The Paradox of the Affordable Care Act

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, 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

This article discusses the progress of the ACA as it enters its sixth year. Jost begins the article by first discussing the success of the act, which include a historical drop in the number uninsured, high levels of satisfaction and a slower growth in health care costs compared to previous years. The paper further discusses how the ACA will roll out in the 2016 year. Individuals and large companies will be taxed for failing to gain and provide access to adequate health insurance. One great idea that Jost poses to increase affordability and access of health care was to make the Marketplace more transparent so that individuals can have a better grasp of provider and drug coverage before they apply. Under the ACA there was also a great push to expand Medicare and Medicaid programs through increasing access and coverage. Although this part of the ACA seemed like a great idea as it provided coverage to more individuals, I wonder how this program and the ACA in general will pan out after the election. The ACA will likely see some changes in the near future. Republican proposals to replace the ACA, which I feel are scarce to being with, might remove the community rating, which will reduce the number of people insured, although ultimately leading to a decrease health care expenditure. On the other hand, Democrats will likely expand the ACA and may also offer additional funding for the program with additional

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as ObamaCare, is a healthcare reform law that focus on providing more Americans with access to affordable health insurance. “The ACA is expected to add 32 million people seeking primary and preventive service and treatment” (journalofnursingregulation.com). It was first enacted by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The act has offered a number of people with benefits, set up a place they can purchase health insurance, expanded the use of Medicaid and Medicare to the disabled and senior citizens. The Act has forced many employers to offer coverage to their employees. Despite all of the positive attributes this act has provided, there is a flip side to it. Americans are required to have health

I’m sure you have heard many debates, discussions, and opinions about the law ObamaCare. Do you know what this law was implemented for? Do you know why some could support it or want it repealed? Do you realize how much money one could leave the taxpayers to pay for their unpaid medical bills because they could not afford insurance? “ObamaCare, officially called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) but more often called the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for short, reforms the health insurance industry and the American health care system as a whole” (ObamaCare Facts). Barack Obama and the Supreme Court ruling in 2012 gave Americans better rights and more protection for access to universal affordable quality healthcare to the uninsured population. ObamaCare was not designed to change the way one gets insurance, but to alleviate the national health care crisis of forty-four million uninsured Americans. I chose to do my research paper over this particular topic because I wanted to learn more information on how the working middle class could obtain insurance for them and/or their families. I also wanted to know how people who are uninsured could have access to ObamaCare and what ObamaCare actually does for the uninsured.

The Affordable Care Act, signed into law on March 23, 2010, consists of 10 titles which provide Americans with health benefits. Sometimes this is referred to as “Obamacare” or the Patient Protection Act. The basis of the ACA is to assure that Americans can afford quality health insurance, without discrimination, while making purchasing insurance competitive for buyers, while also eliminating the uninsured (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], 2015a). This allows the consumer to take control of their health care while making informed choices. By providing affordable health care, this will help reduce wasteful spending that does not improve the quality of health care, which could generate an annual savings of around $140 billion after a five-year period (Sahni, Chigurupati, Kocher, & Cutler, 2015). All American’s were required to be insured either by purchasing private insurance, by their employer, or

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)

The low complexity of ACA’s implementation can be understood by analyzing the improvement of the The Oregon Health Plan in the 1980’s, also discussed by Wheelan (2010). The basic principles behind both plans are very similar in values. In 1987, Governor Neil Goldschmidt, improved Oregon’s health care plan by following four trivial rules: All citizens should have universal access to a basic level of care; Society is responsible for financing care for poor people; There must be a process to define a “basic” level of care; The health-care delivery system must encourage the use of services and procedures that are effective, appropriate and discourage overtreatment. These rules worked so well in Oregon, that by 1994 their uninsured population dropped by 6 percent. In 1998 even their infant mortality and childhood immunization rates improved.

More than 45 million Americans are uninsured. Even those that do have health insurance often face financial and other barriers when getting healthcare. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) removes most of these financial barriers (Kocher, Emanuel, & DeParle, 2010). The ACA guarantees access to healthcare and creates new incentives to change clinical practice, but some might be surprised to learn that the financial price tag attached goes beyond healthcare costs and taxes which all Americans will pay for costs

There are close to twelve million people signed up for health insurance and many of those people are of low-income. A down side to these numbers is the fact that some states do not have exchanges for people to go to so, it is possible for the the numbers to be higher. But however in “June 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that the states expansion of medicated had to be voluntary. That left the poor in states such as Texas or Florida that did not expand Medicaid faced with having to pay more that those who are not poor” (Brill 20). The success of this bill relies on the citizens and we must find ways in which we all can benefit from this and not just throw it

The ACA does require most individuals to obtain health insurance only if they can afford it. But with the healthcare systems expenditures comprising 17.6% of the U.S. gross domestic product and with millions of Americans not having the accessibility of health care, resulting in poor health indicators, the current administration’s priority was to create mandated healthcare reform. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the act will enable an additional 32 million Americans or a total of 94% of Americans to have access to health insurance (Niles, 28).

Through the presidency of Barack Obama, the United States was introduced with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This act gives the opportunity to individuals and families a greater access to affordable health insurance options that include medical, dental, vision, and other types of health insurance that they may not have been applicable for previously. The cost of health care can be extremely expensive for those who face ongoing medical issues. Through the ACA, it allows individuals to enroll that have lost previous coverage, had a child, or got married and the list goes on. “In 2014, Medicaid coverage had been expanded, through the ACA, to almost all adults with incomes at or below 138% poverty in states that have accepted the expansion, and tax credits are available for those with incomes up to 400% of poverty who purchase coverage through a health insurance marketplace” (Garfield). After the ACA was established the uninsured rates dropped to a historic low.

The ACA has helped millions of Americans gain access to healthcare by providing affordable health insurance plans through new subsidies and by creating federal and state exchanges. Before the ACA was enacted in 2010, an estimated 49 million Americans did not have health insurance (1). As of Q1 in 2015, 16.4 million uninsured individuals obtained coverage through the exchanges, Medicaid expansion, and by extending parent’s insurance plans, bringing the total percent of uninsured adults from 18% to 11.4% (2). Across all insurance plan levels, 87% of individuals received cost assistance, and had an average monthly payment of less than $100 (2). Although individuals receiving financial assistance pay 76% less on

The ACA started rocky and has been through provisions that have aided to more American citizens being eligible for government health insurance. The social contract between the ACA health care policy and the American citizen’s is formed because of the U.S. governments concern for the health of it citizens. In 2011, almost 48 million citizens of America did not have health insurance and the under-insured nearly amount to 25 million (Horton, Abadia, Mulligan & Thompson, 2014). The rising numbers of health barriers have influenced the U.S. government and the policy making process. Social contracts in America have been molded around public policy throughout the years (Lind, 2007). A health care policy like the ACA goes through a complex system

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.