...The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is legislation enacted by the United States Congress, and signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. The Affordable Care Act is often referred to as Obamacare since it is linked to President Obama. Though the law has been challenged by many points of government the United States Supreme Court made a final decision to uphold the healthcare law on June 28,2012. The law is divided into ten sections, over 20,000 pages, with supplementary regulations to come in the future. Examining the key features, coverage, cost, and impact can give the general synopsis of the law. There are many pros and cons of the law that contrast greatly amongst citizens of the United States. The key features of the Affordable Care...
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...THE AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE ACT As we all know the ACA has made healthcare affordable for people of all walks of life. The health law reduced the number of uninsured Americans by a total of two hundred million from 2010 to 2016. It did so by creating online markets. Those of us who didn’t get insurance through work or the government could shop for a health plan from a private insurer. The government offered subsidies for Americans with lower incomes to help pay their premiums and deductibles. What is most relevant to me are the pros and the cons of the ACA. The most important benefit of the ACA is that it slows the cost of rising healthcare cost. How so, you ask? It does so by providing preventive care for Americans who once couldn’t afford insurance. Preventative care is any medical...
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...The most recent changes in health care reform have been the controversial passing of the Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. The Affordable Care Act puts consumers back in charge of their health care. Under the law, a new “Patient’s Bill of Rights” gives the American people the stability and flexibility they need to make informed choices about their health. The three staple of the law works to improve the care, cost, and coverage of health care; Some of its key features include; ending pre-existing condition exclusions for children, ends the arbitrary withdrawal of insurance coverage, assisting individuals to receive the most for their premium dollars, and coverage of preventive care at no cost ("Key Features of the Affordable Care Act By Year | HHS.gov," n.d.)....
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...The Affordable Care Act was passed eight years ago in 2009. Since then an ongoing debate has gone on about whether the bill would be very effective. The act provides government aid for Americans who are currently uninsured, or can not afford insurance. Even though the Affordable Care Act did provide insurance to many Americans, it has many problems. The Affordable Care Act was not a success because it restricts people’s rights, spends a lot of government funds and raises taxes for U.S. citizens. Many Americans believe that the Affordable Care Act adds more unneeded government restriction. This is “because the law requires everyone to have health insurance, opponents claim it represents an overreach by the federal government” (education world)....
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...In my opinion, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as "Obamacare," does more harm than good. The ACA forces people to buy health insurance, taking away the choice of how people can spend their money, and taxing people who don't purchase a plan at "the greater of 2.5 percent of taxable household income, or $695.00 per uninsured adult and $347.50 per uninsured child when taxes for the year are submitted...this fee will increase each year." People should not be penalized for not wanting to have health insurance for whatever reason they choose. Since "Obamacare" has passed, smaller businesses have found it to be more beneficial and cheaper to drop employee health insurance and just pay the penalty tax, leaving many working Americans in a...
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...Positive Outcomes There have been many positive outcomes since the Affordable Care Act went into effect. The one goal of getting health coverage for more Americans has been accomplished by making it more affordable and making health insurance more available. There has been a decline of individuals who have postponed getting medical care due to the cost by one-third. Due to the Medicaid expansion, there has been a decline in collection balances with people who became insured by six to ten hundred dollars (Stoltzfus Jost & Pollack, 2016). Also, there has been an increase in preventative care. More importantly, there have been more services available for the consumer to include coverage for medications, lab tests, dental and vision care for...
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...The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a national health reform that was created in response to the ever growing need of the American population for an affordable and comprehensive health insurance policy. According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) since the ACA was passed back in 2010 about 16.4 million uninsured people have gained health coverage and we currently have largest reduction of uninsured Americans in four decades (HHS, 2015). Despite all the merits of the ACA, there are still Americans left without health insurance. Among this vulnerable population we have about 3 million people who fall in what we call the coverage gap (Damico and Garfield, 2016). These are the people with incomes below the poverty line but remain...
