Lack Of Adequate 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.

The US has recently adopted a healthcare policy aimed to get more Americans insured. This policy is named the Affordable Care Act in 2010. “In 2013 there were 42 million uninsured individuals in the United States. “(The Common, pg. 153) There has since been increase in individuals who are covered either by private insurance or by Medicaid/Medicare which had a coverage increase with the new policy. It is believed that millions of people will now have health insurance compared to previous years.

Living in the United States, there is one essential thing you need to have, which is health insurance. Health insurance is a type of insurance that can covers cost of medical and surgical expenses when you need them. Without health insurance, the cost of one single surgery would be a enormous number. But in the United States, there are about 46 million americans are uninsured. To them, the cost of health insurance is too high. In America, the average cost of health insurance per month is about $328 and the minimum wage per hour in here is $7.25(where cite from?). From here, we can conclude that it is too expensive for those people to get sick. So, is the health insurance cost unjustifiably high? The answer is the highly developed technology, waste of health care budget and the free competitor in the health insurance market, caused health insurance’s price to remain so high.

I will compare the current health care system with the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that became law on March 23, 2010.   The current system, which is being phased out between 2011 and 2018 is increasingly inaccessible to many poor and lower-middle-class people. About 47 million Americans lack health insurance, an increase of more than two million people from 2005 (Rover, 2011) the increasingly complex warfare between insurers and hospitals over who pays the bills is gobbling up a great deal of money and the end result is that the United States pays roughly twice as much per

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)

Many of the uninsured or underinsured are low-income or working families. According to the Kaiser foundation, “…adults are more likely to be uninsured than children. People of color are at higher risk of being uninsured than non-Hispanic Whites” See Appendix 1 (Kaiser Foundation, n.d.). Many Americans therefore go without needed health care each year due to the cost alone. These are the people with chronic diseases that need preventative services that may prove to reduce cost in the long run. With the economy failing the added depression and stress helps to hinder good health.

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

Before the Obamacare, many individuals had no medical insurance. A noted author, Amy Anderson state: “Approximated 30 million Americans were anticipated to gain health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare; a comprehensive healthy workforce would be needed to meet the massive demand”. (Anderson, 2014)

The Affordable Care Act is the new health reform law that was signed into action on March 23, 2010. The Affordable Care Act attempts to reform the healthcare system by providing Americans with affordable health insurance. It helps put individuals, businesses, and families in control of their own healthcare. By the sound of it, it really looks like this is something that will positively impact the lives of Americans, and make it easier for individuals to obtain health insurance. Unfortunately, what many Americans are unaware of is that there are so many underlying issues that make the Affordable Care Act not so affordable. Issues such as penalties and taxes that certainly rack up the cost on individuals, businesses and even hospitals that make it difficult for people and businesses to be in “control” of their health care.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has definitely had a tremendous impact on the economics of health care within the United States. However, is this actually the impact that was intended? There are many political controversies over the ACA, which leaves unanswered questions about the true financial projection of the new healthcare reform. The pricing of new health care coverage has forced cost-shifting but more so price discrimination. The main intent of Obamacare was to eliminate the high volume of uninsured individuals; unfortunately the impact has taken a different approach and perhaps has had a negative effect on the economy.

The affordable care act was passed into law by congress and the president in 2010. This plan was established to help all individuals obtain health insurance, regardless of having a pre-existing condition through the government marketplace as an affordable amount, or if you did not meet the set standards, was offered a state based health care coverage (HHS, 2015). Those individuals who did not have qualified medical coverage for the majority of the tax year, they would be penalized and have to pay a certain amount or a percentage based off of their income. Also under the ACA employers are now responsible, depending on how many employees are employed with their company, to offer their full time employees health care coverage, or also face a

Even with employer-sponsored programs and federal programs for those who qualify, many Americans are uninsured. Over 46 million Americans had no health insurance in 2006, and 86.7 million went without health insurance at some point in 2007 and 2008 (“Health Care Issues”). Why has the number of uninsured risen so drastically and why are employer-sponsored programs dwindling?

Recently, there have been various issues being debated in the American healthcare system. While many of these issues have been debated amongst for many years, they have recently been debated and focused on more heavily due to the change of Presidents. One of the most leading problems that is being debated right now is the cost of health insurance. Originally, the Affordable Healthcare Act was supposed to make healthcare insurance affordable and more attainable. A few years after the Affordable Healthcare Act was implemented; it became evident that it was a failure for the most part. In a vast majority of cases, it failed many Americans. The Affordable Healthcare Act in many cases has made healthcare insurance less affordable for the American

The Affordable Health Care Act, worldly known as “Obamacare”, went into action on January 1, 2014 changing the rules for health insurance companies, business, and common people. Health care companies are no longer able to turn down anyone that has pre-existing health conditions and are not allowed to discriminate or charge higher rates for people of a certain gender. Also, insurance companies are not able to establish annual spending caps on essential health benefits. However, along with all the good qualities come the bad. Obamacare “required most individuals to secure health insurance” (Levy). Citizens deciding not to buy insurance in 2014 will be charged an annual penalty going up each year without insurance. Depending on age, income, and

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.