Before the ACA was enacted in 2010, many Americans were uninsured or underinsured. Health insurance was hard to obtain due to the high prices and lack of accessibility. Being able to have access to care is important because it protects citizens from health crisis, which can lead to poverty. The mandate included many elements that reshaped healthcare to be more affordable, while still offering quality care. For instances, the ACA allows people with pre-existing conditions to obtain health insurance and most importantly, 80% of the profits made by insurance companies from premiums must be spent on healthcare (Kaiser Foundation 3). The ACA is effective because it will protect American citizens from financial burden, increase access to care and …show more content…
This victory did not last long because a Republican won the empty seat in the senate, giving the Republicans their 41 votes to overturn the Democratic victory. In order to pass the ACA, Obama made many backdoor deals with individuals and insurers. He had to do everything in his power to pass the mandate because the Democratic Party could not suffer another lost. The ACA was fully enacted in 2014 to reform and improve the healthcare system for American citizens.
The cost of healthcare has always been an issue for the insured and uninsured because Americans were not financially protected until the ACA was enacted. The ACA has ended lifetime limits on health plans and insurance companies cannot increase premium rates. If premiums do increase, insurance companies must explain why this action was taken and justify it (Department of Health and Human Services 4). Before the ACA was enacted, many people were going into debt due to medical bills. The rates of premiums were uncontrollable and insurance companies without had the power to raise prices justifying why. There was no protection available for citizens and the health care system was based on profit. This would drive American citizens into poverty due to the high costs and affordability of health
President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010. This law puts in place widespread health insurance reforms that expanded out over the last 4 years and continues to change the lives of many Americans today. Health care reform has been an extensively debated topic for multiple years, and the ACA is the first effective attempt at passing a law aiming to make health care not only affordable, but accessible for all individuals. The law impacts many Americans including, children, employers, government programs which includes federal and state, health plans and private insurers, health care coverage, health care cost, and the quality of care received. The main goal of the law is to expand health care coverage, broaden Medicaid eligibility, minimize and regulate health care cost, and improve the health care delivery system. In order to improve the health care delivery there have been new consumer protections established and an increase access to affordable care.
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
President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law on March 23rd of 2010, with hopes of helping make sure every American have access to quality and affordable health care. Having health care coverage is really a big deal, whether you are a parent with private insurance, a senior with Medicare or a single woman with a pre-existing condition, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) can save you money and help you get better coverage.
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, in its time, has helped many uninsured Americans to obtain health insurance by giving them guaranteed coverage. About 20 million Americans, based on the statistics from the New York Times’s article titled “Fact Check: Trump’s Critiques of the Affordable Care Act.”, have obtained health insurance through the ACA. Dropping the uninsured rate to 11 percent by 2013 (Qiu 2017). Americans, through the ACA, were able to get health insurance even if they got sick, which inevitably happens to many. This put insurers in a place where they cannot deny coverage to people who have preexisting conditions, or their health history. Other main points that are included in Former President Obama’s Affordable Care Act is that one, it was given as an individual mandate that all U.S. Citizens and legal residents must enroll for qualifying health care or get penalized for not signing up for insurance at all. Making the fact that getting health care is mandatory is a good way to lower the insured rates and save many Americans money when the next unexpected hospital visits or illnesses come up. Another thing is that the ACA has also expanded medicaid to all non-Medicaid eligible individuals that are under the age 65 and making medicaid more federal funded based rather than a state issue. Thus helping those who could not afford
Life was different back in the 1880s. The telephone had just been invented, James Garfield was president, and doctors used heroin and cocaine as medicine. Alas, many doctors knew very little about medicine. Oftentimes unsafe and unsterile practices were used on patients. The NY Times reports that, “At least a dozen medical experts probed the President [Garfield]’s wound, often with unsterilized metal instruments or bare hands, as was common at the time. Historians agree that massive infection, which resulted from unsterile practices, contributed to Garfield’s death. One man suggested that they turn the president upside down and see if the bullet would just fall out.” Because of
On February 16th, Speaker Paul Ryan, several House committee members, and Secretary Tom Price presented their outline for the plan set to replace the Affordable Care Act that would rely heavily on tax credits, yet according to The New York Times, would also drastically change the future of state Medicaid programs. According to Five Thirty Eight, Obamacare strived to expand Medicaid to all adults with incomes below 138 percent of the poverty level. This meant adding more than seventy million people to a program that already accounts for more than a quarter of all state budgets combined and half of all federal money that is routed to states. Republicans hope to cap and lower these costs by entirely changing the purpose of Medicaid, a Great Society
The proposed Senate healthcare bill to replace Obamacare will face some steep challenges before it passes, and some healthcare analysts speculate the bill is D.O.A. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the Senate's version of healthcare reform, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 on Thu. June 26, which basically echoes the House version of healthcare reform that failed to pass earlier in the year.
