Affordable Care Act in United States - Research Paper Example

Running head: the affordable care act "obamacare" Introduction Human health is of importance and thus the American government is concerned with health insurance of American residents. The Affordable Care Act puts all the consumers in America in charge of their health care. The main idea of health care is to improve and reform health care which is of great concern to individuals. Despite how much one is earning in America, there is need for one to set aside a particular budget that can be used when one is in poor health and thus the aim of Affordable Care Act. Insurance coverage in the companies are of benefit to individuals who work in the factories and other companies since in case of an accident or any other issue related to one health, then the insurance partners can intervene and medical expenses are covered by the insurance company or the use of Affordable Care Act. This paper seeks to discuss Affordable Care Act in United States. Description of the policy The Affordable Care Act was signed into a law by president Obama in 2010 in United States federal statute where the government had to work along with health care and educational reconciliation act to represent the United States interest in health care issues. The aim of Affordable Care Act is to increases the quality and affordability of health care making sure that those who do not have insurance coverage can get access to health insurance and thus expanding public and private insurance coverage for the United States residents. The policy aims at lowering the cost of healthcare for individuals and the government as a whole where the government will have the mandate to make sure that all the residents in United States will have the insurance coverage, subsidies will be available and insurance exchanges that are meant to increase the insurance coverage at affordable rates. The policy requires all the insurance companies to make sure that all residents are covered with minimum standards regardless of preexisting conditions or sex (Starr, 2011). The policy requires an individual to be covered by insurance from the employer sponsored health plan and this means that one will have two insurance coverage. Failure to pay an approved insurance policy will mean that an individual will pay a penalty of 1% on income tax and thus the residents must comply with the Affordable Care Act. The policy aim is to get more than 30 million people who are going to be enrolled to the Affordable Care Act. The policy also requires low income earners and those families with incomes between 100% to 400% federal poverty level will be considered and thus they are going to receive federal subsides and only if the mode of purchase is through an exchange. For those residents with a federal poverty level of 133% to 150% will still be subsidized and thus the premiums rates are going to be low thus the cost being 3% to 4% of individual income. The policy also requires businesses which have employed more than 50 workers to offer health insurance for their employees in full time, failure to that it will mean that the business will be penalized by the federal government. The policy requires an individual and families with a federal poverty level of 133% to expand the Medicaid program and this implies that all adults without disabilities and if they do not have children. An increment of 138% federal poverty level is the expanded figure that the policy requires those adults without children and if they are not disable. Rationale for the development The rationale for the development of Affordable Health Care is to make sure that the law is going to achieve near universal coverage which can only be achieved through shared responsibility among the government, individuals and employers. The Affordable Care Act is expected to be a legal expectation in U.S. where the act will strengthen the existing insurance coverage from the employers and private insurance coverage. Additionally, the act aims at marketing those individuals who do not have affordable employer coverage and it targets those low income earners U.S. residents with a family income of less than 133% of the federal poverty level. The other rationale of the affordable Care Act is to improve health care quality, efficiency, and accountability. All public and private health care institutions have a right to provide high quality services regardless of one federal poverty level. Affordable Care Act objective is to make sure that high quality health services are given to the resident and in transparency manner. Transparency will only be achieved if the secretary of the U.S department of Health and Human Service (HHS) will be empowered and be allowed to test new modes of payment and services delivery in the health department. The third rationale of Affordable Care Act is making primary health care more accessible to medically underserved population. Due to shortage of health professionals in many parts of United States, an estimated figure of about 60 million people are considered medically underserved (Sherrill, 2011). This is because individuals who suffer lack proper professionals who can cater and solve the problem and this is the reason why Affordable Care Act is working to expand community health centers and the national health services. The other rationale of Affordable Care Act is to improve the public health and training health professionals where all professional that are in the field of health care are going to be trained for high quality services thus making Affordable Care Act direct public health investment. Inputs of Affordable Care Act The labors, department of treasury and health as well as human resources are working in hand with Affordable Care Act where regulations and guidance are developed to make sure that the entire residents in United States have acquired Affordable Care Act. The three departments are interpreting the rules where the waiting period when one has enrolled for the Affordable Care Act should be less than 90 days. The treasury of federal states is working and providing information to the employer on how to comply with the affordable act through a shared responsibility to make it easier to achieve. Another input to the affordable care act is to make sure that all the employers with more than 50 employees are supposed to offer affordable heath coverage to those who are employed as full time employees. But the law will not apply to the companies that have few than 50 employees and thus they are going to provide for themselves private health coverage. Output of Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act would lead to reduction of hours worked. Individuals who are more than 