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...known as the Health Security Act was a package presented under the direction of President Bill Clinton. His presidency started on January 20, 1993 and lasted until January 20, 2001. During his 1992 presidential election, Clinton pushed for this bill to be passed by Congress. “After nine months of brainstorming and politicking, President Clinton delivered to Congress today a 240,000-word proposal for universal health insurance” (Pear, 1993). This manifesto was the most multiplex, comprehensive plan conveyed by any President. Under the Clinton plan, most Americans would get health insurance coverage only in regional alliances. “ A company with more than 5,000 full-time employees could operate its own health insurance program outside the alliances. People working at company headquarters would be in the corporate health plan” (Pear, 1993). If there were employees of a large company that worked in another state with 100 or less than they were able to join the local alliance there. The Clinton Healthcare Plan of 1993 would supply additional treatment of helping. “Mr. Clinton said his proposal would provide much more coverage of preventive services than is usually found in private health insurance plans” (Pear, 1993). The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010 also known as Obamacare is a United States federal law signed in by President Obama on March 23, 2010. This law, jointly with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act represents the significant regulatory...
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...National Government December 10, 2012 Obamacare In an attempt to create a solution to health care, President Barrack Obama came up with a universal healthcare program called the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Obamacare was signed into law on March, 2010. It has been the most significant repair to the United States healthcare since Medicare and Medicaid passed in 1965. In this paper, the key points that will be discussed are obamacare policy, it pros and cons, if it raises any issues with federalism and the policys effectiveness. Obamacare is aimed at helping the underinsured to gain insurance. With this plan everyone would have health insurance regardless of income, or anything that would stop the person from attaining health insurance. The Affordable Care Act is a watershed in U.S. public health policy. Through a series of extensions of, and revisions to, the multiple laws that together comprise the federal legal framework for the U.S. health-care system, the Act established the basic legal protections that until now have been absent: a near-universal guarantee of access to affordable health insurance coverage, from birth through retirement.(Rosenbaum, 2010) Obamacare is a name used by critics of President Obamas efforts to reform health care. Its a common term used to describe the Patient Protection and Affordable care Act of 2010. ObamaCare contains many benefits, especially for low and middle income families and businesses...
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...Obama signed the affordable care act into law (American Public Health Association, 2014). This law will potentially provide up to 44 million people the chance to be able to gain a health care plan that they can afford. Several people have a big issue with this because some regulations of the law give a large amount of control to the federal government. People argue that this involvement from the government makes the law unconstitutional. The biggest question being is if the pros outweigh the cons and if the plan will benefit the people of this nation There have always been issues in this country with healthcare being extremely expensive. This being the case, many people have been forced to go uninsured and put their own health at risk simply because they could not afford to make it a priority. Not only does this cause them to go without preventative care, but when the time comes in an emergency and medical attention is needed the average American cannot afford to pay the out of pocket medical bill and ends up filing bankruptcy on the medical bill resulting in the hospital losing a ridiculous amount of money. President Obama along with many Americans agreed that something has to be done to change this travesty. There are many pros and cons to the Affordable Care Act that needs to be evaluated in order to decide if this law is good or bad for our country. The following are some main points that we all need to think about: Pros: • Affordable benefits • Children’s...
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...the affordable care act (ACA). The healthcare system in United States is mostly dominated by the private insurance sector, whereas many countries have a universal healthcare system, the United States does not (Finkleman & Kenner, 2013). Because of the influence of the private insurance sector healthcare is very expensive and in most cases not affordable in Unites States. According to HHS.gov, “The Affordable Care Act puts consumers back in charge of their health care and under the law, a new “Patient’s Bill of Rights” gives the American people the stability and flexibility they need to make informed choices about their health (2014). Like every new law ACA also has its pros and cons. The benefits of having ACA is that it includes reforms designed to help all Americans, such as prohibiting insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, expanding Medicaid eligibility, subsidizing insurance premiums, and providing incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits (Sorrell, 2012). Insurance companies will no longer be able to drop clients when they become ill, the act has the potential to improve health outcomes across all income and age groups at a reduced cost (2012). Some of the disadvantages of ACA are that Americans who are employed will have to pay more for their health care coverage. Most middle-class Americans hold full-time jobs and receive health insurance through their employers. Health care costs were rising before the Affordable Care Act became...
