Aspects of the Affordable Healthcare Act - Essay Example

As such, the following analysis will seek to provide the reader with a more informed understanding of what government agency is responsible for proposing the changes that the Affordable Health Care Act will signify, a provision of the docket number and RIN of the rulemaking, the legal authority for the rulemaking, a summary of the proposed rule, and a brief discussion with regards to the basic interest for and against the rule. This author hopes that such a unit of analysis will be beneficial to the individual with regards to seeking to understand the changes that the Affordable Health Care Act portends for the daily life and economic situation of the reader/stakeholder within society.

Firstly, it must be understood that the federal agency tasked with the ultimate implementation of this law is the Health and Human Services Department of the United States federal government. As such, this department has received a vastly increased budget as well as an increase in positions of individuals who will be responsible for the distribution and oversight of the Affordable Health Care Act. Ultimately the Health and Human Services Department is a cabinet-level office that is tasked with seeking to impact “Improving the health, safety, and well-being of America” (Graham, 1).

As such, the docket number and RIN for the Affordable Healthcare Act are as follows: 0938-AR51. The legal authority for upholding this particular legislation is quite nuanced; however, the ultimate authority that will be fact-checking and ensuring compliance will be the Internal Revenue Service.

With regards to a summary of the proposed rule, the reader can understand the Affordable Health Care Act as intended to reduce overall levels of uninsured persons within the United States. This is intended to be effected by mandating that the individual should integrate with at least some level of healthcare for themselves and those within their family.  Moreover, the Affordable Health Care Act also proposed a reconfiguration of how the insurance industry within the United States sought to deal with “pre-existing conditions”; a hardship that formerly saw many tens of thousands of individuals denied coverage (Pipes, 1).

Finally, about an overall summary concerning the basic interests for and against the legislation, it must be understood that the Affordable Health Care Act does not solve the issue of the uninsured within society. Due to exceptions and the possibility of “opting out” the uninsured can still exist; however, they will now be responsible for paying a yearly penalty for remaining uninsured. Another key shortcoming of the proposed law is the fact that individual small business owners within society who might have otherwise continued to add jobs and higher more individuals since the economy has started to come back to life are now hesitant to engage in any such action because the healthcare bills that small firms will be saddled with, on the part of their employees, will be exorbitantly high (Avik, 16). This is of course compared to how healthcare costs were evidenced before the legislation was proposed and/or taking place. However, about the ultimate benefit and interest to society, it must be understood that the Affordable Health Care Act allows for a great reduction in the overall number of individuals who would have gone uninsured otherwise. By providing an incentive to become insured in reducing the overall level of obstacles that formerly existed to becoming insured, the Affordable Health Care Act will most likely have a positive impact on decreasing the overall number of uninsured individuals within a society.