Better Care Reconciliation Act: A Case Study

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans unveiled their health care bill draft Thursday, leading to a mixed reaction from lawmakers and outside organizations about the replacement for former President Barack Obama's health care law.

Paul Kirk, a Democrat, became the interim senator, and voted for the bill. Soon after the bill passed, Massachusetts held a special election to decide who would serve the rest of Ted Kennedy’s term, and Scott Brown, a Republican, won. Had Massachusetts elected Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate, PPACA and the Affordable Health Care for America Act would have gone to a conference committee, where the House and Senate would have resolved the differences and negotiated a final bill that incorporated aspects of both the versions. However, since the Republicans now had 41 votes, the House was forced to abandon the Affordable Health Care for America Act and pass PPACA (Condon). The Senate version of the bill was signed by President Obama on March 23, 2010 (Ray and Norbeck). However, when the House passed the Senate’s version of the bill, they demanded it be amended in a subsequent bill. The House wrote and passed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, which amended PPACA to better resemble the Affordable Health Care for America Act. The act contained only budget-related issues, so the Senate was able to pass it using the reconciliation process. The reconciliation process is reserved for bills that deal solely with matters of the budget. Bills introduced through the reconciliation process cannot be filibustered. As a result, the Democrats in the Senate passed the bill with a

This tension will likely have effects on the timely manner in which healthcare legislation is passed, as both Democrats and Republicans will continue to argue over what mandates should be eliminated or added to any bill that comes before them. To address this, in January of 2017, Congressional Republicans passed a budget that would ease the passage of the bill meant to replace Obamacare. Specifically, the budget prohibits Democratic senators from filibustering to block future legislation. This addition to the budget is pivotal in quickening the bill’s passing as a Republican majority exists in the senate, 52-48, yet it requires 60 votes to end filibusters, a process that would involve countless days of wrangling votes. According to The Washington Post, President Trump has previously said that if Republicans splinter or slowdown in carrying out his agenda for health care, he will utilize the full power of the presidency to allow whatever healthcare bill that is created to be passed. Politicians such as Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., argue that Republicans should name their efforts “repeal and repent” due to the harm that would be caused to over twenty million Americans who currently have coverage due to Obamacare. House GOP leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana said that the actions of Democrats should not be to protect Obama’s legacy, but to actually fulfill

Conclusion: The Obamacare has its very good points it does benefit the economy in ways that are meant to take the economy out of debt. But they do cause side effects that may not have been thought of.

As we all know, the United States has been and continues to be on the edge of national health reforms due to uncontrolled healthcare costs. Since the U.S. health care system does not lead the world in health of its own citizens, 28 million Americans remain uninsured and 30 Million more are underinsured as of 2016 (Jama, 2016). The national health reform started in the early 1900s when the American people faced sickness that led to poverty. Working people had to miss work due to sickness which led to a loss of their wages and steady income, making it hard to pay for medical expenses. The decreased income, made it hard to seek medical attention, because it became a matter of just being able to cover necessities. President Theodore Roosevelt

Cheryl has been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, and Alcohol Use Disorder. When asked about her concerns for post discharge she states that she has been heavily reliant on her parents and their health benefits for her treatment and that she is nervous that she may not have coverage to continue therapy. She reports that she felt safe knowing that “Obamacare” would be in place to help her afford the treatment she needs to stay mentally healthy and sober. She states that she is concerned about the possible repeal of the Affordable Care Act because she will need help paying for her mental health expenses. The Affordable Care Act made a giant leap in extending the work of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. These two acts work together to ensure that treatment for mental illness is accessible to many Americans that need treatment. Throughout this paper I

With the Advent of the Affordable Care Act, came many changes throughout the medical industry, changes happened in hospitals, health insurance, and doctors. Doctors, more than any other group seem to be affected in a number of way, from the amount of patients, from the increased number of people with insurance plans. It also changed the way a doctor interacts with other parts of medicine. There are some questions arising from this such as; would doctors approve or disapprove of these changes along with do these changes affect the doctors' ability to practice. For the most part, there is no difference the way doctors practice or to their income, but it does have doctors utilize their abilities towards medicine rather paper pushing which could have doctors prefer the post-ACA medical community rather than before.

HCA is a healthcare provider that was established in 1968. Their main focus is on offering cliental with a number of different services to include: inpatient, intensive care, outpatient, diagnostic and emergency services. To achieve these objectives they operate a variety of facilities such as: outpatient, psychiatric, surgery centers, freestanding emergency care facilities, diagnostic / imaging centers and comprehensive rehabilitation / physical therapy centers. They are structured to create increasing earnings for its policy and shareholders. This is achieved by contracting with private doctors to deliver services to its preferred providers members. At the same time, they receive fees from these entities and they negotiate lower group rates.

Toward the end of the 1920s, in a little town in South Texas named Cotulla, a junior high teacher saw the injustice and poverty among his Mexican-American students (Del Bosque, 2013). After decades passed, that same man became the U.S. President; Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill that constructed Medicaid in 1965, which is a program that is funded by the state and the federal government to provide health insurance to low-income Americans (2013). Johnson had an idea to create a “Great Society” which he defined as “a society where no child will go unfed, and no youngster will go unschooled” (2013) . Now even in 2015, we see that President Obama is still fighting for this dream of Johnson’s (Ura & Walters, 2014). President Obama’s Affordable Care

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,

Four years after President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law there is still uncertainty regarding how it will affect small businesses. Because there were delays and exemptions granted by the, Obama administration and challenges that were still pending in courts. The effects on small businesses vary from state to state depending on the company size and the composition of the company's workforces. But the large corporations pay their employees medical bills and hiring insurers to administer health benefits. Most small businesses purchase group health insurance from insurers and face cost increasing regulations as they go through the annual ritual of renewing their coverage. While media has focus their attention on the state and federal health exchanges, employers are responsible for the growth in the

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been the biggest milestone to date in American health care policy (Saldin, 2011). There is nothing more complex or controversial in recent history than the passing of the ACA in 2010 (Davidson, 2016). The United States Supreme Court ratified the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on June 28, 2012. With this, there were certainly challenges facing the full implementation of the provisions of this act by 2014.

The purpose of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or Affordable Care Act (ACA) is to provide more affordable and equitable care to all families and lower the uninsured rate by expanding coverage of insurance while reducing costs. This federal statute was enacted by President Barack Obama on March 23rd, 2010. The Marketplace is where people who are not already insured through the Medicaid, Medicare, or their company insurance can get quotes for health insurance coverage at a lower rate.

The Affordable Care Act can actually be divided into two separate bills. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010

The Affordable Care Act expands access to health care coverage and reforms the health insurance, marketplace (Virginia Senate Finance Committee, 2012). The law gives states the choice to expand Medicaid for any individual whose income falls below 138 percent of poverty. In the state of Virginia, there are approximately 1 million uninsured residents. This is often caused by lack of insurance through employer and inability to pay the premiums if offered. According to the Kaiser family foundation, The Virginia’s Governor has included Medicaid expansion as part of his FY 2017 budget proposal. The overall cost to expand Medicaid in Virginia would likely be $220 million beginning in 2016-2018 biennial budgets not including administrator cost. The