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...in health care spending and increasing the value of care have largely focused on insurance-based solutions. Consumer-driven health care represents the most recent example of this approach. However, much of the growth in health care spending over the past twenty years is linked to modifiable population risk factors such as obesity and stress. Rising disease prevalence and new medical treatments account for nearly two-thirds of the rise in spending. To be effective, reforms should focus on health promotion, public health interventions, and the cost-effective use of medical care. Disease prevention/health promotion approaches are key to slowing the rise in health care spending (Thorpe, Kenneth 2014). Over the past five years the cost of health insurance has risen 54 percent. This persistent rise has recently been attributed to the low out-of-pocket costs paid by consumers. Being oblivious to not knowing the full costs associated with health care, consumers demand more and “overuse” it (moral hazard). The growth in spending has also been linked to the rising use of prescription drugs and new medical innovations and treatments. Many others believe the rise can be traced to the lack of competition in the health care marketplace and have proposed new approaches for health plans to compete on price and outcomes. Economists thinking about rising health care spending note that there are only two approaches for slowing its growth: reduce spending on high-cost medical care that produces...
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...parts of our amendments and how or why people who can't afford healthcare actually deserve it. The biggest issue with the Obamacare Plan is whether it is or isn't Constitutional and what that means for the people of the United States. The Patient Protection and the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, it represents the most significant regulatory overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 (Wikipedia 2012). The main focus of Obamacare is to leave no person without health coverage. The majority of US Citizens struggle or can simply not afford health care thus not having proper treatment for illness for themselves or their children. The Obamacare policy is a reform of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that was passed by Senate in December, 2009. Shortly after in 2010, the house abandoned this reform bill and amended it into the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. Obamacare has many pros and cons and is so controversial that it makes headlines constantly. The pros to Obamacare I could go on about but I will hit a few. The major one is this unbelievable and rather sad...
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...According to this article, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an updated federal budget outlook for the next 10 year “budget window”, during the week of February 3rd, 2015. Detailed in this report were some revisions to the previous baseline projection for the effects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). A more defined explanation and history of ACA: Federal health reform uses an approach that starts with the health insurance system we currently have in place in the United States. Health reform builds upon our current health insurance system to provide more people with access to health insurance coverage, establish legal protections for consumers, and set up mechanisms for consumers to shop knowledgeably for insurance. On July 14, 2009, House Democratic leaders introduced a 1,000-page plan for overhauling the US health care system, which Obama wanted Congress to approve by the end of the year. After much public debate during the Congressional summer recess of 2009, Obama delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress where he addressed concerns over his administration's proposals. In March 2010, Obama gave several speeches across the country to argue for the passage of health care reform. After Obama announced an executive order reinforcing the current law against spending federal funds for elective abortion services, the House passed the version of the bill previously passed on December 24, 2009, by a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate. The bill, which includes...
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...Obama Care Obama Care Obama Care is thought by most people to be a US law aimed at reforming the American health care system. The main focus for this care is to provide more Americans with access to reasonable health insurance, improving the value of health insurance, regulating the health insurance industry, and decreasing health care spending in the US (Government, 2012). Many people have mixed feelings about Obama Care and how it is used in the US. In this paper, I will discuss the origins and the history of how Obama Care got started and its difficulties. Then, I am going to talk about the pros and cons dealing with Obama Care and the ways it will affect our economy. Next, I will discuss how Obama Care is funded and how there are still missing pieces that the administration needs to clear up. Lastly, I will argue how some of the American population thinks Obama Care is a scam. Then, to wrap up my paper I will be giving my opinion on this complex matter. Steps in the process of Obama Care The history of Obama Care is very complex but the name is the unofficial name for The Patient Protection and Affordable Care act, which was singed into law on March 23, 2010. The major requirements went into effect in January 1, 2014 even though significant modifications had happened before this date. Many Americans were opposed to Obama Care before it was even passed because they didn’t like the idea of the government taking over the healthcare polices. Now, I am going to...
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