The Affordable Care Act And African Americans

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.

With this increased research and effort, Americans would be able to intervene and make positive impacts with the state, tribal, and local levels to best address health disparities and inequalities. In efforts to thwart ethnic and minority disparities, The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) passed the HHS Disparities Action Plan in order to establish “a nation free of disparities in health and health care, (Cooper 97)” and to implement a series of priorities, strategies, actions, and goals to achieve this vision. States, local communities, private organizations, and providers have additionally engaged in efforts to reduce health disparities. With the HHS Disparities Action Plan, the Department continuously assess policies and programs on racial and ethnic health disparities, watching to see which policies make an impact on the level of health care received by minorities. Similarly, The Affordable Care Act (ACA) health coverage expansions significantly increase coverage options for low and moderate income populations and particularly benefit the “vulnerable populations.” The ACA also includes provisions to strengthen the safety-net delivery system, improve

Health Care reform is a major topic of discussion in today’s society, especially with the relatively novel release of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) by the Obama administration. Historically, the health care system has disproportionally favored those of higher class and income, resulting in diminished health care for those that could not afford it. The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) 2002 report, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, states that a lack of insurance substantially contributes to the proliferation of healthcare disparities. Furthermore, racial and ethnic minorities are most subject to these healthcare disparities because they are significantly more likely to be uninsured. (1) The history of health care reform in the United States, as it pertains to under-insured urban populations, will be discussed, with a specific emphasis on its impact on African-Americans; in addition, the modern resolutions to healthcare disparities will be assessed.

One major change that came with the passing of the affordable care act was the issue of pre- existing conditions. Before the affordable care act, people with pre existing conditions, that tried to buy insurance would either be denied or would be given extremely high premiums. With the passing of the affordable care act now insurance companies that take part in the program are not allowed to deny these people coverage. Many citizens with pre-existing conditions were having trouble obtaining or keeping their health insurance before this

The disparities are around us every day and unless we educate ourselves and our communities these disparities will continue to wreak havoc on our neighborhoods and in the future, we will just be putting our kids and their kids in a continuing cycle of ignorance when we could have done more if it’s just educating the community we leave in, that alone could be enough to turn the tides in our people favor. In turn, I would hope this paper enlighten you on what is going on in our neighborhood and what we can do to correct this issue to preserve our autonomy. Racial and ethnic health disparities undermine what a healthcare system should stand for. Although the top three causes and seven of the 10 leading causes of death are the same for African Americans and whites, the risk factors and incidence, morbidity, and mortality rates for these diseases and injuries often are greater among blacks than whites (MMWR, 2005). Health disparities refer to differences in disease risks, incidence, morbidity, and mortality but most of all for the sake of this paper unequal access to quality health insurance amongst African American in the United States, which will also go hand and hand with the social and economic disadvantages. The disadvantages of health disparities usually affect people of African American descent who have systemically experienced a greater social and economic obstacle to health care.

Healthcare disparities within racial minority groups are an ongoing issue in the United States. Factors that affect these disparities are overall quality of care, access to healthcare, and access to insurance. Numerous efforts have been made to decrease the access and quality of care for minorities. The current intervention being used is the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This act was initiated by President Obama in 2010 and has had much controversy in the past years. The main arguments are the ACA increasing the taxes for Americans and the fact that all Americans must obtain insurance if proper funds are available. In 2014 the ACA Medicaid expanded and each state had the opportunity to expand if the state believed it appropriate. Out of the 50

It became law in March 2010 as a way to improve the U. S. health care system by expanding coverage to more Americans (Gruber 2011). The Affordable Care Act gave millions of people access to health insurance. Since the passage of ACA, more people are able to purchase health insurance (including those with preexisting conditions), children under 26 can remain on parent's insurance, businesses with less than 25 employee are assisted with providing coverage. Also children under 19 with pre-existing conditions can't be denied coverage (Gruber, 2011).

Most people do not know how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will affect them because the main groups of people that are affected are the uninsured population and vulnerable population. The number of vulnerable populations is increasing and if the establishment of policies and programs fail to improve the health of this population, then it will be extremely difficult to contain the cost of care in the United States (Knickman & Kovner, 2015). The goals of the ACA are to significantly