2.5 million who work at full time will benefit since rules and regulations of working are stipulated by Affordable Care Act. Workers would be allowed to change jobs or even start their own businesses without any problem since they are given the mandates by the Affordable Care Act. Health care cost will be reduced significantly since all what one need is to pay direct or to be cut directly from one income and thus it would be monthly deal and this would mean that if one goes to a health care no payment will be made (Banthin, 2010). The economists describe the project to be a burden to the young generation who are going to pay for the dollars and trillions that are going to be borrowed to make the project operational. Again, the economist are against the Affordable Care Act since it will reduce the productivity of United States thus experiencing low growth rate since many individuals are going to be unemployed since the normal and private health coverage would not be of any importance to the residents. Reduction of job employment is going to be experienced while others are for the project since the act seems to boost growth and still make those who are below the federal poverty level of 133% to be able to access Affordable Care Act (Pear, 2014). Those who are unemployed are still going to benefit from the Affordable Care Act since they are going to be considered by the government. Actors of Affordable Care Act The young and poor who are charged for the affordable care act is seen as a drama since the charges are above the market rates where the rate of the old and wealthy people is subsidized. The project is seen to be a long term theft that is being introduced to the younger generations and the poor resident who keep on being taxed. The republicans are other actors who are against the act are against it since they see the project as a burden to the resident making poor people to be poorer due to high taxed rate. The democrats are for the project who works in hand with public and other private insurance coverage so that affordable health care can be accessible to all the citizens of United States. Decision making model used Shared decision making is the model that is used by the implementer of Affordable Care Act, where the patients and care givers share ideas with the patient thus communicating and giving the preferences about the treatment options. The Medicare and Medicaid were introduced to make sure that payment and services delivery models were tested and make sure that the cost of health coverage were not costly to the individuals and more so accountability and transparency was achieved in the health care coverage (Rick, 2009). The patient preferences, beliefs and circumstances was the main purpose where the individuals were supposed to make sure that shared decision making was achieved. Policy type The policy type is life time based in the Affordable Care Act which is used to ensure that every individual in United States will access affordable health coverage regardless of his or her income level. The policy aim is to target more than 30 million people within a short period and regulate health insurance and the worst practices that are done to gain profit in the health care industry. The main purpose is to ensure that Americans are able to access affordable quality health coverage and reduce the spending of individuals in health institutions for those who have terminal illness, provide essential health benefits like maternity bills and deal with emergency cases among others. The policy type will provide free preventive services like check ups, immunization in case of an outbreak of diseases, counseling and this will mean no cost will be incurred to an individual who has enrolled for the Affordable Care Act. The Policy process used Through legislative process the Affordable Care Act bill that became law was faced with a lot of the challenges from the republicans side where they viewed the bill as inappropriate and consumption of public fund. According to the republicans, the law was going to affect the United States citizens and the young generations since the policy was to spend more that 2 trillion dollars which in future years was to be a burden to the young generation. The path for the Affordable Care Act to become a law is a legislative history in congressional procedure and how the policy was challenged and the process in which the federal government had to set a side a certain amount of fund to ensure that the policy was going to be operated (David, 2010). Through the use of legislature, the policy had to be implemented and become a law since the democrats voted for the bill and they had to win and thus the bill becoming a law. The act was first introduced in the house and later to the senate where the trend did not differ from the other and thus being passed by the majority in the house. Policy evaluation The policy as per today is not evaluated and the original intent is unchangeable since the purpose was to provide affordable health care for all the residents regardless of the federal poverty level. The preexisting conditions of individuals is not an excuse that one is not going to have affordable care act but if one can use the two there is no problem so the original intent is not changed. The affordable Care Act aim is to improve health care quality, efficiency, and accountability and the intent has not been changed thus offering high quality services in an accountable manner. The central aim is universal coverage and even today the goal is still being worked for and make sure that all resident do achieve affordable care act. In conclusion, the affordable care act is of importance for those who are below the federal poverty level and those who have terminal illness since the policy will help them by subsidizing their premiums. The main purpose of the Affordable Care Act is to achieve near universal coverage where all the residents in U.S are going to be covered thus improving health care act and acquiring efficiency. References Banthin, J. (2010). Effects of Eliminating the Individual Mandate to Obtain Health Insurance. New York. New York Press. David, M. (2010). Final Votes in Congress Cap Battle over Health. New York: N.Y. press Pear, R. (2014). CBO Obamacare Job Loss Worse Than Reported. Michigan: Michigan Press. Rick, M. (2009). Selected Congressional Research Service Reports on Congress and Its Procedures. Washington: Washington press. Sherrill, A. (2011). Health Care Coverage Job Lock and the Potential Impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Washington, DC: U.S.Press Starr, P. (2011). Remedy and reaction: the peculiar American struggle over health care reform. New Haven: Yale University Press. Read More