The Provisions Of The Affordable Care Act

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.

When president Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in March 2010, it came with a lot of new provisions that would vary when they would come into effect. The very first provision was the “Grandfather Clause” which allowed people to keep their insurance plan before the act went into effect. As long as the employer still offered that plan the employee could still maintain it because they were grandfathered into receiving that coverage. If someone bought an insurance plan after March 2010 they would not be considered under the Grandfather Clause. Thus, these individuals would be required to get a new plan by 2014 if their plan did not meet all the criteria, they would need to get a new plan that fills all the criteria. Another major provision of the Affordable Care Act is that patients have a guaranteed issue. This means that insurance companies are unable to deny anybody health insurance based on their health or prior health. This may create a problem because the risk pool of an insurance company may not have the best people. Eventually, this could lead to the majority of the risk pool for an insurance company to have people who are at a greater risk of needing health insurance. This will make the insurance company more vulnerable and the only way that they will be able to cover the losses is by raising the premiums on everyone even though there may be some individuals that are in perfect health. The next provision that was added under the Affordable Care Act is that the

Question 1 – Should coverage provisions be construed broadly and exclusion clauses narrowly? If so, why? If not, why not?

Although the ACA have made progress, many still question whether or not this new law is working. The law is too complicated for people to understanding their coverage. "The ACA is not perfect", "but at least" the U.S. has taken one step toward reducing the disparities between rich and poor and providing health coverage to everyone (Gruber, 2011). In this paper I will discuss the benefit of the ACA and the affect it will have on provider reimbursement.

Hispanics are one of the largest groups in the United States that are uninsured. Additionally, the Hispanic population is one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the U.S. The Hispanic population is estimated to increase over the next 25 years to 32 million out of a total of 72 million of the US population (Brice, 2000). The U.S. health care system is facing one of its most notable societal issues in years in reference to its ability to provide access to medical care for the millions of Americans who do not have health care, for whatever cause. The Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010, for the purpose of reducing inequalities in insurance coverage and to provide access to health care for all. A vital goal of the

While the Affordable Care Act was implemented in 2010, the most significant changes in the healthcare system began in 2013 with the expansion of Medicaid. According to the ACA’s official website, the law’s main goals are to create cost efficient health insurance and medical services, as well as expand Medicaid so that the stated programs will be available to more Americans. (“Affordable Care Act (ACA)”). To do so, the ACA imposed many requirements on both sides of the health care system. The ACA has expanded federal regulations on private insurance providers by requiring that these companies cannot deny coverage based on the health of the beneficiary. The ACA has also established a marketplace for health insurance to be purchased by small businesses and individuals. Finally, the most noteworthy reform is the requirement for all Americans to purchase minimum coverage, or pay a penalty. However, those who cannot afford coverage and have “an income below 138% of the Federal Poverty Level eligible for Medicaid” will be paid for by the government (“The Affordable Care Act in the US”).

During the botched 2010 roll out of the affordable care act, multiple veteran’s agencies marched on Washington with fears of how the Tax/Mandate would affect indigent veterans who could not afford the penalty and could not afford secondary insurance. In their hubris, these agents pushed an agenda that has greatly hurt the veteran population.

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)

The Affordable Care Act has brought many changes to healthcare in the United States. Some of the changes brought on by the Affordable Care Act have had a positive impact on society and some have had a negative impact. Some of the positive effects of the Affordable Care Act include better consumer protection and equality, and healthcare coverage for more Americans. Some of the negative effects include rising insurance premiums and a shortage of doctors. There is also a new set of rules under the Affordable Care Act regarding the billing of medical claims.

There are various good intentions of the ACA, including addressing access and expanding coverage, cost and quality indicators, public health matters, workforce issues, and speeding up access to new drugs (Emanuel, 2014). Specific provisions outlined in the ACA such as, states expanding Medicaid under the ACA to everyone who makes less than 138% of the federal poverty level now qualifies for Medicaid. The ACA allows young people to now stay on their parents health insurance plan until age 26. In addition the ACA mandates that pre-existing health concerns cannot exclude someone from being covered by insurance. The ACA also expanded Medicaid in many states, the operating margins among hospitals in Medicaid expansion states “increased from 2.1 percent in 2013 to 3.4 percent in 2014.” Operating margins also increased among hospitals in non-expansion states, however the relative increase was smaller compared to hospitals in expansion states. These ACA

Universal Healthcare in the United States has been a long time journey that dates back decades and we, as a country, are far behind other developed countries who have had universal healthcare for a long time. Today, Healthcare is obtained through employers or by people paying for it by themselves, which is incredibly expensive due to high premiums. Five years have passed since the controversial Obama care, or Affordable Care Act, was signed into law on March 23, 2010. The Affordable Care Act aimed at fixing the many problems that the United States has with healthcare by making it available to everyone, but also more efficient and this required drastic changes that made some people happy while others unhappy since some are benefiting while others are not. These people include politicians, but foremost presidential candidates. Candidate’s stance on the issue of healthcare is truly important due to the fact that if they’re the next president of the United States, it could hurt or improve the health care reform. Noteworthy candidates are: Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, and Bernie Sanders. Republicans and Democrats have long debated whether or not the Affordable Care Act should be repealed or replaced. Republicans believe that it is a problem while Democrats support it. The Affordable Care Act should not be replaced but instead improved because it provides quality and affordable health care to Americans. Everyone gets sick and people shouldn’t be afraid of receiving help

The Affordable Care Act is designed to increase access to inexpensive health care coverage, but the law omits one group of people from advancing: the nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants presently existing in the United States. The high costs of health care and the loss of health insurance coverage are two significant long-term challenges that provoke many Americans. These problems are particularly severe for migrants in the United States, who have predominantly low rates of health insurance coverage and poor access to health care services. Once settled in the country, many migrants face a lifetime of change and acculturation.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) extended healthcare coverage to millions of formerly uninsured individuals by expanding eligibility of Medicaid and the formation of Health Insurance Marketplaces. The ACA also included reforms to assist individuals sustain coverage and have the availability of affordable and accessible private healthcare insurance. Analysis from 2014 and early 2015 and have shown significant increases in public and private healthcare insurance coverage and have attributed the remarkable decreases of the rates of uninsured individuals from marketplace.gov and health insurance exchanges from the first year the ACA had healthcare coverage available.

There is individual mandate so that insurance companies would have a broad pool of customers: a fraction of whom are healthy, and a fraction of whom are sick or would be sick. That would prevent insurance companies from setting high prices to exclude people with a preexisting condition; so the sick would not all queue up for insurance and healthy people not bothering for health insurance until they get sick. When that happens, insurance companies will quickly go out of business.

The ACA requires insurers to accept all applicants, cover certain conditions, and charge the same rates despite one 's sex or pre-existing health status. There are ten provisions that make up the ACA which were to be implemented over time, from 2010 through 2020. The first provision is individual insurance, which prohibits insurers to deny coverage based on one 's pre existing health conditions. States were also required to make insurance available to children who are not insured through their families. Medicaid was also expanded to include individuals and families with an average income of thirty thousand dollars a year. This mandate will not cover those who are illegal immigrants, eligible individuals who choose to not be enrolled in medicaid, those who choose to pay the penalty, individuals whose insurance would cost more than 8% of their income, and those who live in states that opt out of the medicaid expansion.