The Patient Affordable Care Act

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.

The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is a healthcare program created by president Obama’s administration. The goal of the Affordable Care Act is to make sure every United States citizen has health insurance. The Affordable Care Act provides “affordable” health insurance plans to citizens that do not have any and make about $15,000 a year. While the idea of providing health insurance to the millions of American’s that cannot afford it is great, everything comes at a cost. According to Emily Miller, Obamacare is causing people’s health insurance premiums to rise by around 1 to 9 percent (Miller 15-15). Not only are insurance premiums rising, but ever since the Supreme Court declared the Affordable Care Act constitutional approximately 20 tax hikes have been approved (Battersby). All the aforementioned reasons are helping pay for Obamacare. Although providing health insurance for people that cannot afford it is important, the Affordable Care Act should be revoked because it will hurt the economy.

First, the act addresses major reforms to undertake in the health insurance sector to improve access to quality health care. The age of dependent coverage increased to 26 years, limits on annual benefits eliminated and challenges faced by those with preexisting medical conditions in getting a cover addressed. In addition, insurance documentation became uniform to allow for comparison (McClanahan, 2012). Thus, more Americans can access an insurance cover without increasing premiums.

The Affordable Care Act, also known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was put into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The focus of the Act is a health care law geared towards improving the health care system of the United States by broadening medical coverage to more Americans, as well as protecting the existing health insurance policy holders.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), commonly called Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010 (Martin, 2015). It is designed for Americans to have insurance or be penalized with 1% of your income for the beginning of last year and will raise up towards 2.5% by the beginning of 2016. Also, health care reform was created to fix our health care systems since the cost of the systems is increasing every year in price. The goal of ACA is to help out the insured with being provided with quality care through health care organizations. Thus the ACA is intended to prevent the uninsured from catastrophic medical expenses which not only

Affordable Care Act (ACA), arguably the most comprehensive health care reform of the American medical system in several years. The act alters the scope of the uninsured in the United States, requires that most, if not all, residents have health insurance, expands public insurance and subsidizes private insurance coverage, generates additional revenue from new taxes, and reorganizes spending under the nation’s largest health insurance plan, Medicare. The ACA seeks to establish a drastically different health care model for the United States in the years to come, if fully implemented.

Health care cost has been constantly rising and a problem in this country for years. Millions go without much needed medical care every year due to the lack of health care. For many the emergency room is their first contact with medical care. The Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA) intends to significantly decrease the number of uninsured in American. The PPACA, is said to be most comprehensive insurance reform since 1965, (the year in which Medicare and Medicaid were implemented) was signed into law on March 23, 2010 by President Obama. PPACA will renovate the entire United States’ insurance market. PPACA requires most citizens to either purchase health care coverage privately or through their employer, or face a penalty.

The Affordable Care Act completely changed the patient landscape of health care safety nets with its implementation in 2010. In particular, its expansion of Medicaid significantly shifted uninsured patient healthcare provider utilization, from emergency departments and free clinics, towards community health centers and federally qualified health centers. Yet major gaps in healthcare coverage persist due to states choosing not to expand Medicaid, exclusion of undocumented immigrants, and misunderstandings of the ACA. Health care safety net providers must understand their changing demographics and the needs of vulnerable uninsured patient populations. In doing so, healthcare safety net providers will be better informed in regards to necessary changes needed to thrive in the post-ACA era.

Young adults make up a large percentage of these newly insured people. “The ACA's dependent coverage provision allows young adults to remain on their parents' insurance plans until they turn 26 years old” (Sommers & Kronick 2012). This creates a big impact on those who have many children. The ACA aims to prevent insurers from creating an increase in rates that are unaffordable and unreasonable. Insurance coverage gives people a wider range of coverage options. A pre-existing medical condition, such as cancer, made it very difficult for people to get health insurance before the ACA. Because most insurance companies would not cover treatment for these conditions, the ACA does not allow Americans to be denied insurance due to a pre-existing condition. Medications can also be a burden for those with low-income. The number of prescriptions and drugs covered by the ACA is continuing to grow each

The ACA has several important expanded coverage features. Most notably, the new law keeps young adults, 26 years of age and younger, on their parent’s health insurance plan. This particular aspect of the reform allowed up to 3 million young adults to remain covered on their parent’s plan which mean 3 million more people had access to primary care, urgent care, and medication. This was a huge increase from 2010 in which 30% of young Americans between the ages of 19 and 29 had no health insurance coverage. (ObamaCare Young Adults. 2010). Additional features of increased coverage under the ACA was the

The ACA was aiming to provide insurance for young adults between the ages of nineteen and twenty-five who were not full time students. The ACA was not only assisting students but also the young adults who were also working. Prior to the ACA young unmarried adults were limited to access of health care and most states also required those applying for state funded insurances required young Americas to be a residence of the state. There were restrictions and requirements for young adults applying for a state funded insurance. Since there were restrictions on state funded insurances, the ACA was aiming to provide medical insurance too all young adults under the age of twenty-six regardless of their marital status, financial dependency, residency, or other characteristics. The federal law does not include or permit the state restrictions for young adults under the age of twenty-six (Health Services Research 1-5). The ACA is aimed to assist and benefit young adults between the ages of nineteen and twenty-six by taking the required restrictions off of state funded programs.

It has been almost six years since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was enacted. Before the ObamaCare Act many people living in the United States didn’t have health insurance. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act include a long list of health-related provisions. Additionally, it supposed to extend coverage health insurance to many uninsured Americans (Obamacare, Web).

Since the enactment of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), health care has

“The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) also known as the Affordable Care Act or ACA is the landmark health reform legislation passed by the 111the Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in March 2010.” Within this reform there are pros and cons, which are instrumental for many Americans. Initially once PPACA developed there were many issues, but as it has been settle lings throughout recent year’s things happen to be confirming that this reform will face future issues. For this reason, as a future health care professional it is obvious that challenges will developed through this law, these challenges will need to be addressed accordingly and effectively. It is imperative to know and understand that this law is a major change in the American society, and with change there is resistance and acceptance, therefore, it is our job to work together to utilized it to the best of our ability. (Health Insurance Resources Center 2015)

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the most comprehensive reform of the U.S. medical system in at least 45 years. The ACA transforms the non-group insurance market in the United States, mandates that most residents have health insurance, significantly expands public insurance and subsidizes private insurance coverage, raises revenues from a variety of new taxes, and reduces and reorganizes spending under the nation’s largest health insurance plan, Medicare. If fully implemented, the ACA promises to lead to a dramatically different health care landscape for the United States in the years to come. Projecting the impacts of such fundamental reform to the health care system is fraught with difficulty. But such projections were required for the legislative process, and were delivered by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). CBO projected that the ACA would increase health insurance coverage by 32 million people and would raise federal government spending by almost $1 trillion over the subsequent decade, but would raise revenues and reduce spending by even more so that the bill overall reduced the federal budget deficit. These CBO projections were central to the legislative debate over the ACA. In this paper, I will discuss the impact of the ACA in more detail, and describe evidence that sheds light upon the accuracy of the projections. I begin by reviewing in broad detail the structure of the ACA.