Health Care Policy Analysis

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.

Americans have been faced with a new health care reform act known as Affordable Care Act initiated in 2010. Why was it so important for this nation to reform is health care system? How are we sure the ACA is improving our system for the American people? For many years, the health care industry has left many Americans uninsured. With health care costs on the rise and very few able to afford costs, and the quality of care in underserved areas not what it should be has left this nation largely unhealthy. Several landmark reports, including the Center for Disease Control factsheets and the Healthy People 2020 have astounding statistics confirming these alarming rates and clearly identifying the need for reform. The Affordable Care Act is the starting foundation for Americans to start investing in their own promotion of wellness and disease prevention. By choosing healthier lifestyle changes, individuals can make a difference which in turn will improve our nation’s overall health for the better.

Obama’s Health Care Reform, better known as ObamaCare was signed into law on March 23, 2010. It is officially called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) or Affordable Care Act (ACA). This act is meant to provide affordable, good quality health care to all Americans and to cut health care spending. The ACA has been on ongoing struggle to reform the health care system. Almost 50 million Americans still lack health coverage despite the fact that ObamaCare continues to help provide an increasing amount of Americans with access to affordable, quality health insurance . ObamaCare doesn’t take place until 2014, 2013 is considered one of the most important years in history of ObamaCare.

The United States spends far more money on healthcare than any other developed country and despite the large amounts spent the United States has the poorest health outcomes and highest risk factors (Stone, 2017). When compared to other countries the United States has the lowest life expectancy at birth, the largest population of obese, and the highest number of people over the age of 65 with chronic health conditions. Many health disparities exist in the country due to socioeconomic status. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) law was passed in 2009 and implemented in 2010 in an effort to decrease the number of people uninsured (Parekh, 2017). Since, 2010 the rate of uninsured people in the United States has

The 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the most current governmental effort to bring a national health care plan to the United States (U.S.). Policy makers in the U.S. are hopeful the ACA will be able to extend health care coverage to 47 million nonelderly uninsured citizens (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2014). The ACA broadens the Medicaid eligibility for low income individuals at or below the 138% Federal Poverty Line (FPL) and adds tax credits to assist people to purchase insurance in the Health Insurance Marketplace (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015). In 2012, the Supreme Court the upheld the constitutionality of the ACA requiring most people to maintain a minimum level of health insurance, however they left the

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 (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

The Affordable Care Act has given aid to many people in several communities and the impact has changed lives tremendously. The ACA has improved their provisions in a way that has focused on improving the quality of the health care system and efficiency of the ways testing is done within and pay for within those

In 2010 during the term of President Barack Obama something needed to be done due to the rise of healthcare costs and the number of people who were uninsured and unable to pay their healthcare bills (ehealthinsurance 2014). United States spent more on healthcare than any other country but yet was only the 34th in life expectancy. These are some of the many reasons why The Affordable Care Act came about and was signed into a health care law. This landmark law impacted and changed many aspects of the healthcare system, as well as influenced everyone’s healthcare options in the United States. The Affordable Care Act has been just about been one of the most

When the Affordable Care Act(ACA) came to the table, much was promised with the passage of it. Until then, America was a multiple payer system, with ACA the goal was to turn America into a system that provides universal coverage and reduce the uninsured. The Kaiser Family Foundation Tracking Poll found that in 2016 the uninsured rate was at an all-time low, with the non-elderly population dropping from 16% to 10% uninsured. The ACA has a view of not only helping the public health wise but also economically helping the nation. Healthier nation means a healthier economy in the long run. Three of the economic benefits that will be looked at here are as gotten from the Obama Whitehouse website “1) Putting more money in families’ pockets,

Let’s face it, the healthcare system in the U.S. is broken. The passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) in 2010, was designed to “fix” the issues and provide access to health insurance for 30 million uninsured and underinsured Americans. This has been the biggest move in healthcare since establishing Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 (Moncrieff & Lee, 2011). My stance on the ACA is pretty bland, at best. As with most things, there are pros and cons in every situation. The main cons I have with the ACA are the costs associated with funding. Funding for the ACA will be provided by cuts to Medicare, as well as, tax increases (Hall & Lord, 2014). Medicare has been struggling for years with funding, so by cutting roughly $500

I think the ACA will benefit most Americans in time right now with them the way the mandates are written this is an opportunity for interpretation by insurance companies, States and Healthcare facilities and at this point the interpretation of the mandates has made seeing a provider for care expensive to the average American because as we know if 50% of the Americans working make $30,000 less. So an increase in coverage, deductibles and medications has really placed an additional burden on those seeking care.

Overall, the Affordable Care Act of 2010 had many benefits and drawbacks. Within the 1,000+ pages of the bill, there is room for improvements that haven’t been made. Whether or not you support the bill, we can all agree that it has made tremendous changes in America’s healthcare

The evaluation criteria to determine the effectiveness of this policy must include a variety of facets. First, there is the obvious quantitative evaluation method in determining how many Americans are uninsured or under-insured after the plan is fully implemented. It is estimated that the policy will provide coverage to more than 94% of Americans (“The Patient Protection”, n.d.). Although serving these Americans is a primary goal of the Act, whether or not all of the people will be served is yet to be seen and will need to be monitored. In addition, the quality and efficacy of healthcare is another primary concern of this 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.