On March 23, 2010 the Affordable Care Act went into effect and forever changed health care in America. The main purpose of this act was to ensure that everyone, no matter their social or occupational status, had access to healthcare. Conditions that led to health care reform include health care disparities, as well as an overwhelming amount of people without health insurance. Key points of the ACA are its provisions on coverage, cost, and care. The ACA has made a huge impact on the health care system. Since its establishment, the Affordable Care Act has helped over
The Affordable Care Act is one of America’s many insurance plans to attempt to lower costs and provide a wider coverage for citizens all over the country. It is a widely controversial topic in America; especially within the past year. Although there are some people out there who support it, there are also those who base their campaigns on getting it repealed; Donald Trump is a prime example of this. When instituting this policy, Obama had very good intentions, but he was far from fulfilling his intended purpose. Today, the ACA has many flaws that affect Americans both as a whole and individually. Obamacare has raised costs for individuals, contributed even more money to America’s debt, is the complete opposite of what President Obama said it would be, it takes away civil liberties, and puts new standards on patients.
Some of the approaches of the ACA are ineffective, poorly targeted, or not ambitious enough to address deeply rooted problems in our broken health care system. For example, individuals with middle income who falls between insurance gap and cannot buy health insurance or qualify for Medicaid, health insurance is usually an unaffordable option. Even if a health insurance plan is available on the exchange for which those individuals can afford the premiums (without a subsidy), they most likely cannot afford the high deductible and coinsurance which they have to pay before the insurance plan begins. This amount is typically a few thousands of dollars a year, in addition to the premium
“ObamaCare contains many benefits, especially for low and middle income families and business” (“ObamaCare: Pros and Cons”). Many people have been having concerns on the cost of the insurance because it has raised in cost. There is a new law out there that President Barack Obama passed called ObamaCare. ObamaCare is also known to be The Affordable Care Act (ACA). The goal of this act was to make sure every American had health insurance by January 2014. ObamaCare went from being something good, to a controversial issue towards Americans. This topic is very debatable in positive and negative ways, it just all depends on how it effects someone. One of ObamaCare’s requirements were to have companies provide health insurance to people
Position on Topic: Obamacare is one of the most highly argued topics in today’s economics and politics alike. Many people believe that its goal of universal healthcare is a good thing and that healthcare should be a right as a U.S citizen. Others believe that Obamacare is a disaster causing people to pay more unnecessary taxes in order to compensate for people who are unable to pay for healthcare due to poverty status and is economically unfavorable. There are also people who believe it should be kept but many changes need to be made in order to make it effective. Considering both arguments, I believe Obamacare should be repealed and replaced with a new healthcare policy.
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.
Since the beginning of human civilization, our health and well-being has sustained a high level of importance, because one’s physical and mental condition are things that are necessary to care for. The issue however remains in how our governments should assist in this care and how involved they should be in the world of doctors, drugs and healthcare companies. Many have strong opinions on this complex issue, and governments have attempted many different strategies which have been met with a sweeping range of results, from the corrupt health care companies which can be seen in the US to systems which have been denounced as communism to everything in between. Personally, I believe that completely universal healthcare is the best for society as a healthy population increases economic productivity, the system allows you to contribute incrementally over time and your wealth should not influence your access to care.