Health Inequality Although America is one of the most successful nations in the world, our reputation is deteriorating as health inequality continues to expand. Health inequality results from multiple factors including wealth/income inequality. Those who didn't have enough money for insurance didn't acquire any. The Affordable Care Act, known as ‘Obamacare’, designed to provide low-income Americans effective insurance, is accompanied by numerous complications. The Affordable Care Act provides millions of Americans efficacious Medicaid coverage, improving the well-being and incomes of Americans in the bottom 20% of the income distribution. According to the Gallup poll, the ACA helped 4% of all Americans to receive health insurance for the first time. It also helped life expectancy increase for many at a considerable rate.
The primary mission of the ACA is to expand Medicaid to all low-income Americans. However; Medicaid expansion requires Federal and State funding to provide beneficial programs to its consumers. Since the supreme court allows states to opt out of Medicaid expansion, not all states acquired Obamacare. Infact; 5.7 million of the nation's poorest were ineligible in over 20 states. State rights are necessary, but occasionally, decisions made are unfair to those with low-income.
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Although it helped millions increase their overall vigor, it deprived the rights of Medicare consumers. Since money to insure everyone comes directly from Federal and state funding, not all states choose to have the Affordable Care Act. To obtain more money for Obamacare new taxes rise frequently and the people have to pay despite their financial status, which only increases complications for the low-income Americans. Insightful analysis of ACA educates people to promote in making better decisions and allows them to witness the causes and effects of
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) 2010 is one of the most radical healthcare moves in legislation of United States after Medicare and Medicaid. The main goals of ACA were to decrease the number of uninsured and provide cost-effective high-quality care to all in US. According to Kaiser Family Foundation, the potential plan of ACA was to expand coverage to 47 million nonelderly uninsured in the nation, which included 1.6 million
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.
Charles, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was intended to correct the historical issues related to cost and access in the health care system in America (Pagel, Bates, Goldmann & Koller, 2017). The ACA was an attempt by the US government to ensure access to health insurance was available for more Americans. The historical role of the government in health care prior to the ACA had been that the government should only have a little involvement in the delivery and reimbursement of services with respect to having a role in policy making for the protection of the public’s health (Williams & Torrens, 2008). The role of government involvement has changed through the Medicare and Medicaid government programs. Today, these programs have the
In 2010 President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law. ACA is pivotal legislation that had rippling effects throughout the healthcare system. The Affordable Care Act was drafted with the sole intention of expanding healthcare access across the country. Under the ACA, Americans are now mandated to purchase health insurance or face a penalty. Americans without insurance are able to get coverage by purchasing through the insurance exchange or by qualifying for Medicaid. The poverty level was raised for Medicaid and new provisions allowed single men to also qualify. Anyone that does not qualify for Medicaid would need to purchase a plan on the insurance exchange and various subsidies are available based on income level.
Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare, is a new reform that was signed by President Obama in March 2010 and major provisions went into effect in January 1st, 2014. Obama’s goal with the ACA was that “the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their healthcare.” The ACA’s goal is to extend insurance to more than 30 million American people, by expanding Medicaid and providing federal subsidies to help lower- and middle-income buy private coverages. Another reform that is similar to the ACA is a Single Payer System that is trying to be pushed to fix the problems of the ACA such as eliminating commercial insurance.
It has been six years since the Affordable Care Act has been implemented into the United States healthcare system. As the pieces and provisions of this monumental federal statute become understood and executed, it is transforming the demand for care. Prior to the ACA, a significant number of Americans were marginalized and unable to obtain coverage. This system was faced increasing healthcare costs, placing greater financial strain to everyday Americans, businesses, and public health insurance systems. The ACA did not only help ensure health coverage for all (almost
The Affordable Care Act is President Obama’s new solution to provide healthcare coverage to uninsured Americans. The theory is that millions of uninsured Americans will get access to affordable health insurance through the government. The Affordable Care Act reforms Medicare. You cannot be dropped from coverage when you get sick. You cannot be denied coverage or treatment for being sick. You also cannot be charged more for being sick. Although these are all mostly the positive sides to the Affordable Care Act there are many negative. Since you cannot be dropped for being sick, it will make the prices for everyone’s insurance go up. Also, since so few young and healthy Americans have signed up, the math used to create the program is not adding up. Because there is so much confusion surrounding the specifics of the ACA, the Affordable Care Act keeps getting delayed. The Obama administration announced another delay on
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 purpose of the Affordable Care Act is to make health insurance more affordable for those who may not have health insurance or those who do, but have little to no coverage. While a vast majority of Americans had health insurance previously to the enacting of ACA, the new law was for people who did not want to buy it or could not afford insurance (Clark J.,
According to Obama, “ ObamaCare’s goals is to give more Americans access to affordable, quality health insurance, and to reduce the growth in the U.S. health care spending” (DeMichele). The ACA is a law that is needed in the United States and it has benefited our country as a whole. Another important impact of the ACA is it, “expands the affordability, quality, and availability of private and public health insurance through consumer protections, regulations, subsidies, taxes, insurance exchanges, and other reforms” (DeMichele). Furthermore, the ACA would be a big help to families who are classified as having a low or middle income.
In today’s society, there is still a great struggle with health care disparities and many lives are affected by the lack of this fundamental program in our society. There are millions of people who die each year because they are unable to afford quality healthcare. The debate still continues about healthcare inequalities, what causes this disparity and who are affected by it. Health care is more of a necessity rather than a luxury and even though skeptics may argue to the latter, it only underlines the importance of the need for the wellbeing and care of individuals. There are several factors that could contribute to the lack of health care in the United States which ranges from but not limited to race, gender, socio- economic status, and lack of insurance coverage. The truth is there is a great disproportion between who can really afford quality healthcare as appose to individuals who have it. One would imagine that an employed individual would easily afford quality healthcare but we could be no further from the truth, since one’s economic status is an essential determinant to its affordability.
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.
classes are perhaps not as clear as they used to be. But it is just as
Sexual and social stigmas largely affect the health of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) population. While many reports from the Institute of Medicine, Healthy People 2020 and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recognize a need to improve the quality of health care, barriers still remain. LGBT patients face legal discrimination, especially with insurance, a lack of social programs, and limited access to providers competent in LGBT health care. Although the Affordable Care Act increased access to care for LGBT patients, unless these patients feel understood by providers and develop trust in the system, they are not likely to utilize care. Healthcare providers need to recognize how these vulnerabilities, as well as persistent racism and stigma linked to sexual orientation and gender identity, make the healthcare needs of LGBT patients more challenging than the general population. Healthcare providers also need to promote cultural competence within this population and broaden their clinical lens to include health promotion, in addition to addressing concerns mentioned above within the population. Additionally, medical and nursing schools need to ensure that future providers are adequately educated by including information about this population in the curriculum.
In the critical reflection 2, we will be recalling the term health inequality. And, find out the importance of needing a policy to answer the necessity of health disparity. In the first section of the paper, two of the policy solutions will be introduced and will also mention how these policies affect population, and the policy maker. The other section will state the pros and cons of the policies from the writer’s perspective. Finally, the conclusion emphasizes on the significance of answering health disparity by using the policies and how it helps to reduce the inequality.