President Obama, on March 23, 2010 signed The Affordable Care Act (ACA). The law was put into place as a comprehensive health insurance reform (Assistant, 2015). The ACA puts preventive care, which includes family planning and related care and renders it more accessible and affordable to countless Americans (Assistant,2015). Additionally, the ACA extends Medicaid to all States equally, it sustains Children Health Insurance Plan (CHIP), while simplifying enrollment for families and individuals (Assistant, 2015). In addition, the ACA boosts community-based care for American with disabilities, and gives States motivation to strategies on how to improve care and the coordination of services for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries (Assistant, 2015). …show more content…
Previous surveys have shown a significant decrease in the uninsured rate since early 2014. Using Q4. Is there a place that you usually go to when they need advice about health care post ACA? as my dependent variable and MSA status as my independent. How does MSA relate to where people go when they need advice about health care post ACA. Null Hypothesis: MSA status does not heave an impact on where people go for healthcare advice post ACA. Alternative Hypothesis: MSA status does have an impact on where people go for healthcare advice post …show more content…
The participants were interviewed on history of health, care experiences, and relevant life events from their coverage in 2008 to the time of the interview (Allen, Wright, & Baicker, 2014). The information was then compared to participant’s existing data, including insurance history, self-reported physical and mental health, use of health care, and financial information related to medical costs and debt (Allen, Wright, & Baicker, 2014). The researchers then created a timeline where participants indicated their health history over the past two to three years. The result showed that newly insured enrollees barely used their coverage. In addition, the new enrollees received care occasionally, and when they did, it was mainly for acute care needs. Researchers found that one-third enrollees felt that were in good health and did not need to use their Medicaid, they found that many of the individuals were males under the age of forty (Allen, Wright, & Baicker, 2014). The research showed the expansion of Medicaid had significant improvements in self reported health and access to care in the first year. Additionally, there were several limitations that could affected the results.
However, Medicaid’s effects on health remains surprisingly sparse, especially for adults (Sommers, Baicker, & Epstein, 2012). Previous research has shown that Medicaid expansions in the 1980s reduced mortality among infants and children,
Medicaid has help many qualified Americans who were historically unable to access health care. At the same time, it has raised questions and controversies as how efficient is the plan overall. Various research studies were conducted and contradicting results were presented. According to Paradise and Garfield (2013), some said that having no coverage at all is better that having a Medicaid coverage. On the other hand, some expressed that Medicaid paved a way to improved health due to increased access to services that provides prevention of diseases, health maintenance, and effective treatment (Paradise & Garfield, 2013). As for me I am in favor of the later, health care access for all. It comes down to equitable distribution of resources
“Medicaid has evolved into the nation’s largest health insurance program (Knickman & Kovner, A., 2015).” This was not the government’s intention in the beginning, Medicaid was mainly for a safety net. During the 90’s and early 2000’s the rise of health care costs, and the loss of jobs led to a large population of uninsured people. Even if people could afford to purchase their insurance, some were unable, because of pre-existing conditions, and the insurer would not sell them a policy. Obama passed the ACA, in order to remedy this situation, there may be pros and cons to the health policy, but nobody will deny that the medical problems in the country were affecting the economy and people in a negative way (Knickman & Kovner, A.,
Implementation of the ACA would require an extensive expansion of the Medicaid program to low income adults in each state.³ The Congressional Budget Office projects that a previously 30 million uninsured Americans, approximately 92% of the legal, non-elderly population, will have coverage by 2022.³ The federal government will pay for 100% of the costs of expanding Medicaid programs until 2016, and then gradually fade their contribution to 90% by 2020.³ Currently, expansion of the Medicaid program is voluntary and several states have stated that they intend to turn down their share of the billions of dollars that has been made available to each state solely for the expansion of this program.³ States deciding to not expand their Medicaid program will not only exclude many poor, vulnerable families from access to an important health care program, but will also exclude themselves from an economic stimulus for their state and thereby decrease the strength of their health care delivery systems by not allowing them to be more financially stable for the long
On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a law put in place to provide comprehensive health insurance reforms that allowed Americans to have access to affordable health insurance options. The Affordable Care Act seeks to make health care more affordable, secure, accessible and of a higher quality for the millions of Americans who were previously uninsured, or who had insurance that didn’t provide them adequate coverage and security.
Many acts have been established throughout the United States to try to achieve the best health care provided to citizens. Due to the many different approaches these acts take, there are pros and cons that form from them. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was established in March 2010 by President Barak Obama, with the hopes to expand Medicaid to more individuals and to allow health insurance to become more affordable (Blumenthal, Abrams, & Nuzum, 2015). Recently in September 2017, the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson-Amendment has been proposed to repeal ideas from the Affordable Care Act by enforcing block grants and placing most of the focus onto the states (North Carolina Medical Society, 2017).
Throughout the early 1980’s and 1990’s the Federal Medicaid program was challenged by rapidly rising Medicaid program costs and an increasing number of uninsured population. One of the primary reasons for the overall increase in healthcare costs is the
As a health policy analyst for the state of Texas which has not elected to expand Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and now has been notified that the state leaders have taking into reconsideration their recent decision during an upcoming session in order that we begin gathering data on the benefits of adapting the Medicaid expansion. As a health policy analyst our goal is to assure data quality, interpret data, and discover new information in the data. Medicaid is a federal and state partnership with shared authority that is a health insurance program for low-income individuals, children, their parents, the people with disabilities and the elderly. Nationally Medicaid covers health care for over 72 million people. Even though participation is optional, all 50 states participate in the Medicaid program. However, Medicaid benefits eligibility varies widely among the states all states must meet federal minimum requirements, but they have options for expanding Medicaid beyond the minimum federal guideline (http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/affordable-care-act-expansion.aspx). In this research we will identify the state of interest which is Texas, compare the state’s decision, determine the alternate approaches to expanding access and provide a recommendation on whether or not the state should opt in to the Medicaid expansion.
