a luxury, but a necessity. Without it, costs of emergency room visits and prescription medicines can be financially devastating. However, in the past many families and individuals have taken the risk of not being insured due to the high cost of the insurance itself. To attempt to reform this unfair system, the Obama administration signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010. The law, coined “Obamacare,” has received much opposition due to its expansion government programs and increase in spending. It brings to question how much the government should be involved in an area that for the majority of America’s history, has been
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.
On March 23, 2010, Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law. The Affordable Care Act is also known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is widely known as ObamaCare. ObamaCare is our nation’s current Health Care plan. In this essay, I will be going into the new rules which regard health care, why we made health care more affordable, and what makes it so controversial.
Through successful implementation millions of Americans would benefit from the imposition of health insurance through the ACA. The law intended to cover the poorest Americans under the Medicaid expansion option and to cover low and middle-income earners with new health insurance exchanges. However, in June 2012, the Supreme Court overruled a portion of this landmark victory by giving each state the option to forego the Medicaid expansion provision. The Court’s ruling creates a breach in the ACA’s potential to afford healthcare to the working poor and abandons those who do not quite qualify for market place subsidies. Consequently, a large segment of the United States population will remain uninsured due to the lack of affordability.
The Affordable Care Act, signed into law on March 23, 2010, consists of 10 titles which provide Americans with health benefits. Sometimes this is referred to as “Obamacare” or the Patient Protection Act. The basis of the ACA is to assure that Americans can afford quality health insurance, without discrimination, while making purchasing insurance competitive for buyers, while also eliminating the uninsured (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], 2015a). This allows the consumer to take control of their health care while making informed choices. By providing affordable health care, this will help reduce wasteful spending that does not improve the quality of health care, which could generate an annual savings of around $140 billion after a five-year period (Sahni, Chigurupati, Kocher, & Cutler, 2015). All American’s were required to be insured either by purchasing private insurance, by their employer, or
Patient protection and affordable care act or simply affordable care act or Obama care act was signed by President Barak Obama and enacted in 111th United States congress on March 23, 2010.
Obamacare has drastically raised health care costs for individuals and families. One of the reasons Obamacare was established was to reduce family premiums by $2,500 a year (Anderson 1). However, this goal has not been accomplished yet, the typical family premiums are increasing at rapid rates (Anderson 2). From 2015-2016, Family Silver, one of the most popular family insurance plans, had a ten percent increase on their premiums price. Some states even rose by forty percent (Furchtgott-Roth 3). Middle class families cannot keep paying an arm and a leg for health insurance. Health insurance should not be a major issue for Americans, it should be
Health care in the United States is driven by a patchwork of services and financing. Americans access health care services in a variety of ways — from private physicians’ offices, to public hospitals, to safety-net providers. This diverse network of health care providers is supported by an equally diverse set of funding streams. The United States spends almost twice as much on health care as any other country, topping $2 trillion each year. (WHO.INT 2000) However, even with overall spending amounting to more than $7,400 per person, millions of individuals cannot access the health care services they need.(Foundation 2009) So when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a the Affordable Care Act or ACA) was passed in the summer
Eliminating the barriers to access of care starts with the extended health insurance coverage offered through the ACA. The Shortage of healthcare providers in areas- opens a window of