Helping Consumers Understand and Use Health Insurance

In 2010, the United States created The Affordable Care Act (ACA). The objective was to share the responsibility of costs between the government, individuals, and employers to provide affordable access to quality health insurance. “However, health coverage remains fragmented, with numerous private and public sources, as well as wide gaps in insured rates across the U.S. population.” (“United States: International Health Care System Profiles,” n.d.). Each individual state within the US, generally has control over private insurance.

As stated by the World Health Organization (WHO), ‘health’ is defined as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, 1948). The health and wellbeing of individuals is generally determined by their circumstances and environment, a phenomenon referred to as the social determinants of health. WHO describes the social determinants of health as:

Finding a healthcare system that is beneficial and affordable for the country’s citizens is challenging and often seems impossible due to the high price of medical care and the broad spectrum of healthcare issues that insurance plans must cover. The debate of a healthcare system which is affordable, effective, and accessible for the majority of the population is a topic of great discussion. The United States and Switzerland health care systems are prime examples of this debate. The United States has The Affordable Care Act, or Obama Care as it is commonly known in Switzerland residents have a Universal Health Care System. While both systems provide health care to their residents, they each have good and less desirable aspects to them.

The Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) had put more open doors for Americans to live healthy and longer life. Be that as it may, few individuals are living without insurance due to monetary results. They put their life in the danger of human services administrations. They are having less medicinal services results, getting low quality of care than the general population who has insurance. The proportion of uninsured and insured individuals soar by 25% in 2000. Individuals messes with medical coverage exceptionally and disregarding it in few point in view of their financing issue and lack of education. As indicated by Institute of Medicine (IOM, 2002), 18,000 individuals kicked the bucket without getting a decent social insurance benefit since they were

Where will I go when I’m sick? Who can I rely on, my government or myself? Will I have to choose between paying bills and the health of my family? The United States of America’s government’s Affordable Care Act is attempting to remove that question from every citizen’s mind. The ACA will allow lifesaving and non-emergency medical treatments to be at the fingertips of every tax paying American. It will make healthcare a right, not just a luxury. Although these may seem like outstanding qualities, is it really all that it is made out to be? “The Affordable Care Act (ACA), officially called The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), is a US law that reforms both the healthcare and health insurance industries in America. The law increases the quality, availability, and affordability of private and public health insurance to over 44 million uninsured Americans through its many provisions which include new regulations, taxes, mandates, and subsidies (PAR 2, Obamacare Facts).” With that being said, I will discuss the controversies seen from both parties in relation to the Affordable Care Act, and bring forth many important factors such as: the benefits and consequences, the cost of the ACA and the coverage actually received, and the future of the Health Care System in a world with Obamacare. The purpose of this paper is to give information in an unbiased manner in relation to the Affordable Care Act.

The propose of this article is to present the advantages and disadvantages of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare which make all Americans insurable, by requiring insurers to accept all applicants at rates based on population averages regardless of health status. The ACA increases coverage by allowing states to expand Medicaid (the social healthcare program for families and people with low income and resources) as well to cover everyone near the poverty line, and by subsidizing private insurance for people who do not get workplace coverage (Mark A Hall, Richard Lord, 2016)

In the United States, there are many health insurance offered in the market for its citizens. Either through their employer or in the private market where coverage in not guaranteed and if you have a pre-existing condition, you will likely be denied. As private insurances soars, high premiums becoming unaffordable in the US, having the healthcare system failing to cover over 46 million Americans and leaving millions uninsured leading to bankruptcy (Palfreman, 2009). As most of the developed countries have removed the dependence of the health insurance

As stated in the text, the United States provides a market based health system. Not until recently, the majority of the population could only access the insurance market through an employer based system. The ability to acquire insurance or gain access into the market outside of this medium was, in most cases, exorbitant for the average citizen. Nevertheless, government assistance programs like Medicare and Medicaid were made available to certain demographics of the population who qualified for these programs, such as citizens from the age

Health care in the United States is driven by a patchwork of services and financing. Americans access health care services in a variety of ways — from private physicians’ offices, to public hospitals, to safety-net providers. This diverse network of health care providers is supported by an equally diverse set of funding streams. The United States spends almost twice as much on health care as any other country, topping $2 trillion each year. (WHO.INT 2000) However, even with overall spending amounting to more than $7,400 per person, millions of individuals cannot access the health care services they need.(Foundation 2009) So when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a the Affordable Care Act or ACA) was passed in the summer

The United States’ Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as “Obamacare,” has allowed millions of Americans access to health insurance, that were once unable. The Affordable Care Act has helped those who were unable to obtain health insurance due to pre-existing conditions, and those unable to afford the high costs of premiums and out of pocket expenses. While it has allowed millions to obtain health coverage, the ACA has its flaws. These flaws could be greatly improved by implementing ideas and strengths from universal healthcare plans from other countries around the world. I have chosen three countries who rank higher than the U.S. when it comes to their Health Care Systems- Germany, Norway, and Japan.

United States health system, the biggest in the world, employs most up-to-date and state-of-the-art technologies in healthcare. US is the world leader in research and development in biomedical field. The magnitude of the research in healthcare and medical innovations that come out of US, in general have been the largest. US contributes, influences and drives medical research in various parts of the world with great emphasis on quality of human life. US pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies have access to biggest markets in the world and yet Americans spend more than 17% of country’s GDP towards healthcare, the largest in the world. In spite of that, US healthcare system suffers from complex rules, less coverage and no real cost

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 implemented to help Americans without healthcare. The realism is that there are still many Americans without any healthcare insurance. The census Bureau’s official estimated that 33 million Americans lack health insurance in 2014. The Affordable Care Act did not solve the major problems of healthcare in America. Everyday people come into the emergency room because they do not have health insurance. Woolhandler, S., & Himmelstein state, “ Access to care has improved, but remains abysmal, in part because many who gained coverage cannot afford to use it”.The hospital will not turn them away. People come in with coughs and other non life threatening illnesses because they have no other option.

One major part of the U.S. healthcare system is Medicare, which is designed to deliver healthcare to those who are 65 or older, and also Medicaid, which delivers healthcare to those that are certain level below the poverty line. These two are the main parts of the Untied States healthcare system to deliver access to the highest risk groups, the old and impoverished. The majority of health insurance is provided by private insurance companies, 49% of which is through employers, however, after the passage of the ACA many have taken advantage of market place premiums.1 This fragmentation of a healthcare system poses several issues as healthcare costs continue to rise, and it is difficult to implement a universal

In this paper, the USA healthcare system is being compared to the Canadian healthcare system. The U.S. health system has been described as the most competitive, heterogeneous, and inefficient, fragmented, and advanced system of care in the

WHO defines the term ‘health’ as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. Broadly, the determinants of health include aspects like Social and physical environment,education,employment,income and social status,culture,genetics,health and social services. In my view, society as a whole is an integration of various types of sub-groups of people that differ among themselves in these determinants. As health inculcates all factors determining it, it itself varies from person to person. For example, a family of four comprising a couple and two kids may be a variant in concept of health from other families and also among their own selves as every individual’s characteristics also form a basis in defining their state.