The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare or ACA, is the health reform law enacted in 2010 by Congress. The official name of this reform is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Many provisions of the law are already in effect and the rest are going to continue to develop until 2022. After a year of intense political wrangling, the health reform initiative was passed by Congress. Even though it falls short of providing universal coverage, it is unlike the Clinton proposal. The Affordable Care Act was intended to expand US citizens’ and legal residents’ access to health insurance coverage, control future costs, and improve the functioning of the healthcare delivery system. It improves access to care and balances spending through regulations and taxes. Healthcare has always been a crisis in the US and the Affordable Care Act contains hundreds of different provisions that address these aspects. The Affordable Care Act increases the quality of health insurance at an affordable price so all Americans can have access to it. In exchange, most people who can afford to obtain health coverage must by 2014 or pay a per month fee. The ACA offers Americans a number of new benefits. It sets up a Health Insurance Marketplace where we can purchase federally regulated and subsidized Health Insurance during open enrollment. It expands Medicaid to all adults in many states, as well as improving Medicare for seniors and those with long term disabilities. Obamacare expands

The Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. On June 28, 2012 the Supreme Court upheld the Healthcare law. The new bill covers several benefits for families such as “guaranteed coverage of pre-existing conditions and elimination of gender discrimination” (Obamacarefacts-pros-and-cons). There seem to be plenty of gray areas in the Affordable Care Act due to disagreement with state legislative, but some that are very positive in my opinion. We will look at the benefits of the Affordable Care Act for women, senior citizens, college students and also the opposition of the Employer Mandate.

One of the many reasons that people like about the Obamacare Act was that more people who would be able to have insurance. Before the act, there were several people who were not able to afford insurance to where they would covered in a case of tragic accident were to occur. According to the website, Obamacarefacts, it states that “Before the ACA, about 38 million Americans had inadequate health insurance.” So with the help of the act people will able to buy a policy for a certain price they could be able to handle. With the Medicaid extending into Obamacare, people who did not have enough money to have insurance or qualify for it, would now be able to get Medicaid insurance to where they wouldn’t have to pay for. (CCH, 52). This was very important because the people whose income was very low that were not able to pay for insurance deals or the penalties were protected from them. Their families would be safe in case of a tragic event and would help with if they

The Affordable Care Act, often referred to as the ObamaCare was signed into law on March 23, 2010. It has created a lot of controversy since its debut. The Healthcare reform will affect all Americans. The issue has many Americans believing it is a great thing for our country while others believe it is a terrible idea and then of course there are those who don’t know what to think. By Jan 1, 2014 Americans will be required to purchase a health care policy or will have to pay a penalty. Ready or not it’s happening. First you would have to understand the background information of the program. As with all things there are pros and cons to the Affordable Care Act. Because it is a new law it is not flawless there is room for changes and recommendations.

The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is an act passed by president Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. This act, which provides affordable health insurance to Americans, was passed for three primary reasons. These reasons are to reduce the number of individuals in the United States who currently are not covered by some form of health insurance, to improve the availability and quality of existing health care programs, and to reduce the cost of health care to individuals and the government (“Patient Protection”, 2014). The Affordable Care Act has been successful in some ways, but ineffective in other ways since it was passed in March of 2010. For example, Obamacare has helped expand Medicaid and has helped those who have Medicare. However, this act has had a negative impact on the uninsured and on insurance premiums. In addition, some small businesses have benefited from this act, while others have had a negative effect. The Affordable Care Act has many pros, but it also has some cons, which is why there are still some changes and ideas that I would like to see implemented in our healthcare system.

The Affordable Care Act was created to make an attempt to reduce the amount we pay for healthcare. “Healthcare premiums were too expensive for many families to afford,” is a common issue among citizens today, and we have come to the conclusion that Obamacare can help reduce that amount. Ever since this has been put in place, many Americans deny this, but it says that even if you aren’t 100 percent healthy it will still cover you, unlike regular healthcare premiums opposed that. Another benefit that is presented, it that you don’t have to have a high income or good health to be covered, the act says that it will cover you no matter what condition or state you are in.

Many Americans were able to get health insurance even if they’re sick. Insurance providers would not be able to deny coverage to anyone who have any pre-existing medical conditions. With current President Donald Trump’s American Health Care Act already being active as law, many insurance providers can deny anyone with any pre-existing conditions such as “acne, diabetes, and pregnancy” (Chavez 2017). This example just proves that the American Health Care Act is a step backwards into achieving affordable health insurance. Other changes that are brought upon from this Act include: that states would be able to allow insurers to charge sick people more, and making it less affordable for some. According to the Congressional Budget Office, over 52 Million will be left uninsured due to unaffordable insurance plans mainly coming from the lower class (Levey and Kim 2017). The younger consumers would be charged 3x less than older consumers, but older consumers will be charged 5x more than younger consumers. Also in the Act, federal spending in medicaid and to Planned Parenthood would be defunded and would be left up to the states to decide if funding is needing in those areas. The defunding of those two factors will eventually decrease the nation’s deficit and use it in something where it is needed the most supposedly. With this said, this questions the fact that, “is the American Health Care Act honestly the most affordable way to get