Health Care Policy Project Part One

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.,

In this country there are numerous concerns about health care economics. Several factors contribute to the increase of health care costs. One area of concern is the impact of managed care on health care finances. Managed care has been around since the early 1970s. The definition of managed care is a set of contractual and management methods implemented to manage the financing and delivery of health care services. Initial implementation of managed care was for health care cost saving (Getzen & Moore, 2007, p. 203, para. 1). Though Managed care initially addressed several health care finance issues, there are still problems with the current

While the Affordable Care Act was implemented in 2010, the most significant changes in the healthcare system began in 2013 with the expansion of Medicaid. According to the ACA’s official website, the law’s main goals are to create cost efficient health insurance and medical services, as well as expand Medicaid so that the stated programs will be available to more Americans. (“Affordable Care Act (ACA)”). To do so, the ACA imposed many requirements on both sides of the health care system. The ACA has expanded federal regulations on private insurance providers by requiring that these companies cannot deny coverage based on the health of the beneficiary. The ACA has also established a marketplace for health insurance to be purchased by small businesses and individuals. Finally, the most noteworthy reform is the requirement for all Americans to purchase minimum coverage, or pay a penalty. However, those who cannot afford coverage and have “an income below 138% of the Federal Poverty Level eligible for Medicaid” will be paid for by the government (“The Affordable Care Act in the US”).

The reason the Affordable Care Act came to exist is that the government believed that health care has gotten faulty to the point of needing a total reform. At the time insurance was only provided to those who could afford it. Most

Understanding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) can be problematic, the goal of the ACA is to address the fact that millions of Americans do not have health insurance, yet they are contributors to the health care market, consuming health care services for which they do not pay. While this may seem to be a great idea, many Americans are not really sure how they are affected by this Health Care Reform. The goal is to make health insurance affordable, secure, and reliable for all. The ACA is a minimum coverage provision, individuals are given health insurance by amending the tax code. There is an individual mandate which stipulates all non-exempt individuals must maintain a minimum level of insurance or pay a tax penalty. ACA extends Medicaid, states have to accept or they will not receive Federal funding. The act also includes an employer mandate to obtain health coverage for employees. The Affordable Care Act has changed the way health care is provided and the way individuals will participate (The Affordable Care Act Cases. (n.d.). Retrieved September 3, 2015)

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

Data shows that there are more Americans covered now that there were before. However, having insurance coverage is not the same as having access to healthcare. Since the implementation of the ACA, healthcare has become more expensive and most individuals would not consider their healthcare to be affordable. The cost of running and implementing the program was passed on to healthcare providers through payment cuts. Another unintended consequence was that many employers, under the financial burden of the ACA, reduced the hours of employees that may have previously been given employer-sponsored benefits and therefore forced them into the insurance exchange. Also, insurance companies are dropping out of the insurance exchange every year. The risk pool in the exchange is not what it was expected to be by the government. The penalties for not buying insurance have not been stiff enough to incent young healthy patients to purchase a plan and as such the insured pool is mostly those that really need the coverage and are filing

Inconclusion, the Affordable Care Act was created for good. There was a need and a cry for help in the healthcare system in the United States. The ACA helps with healthcare disparities in the United States. The ACA works within the iron triangle, providing access, quality and cutting cost. Healthcare should be for all some say and now that it is affordable and the access and quality has improved, it is not only a positive but

The most radical reform made in the United States of America in the past 45 years has been the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010 ("Key Features of the Affordable Care Act"). The purpose of the ACA is to redesign companies within the insurance industry in the United States, mandate everyone in the country to have health insurance, expand public insurances while private insurances subsidize, introduce newer taxes, and transform the country’s largest health insurance, Medicare. As the country slowly integrates itself to this new health care act, people feel they must come to a decision of joining the ACA or finding another way to be covered by insurance.

The premise for this is that if these things get covered with preventative care, “emergency room costs” will be decreased and save money by hopefully keeping that from affecting Medicaid and therefore the tax payer. Again, this bill had been advertised on such plans but, implementing a regulation like this cancelled millions of individual plans that didn’t cover such problems. Another of the essential benefits mandated under the ACA is maternity care. This is great if you are a woman, but if you are one of over 50 million single men in America this is a unnecessary financial burden that you are being charged for and will never use until you marry. The ACA forced many families to go out and buy new, more expensive insurance to cover benefits that they either wouldn’t need right now, or would never benefit from. From just 2010 to 2011 the average healthcare premium for a family plan rose over $1200. Premiums have since grown up to a $4000 increase since the ACA was

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 signing of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 was a big step forward in fixing the broken healthcare system in the United States. Unfortunately the law did not do enough to help a large segment of the population achieve its named goal. Due to high deductibles and other cost sharing in lower tier plans, healthcare continues to be unaffordable to many.

The ACA serves to close the gaps that Medicare and Medicaid could not amongst the low-income, consisting of mostly minority, uninsured. First off, Medicare and Medicaid were as successful because those who needed it the most, through Title VI as well as the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Act, were included in the definition of those that would be covered. Due to loopholes which mitigated the effectiveness of these provisions, the ACA stepped up. The ACA therefore signified progress in ensuring that most, slowly but surely would attain coverage. The point is, for those most in need of it, a clear definition of their place in the American society had to be put in place before they could benefit from the health care system, a department of this

In 2010, the Affordable Care Act invoked a $75 millon dollar demonstration project known as the Medicad Emergency Psychiatric Demonstration that was amended in section 2707 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The change seemed to be just what the nation needed, however, there was fine print added to the amendment that changed the interpretation. The fine print stated, patients who are on Medicaid from the ages of 21-65 seeking inpatient mental health care can receive treatment under the law. However, the inpatient facility will receive no

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.