The Affordable Care Act, also called the ACA or Obamacare, is a health care reform law in America. The Affordable Care Act is a long, complex piece of legislation that attempts to reform the healthcare system by providing more Americans with affordable quality health insurance and by curbing the growth in healthcare spending. The law includes new benefits, rights, and protections, rules for Insurance Companies, taxes, tax breaks, funding, spending, and the creation of committees, education, new job creation, and more. The ACA includes 10 titles that address reform the U.S. healthcare system. Some of the provisions include eliminating lifetime and unreasonable annual limits on benefits. It mandates that EHB (or essential health benefits) must be included on all new plans. These benefits include ambulatory services, emergency care, hospitalization, maternity and newborn care, prescription drugs, mental health and substance abuse services, rehabilitative services and devices, labs, chronic disease management and oral and vision care for children. The new law prevents individuals from being dropped from their coverage for any reason other than fraud. The ACA requires coverage of preventative services and immunizations and of dependents up to the age of 26 years old. The law also provides assistance for individuals with preexisting conditions. The ACA also caps insurances companies’ non-medical and
Money plays a huge role in access, therefore it is a vital issue to discuss. Within the current system, lack of money results in lack of health care, which leaves thousands of people without any health care coverage. Between 2001 and 2005, the number of people paying for health insurance increased 30%, however income only raised 3% (Health Care Problems). Adequate income is a necessity and unfortunately that is not present. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the average annual premium across the country is $16,000. Currently, the average annual income in the United States is $51,107. Mint Money Management suggests that about 4-6% of one’s total income should be spent on insurance, including life, disability, and health insurance. However, the averages in the United States show that the average person spends about 31% of their income on health insurance, which is not financially beneficial. When this rise in health insurance is not parallel to the inflation of income, innocent people are left without a method to achieve health care. There is a program for those who can’t afford health insurance out of pocket nor have access to it, and that is called Medicaid. Issues still exist with the program. There is only so much funding, which leaves many still uninsured. Additionally, people with Medicaid have difficulty
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was created by President Barack Obama on March 23rd, 2010. This act created several policies that covered many individuals in the United States who were previously uninsured. The ACA mostly focus on improving health by creating initiatives that improve access to healthcare, lowering healthcare cost, improving quality of healthcare, and updating new consumer protections. According to authors Gruber and Sommers, “Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act(ACA), an estimated 20 million Americans have gained health insurance, and the country’s uninsured rate has dropped from 16% to 9% since 2010 (Gruber & Sommers, 2016). The issue with health insurance in the United States is that it is primarily expensive, while
In March 2010, one of the most controversial bills in modern history was signed into law by President Barack Obama. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act expanded the 1965 bill passed under President Johnson that created Medicare and Medicaid (“LBJ Presidential Library,” 2015). While the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare” as it has been dubbed by the media, has many components, the focus here is the expansion of Medicaid. Obamacare sought to expand Medicaid to cover those who earn too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid, but not enough to afford employer-provided health care. These people are said to be in the “coverage gap” (“Obamacare Medicaid expansion,” 2015). While only 32 states have adopted Obamacare, we should advance a policy encouraging the remaining states to expand existing coverage by extending the period of federal government cost-sharing an additional five years. Doing so would give states previously refusing the cost sharing a second chance to opt-in. This expansion would save money for the states from some of the rising cost of healthcare, and fulfill our moral duty to care for uninsured Americans.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), which is commonly known by the unofficial name of ObamaCare is an American healthcare transformation law of the land, expanding and improving access to care, while minimizing spending through government regulation and taxes. This health care insurance aims at protecting the patients and modifying health since it was signed into law by President Obama on 03/23/2010. By reforming healthcare infrastructure and introducing new initiatives mainly focused on excellence and provision of satisfactory health coverage to American citizens, ACA became United States leader in health care industry, elevating existing standards in other health care provider companies. Additionally, this healthcare law is extensive and
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted in March, 2010. The purpose of this law is to reform public and private health insurance systems resulting in expanded coverage for millions of Americans by the year 2023. Full implementation of the Act, will result in a reduction of the number of uninsured U.S. citizens by more than one-half (Rosenbaum, 2011). The ACA “expands Medicaid eligibility to include all individuals and families with incomes up to 133 percent of the poverty level” (Riggin, 2013).
In Texas, the uninsured rate dropped from 37 percent to 27 percent due to many adults meeting the low poverty criteria to become insured. The adults that were eligible for the Medicaid program were adults who were eligible for a tax credit to buy the coverage on the federal health insurance programs. Texas decision not to expand Medicaid also made it hard for low income families to receive health care and pay for health medications. According to the study and observations of other states who have expanded Medicaid, it is proven that many low-income adults have less trouble paying for and obtaining health care while on the Medicaid program. In states with the Medicaid program in full effect compared to Texas where there is no expansion on Medicaid, many Americans are struggling with household responsibilities and finances due to having to pay for the private insurance and receive the health care that is needed for their condition.
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.