Analysis Of The Affordable Care Act

The U.S. healthcare system is remarkably complex, and even healthcare workers struggle to understand it. The U.S. population gets health coverage by government programs, employers, and private insurance. Notably, because of the complexity and fragmentation of the health care system, there is a percentage of the population that remains uninsured. According to CNN Money, the uninsured rate in the U.S. dropped from 18.2% in 2010 to 10.3% in 2016, this drop was under Affordable Care Act(ACA) (). The goal of the ACA was not to give health coverage to all the uninsured population, rather it was to try to decrease the percentage of the population that remained uninsured(). There is a lot of inequality in the distribution of health among the U.S. population

The US has recently adopted a healthcare policy aimed to get more Americans insured. This policy is named the Affordable Care Act in 2010. “In 2013 there were 42 million uninsured individuals in the United States. “(The Common, pg. 153) There has since been increase in individuals who are covered either by private insurance or by Medicaid/Medicare which had a coverage increase with the new policy. It is believed that millions of people will now have health insurance compared to previous years.

The cost of health insurance has changed drastically over the years as it has become more expensive. Depending on personal characteristic, the cost of health insurance may vary. For instance, as individuals grow older the more expensive it becomes. In this case, health insurance is more costly because “older individuals require more health care” therefore “the cost of providing health care is rising” (Madura &Atlantic, 2012). Not only does this affect the high cost of health insurance, but the number of individuals uninsured. As stated by Madura and Atlantic (2012), “about one in every five workers is uninsured” and has increased since then because health insurance has become unaffordable. As a result, individuals tend to seek health care elsewhere as they can no longer

When president Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in March 2010, it came with a lot of new provisions that would vary when they would come into effect. The very first provision was the “Grandfather Clause” which allowed people to keep their insurance plan before the act went into effect. As long as the employer still offered that plan the employee could still maintain it because they were grandfathered into receiving that coverage. If someone bought an insurance plan after March 2010 they would not be considered under the Grandfather Clause. Thus, these individuals would be required to get a new plan by 2014 if their plan did not meet all the criteria, they would need to get a new plan that fills all the criteria. Another major provision of the Affordable Care Act is that patients have a guaranteed issue. This means that insurance companies are unable to deny anybody health insurance based on their health or prior health. This may create a problem because the risk pool of an insurance company may not have the best people. Eventually, this could lead to the majority of the risk pool for an insurance company to have people who are at a greater risk of needing health insurance. This will make the insurance company more vulnerable and the only way that they will be able to cover the losses is by raising the premiums on everyone even though there may be some individuals that are in perfect health. The next provision that was added under the Affordable Care Act is that the

It would also lead to insurance companies leaving the public marketplaces. This is because without a mixture of both healthy and unhealthy participants a financial disaster would occur, this is if only unhealthy people obtained health insurance. There would be an unbalance in the risk pool causing premiums to rise. So, insurance companies would either leave the market or have to offer healthy people cheaper plans in order to get them to participate in health insurance. With the elimination of the individual mandate there also would be cuts in Medicaid as well as fewer subsidies being paid by the federal government to purchase health plans on the ACA exchanges. Essentially the individual mandate helped keep the cost of health insurance lower for everyone but making younger and healthier people buy insurance, without the mandate the health insurance market will see numerous

Another downfall to this new Affordable Care Act that is now put into action by the government is that the ACA mandates that every American to have some form of health

“The fundamental market failure that Congress sought to fix was this cost-shifting from the uninsured to the privately insured.” (Fisher) It is clear to see that Obamacare did not fix the cost-shifting it was implemented to fix. There are still free health insurance options where the government is responsible for so many American’s healthcare costs, and when it comes down to it, the premiums for individuals with private insurance have still continuously went up over the years since the Affordable Care Act was passed. In 2012, Daniel Fisher wrote, “Existing federal laws already cover the poor, the elderly, and the roughly 60% of Americans who get their insurance through employers. Those laws provide free and low-cost care to just about anyone who needs it.” (Fisher) If this is the case, what purpose does requiring everyone to have insurance serve? It does not change the financial state of the country and only minutely impacts each individual’s quality of

The first main issue that people are concerned with, and that causes confusion, is what will happen to people if they do not get their own health insurance by the time the Act takes effect. In short, they will be fined or penalized (McDonough, 2011). This penalty is seen as

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

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law on March 23rd, 2010 by President Barack Obama. This radical health care law was a much-needed step in comprehensive health insurance reform. Three important features of the Affordable Care Act are 1. Improving quality and lowering health care costs 2. New consumer protections and 3. Increased access to healthcare. (Key Features. 2014). Under the umbrella of these three key features additional benefits include free preventive care, drug discounts for senior citizens, increased protection against health care fraud, small business tax credits, increased access to health care through the health insurance marketplace, consumer assistance, and non-discrimination based on pre-existing conditions.

The impacts of a large portion of the population being uninsured can have an adverse reaction on the population who are insured. Study done by RAND Corporation and a UCLA shows that it hard for insured patients to find a regular source of care, have delay in their care or going care, and less satisfied with their care (Kelly, 2011, Para 2). Furthermore, high rates of uninsured population can also increase rate of acute health conditions and diagnoses. Thus, causing American health care to be more expensive and increase raise in disease, and sickness in the American population. According to Kaiser Family Foundation (2017), “Because people without health coverage are less likely than those with insurance to have regular outpatient care, they

The uninsured population is also causing havoc in the health care market. This group of individuals may not have the opportunity to obtain health insurance through an employer or cannot afford the cost due to their income. The Affordable Care Act is in place to assist them with getting insurance. Many people deem this act impractical as some of the plans available are not affordable. This government is currently working on trying to eliminate this mode to receive coverage however they need to streamline the process and find ways to make this suitable for the citizens. Having insurance coverage is vital one’s health as well as the economy. Individuals without insurance are less inclined to seek care which can be detrimental to their health and

As of 2016, roughly 20 million people have enrolled for health insurance through the ACA. Despite the availability of more affordable health coverage, 9.2% of the population is still uninsured. With the approaching April 15th tax deadline, penalties that have reached an all-time high, and no special enrollment period for those who have to pay the penalties, what will this mean for the uninsured?

In the United States, few topics are as largely disputed with such fervor as the discussion of a healthcare mandate. The decision to require health insurance by all Americans has led to a split between those who support health care as a required right, and those who do not. Those who support the health insurance requirement believe it will lead to an increased population coverage and better benefits; those who do not, believe these changes give the government too much influence on the healthcare system and that the quality of current healthcare will be diminished. Within these groups, individual differences, such as age, have an impact on their individual beliefs and who they support. My position is that health insurance should be considered an institutionalized right rather than a personal choice. As with all healthcare systems, there are tradeoffs being made which have both positive and negative impacts on the population: one can only hope that through time and trial that new and better systems will be developed and ultimately implemented.

Although health care is already very expensive in the United States, the result of the repeal would only raise the premiums more so. If Obamacare were to be repealed, the individual mandate would follow along with it. The individual mandate is a rule that everyone has to purchase insurance. Analysts have said that “health insurance would become more expensive and cover fewer people” (Sanger-Katz 2). With the influence of the individual mandate, “healthy people tend to buy insurance, reducing the average cost of coverage” (Sanger-Katz 2). Without the individual mandate, healthy people would not be buying insurance, causing