Despite the controversy caused by Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare, it is now a fact of life. Irrespectively of one’s personal attitude, today it defines how healthcare works in this country, and knowing as much as possible about it is instrumental in avoiding its pitfalls and getting the most out of its benefits. Therefore, students writing about Obama health care reform don’t simply carry out an academic assignment, but acquire practicable knowledge.
The introduction of the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare in 2010, undoubtedly, became one of the most significant results achieved by Barack Obama and his administration – probably the very thing he is going to be remembered for. But what exactly this legislature entails? Despite its goal being to bring affordable healthcare to as many Americans as possible, many people still have rather vague understanding of what their rights are in this respect and what they get as a result.
Simply put, the main benefit of this reform is that health insurance is considerably more affordable now than it used to be: insurance companies are now forced to spend no less than 80 percent of premiums on medical care, and have fewer opportunities to introduce unjustified rate increases. Although health insurance is far from being free, the introduction of ACA means that a larger percentage of people have access to it.
This is clearly seen from the results of ACA’s application: the facts show that within the first five years after the bill passed, more than 16 million people obtained health insurance, a large portion of them being young adults.
Another important change is that insurance companies are now barred from denying coverage due to pre-existing health problems. Previously, most insurance companies claimed that they wouldn’t cover treatment because injury or condition existed before a person was covered by their particular plan.
People suffering from chronic conditions also benefit from ACA: before its introduction, they often ran out of coverage because the majority of insurers set limits of how much they would spend on each particular customer – an opportunity they are stripped of now.
ACA has also a long-term goal of reducing the cost of healthcare in general by wide application of affordable screenings and preventive services. The idea is to motivate people to be more proactive about their health, to check for illnesses before they develop into forms demanding costly treatment. There is, however, too little information so far to estimate how effective it is.
All this comes at a price, most often literal price for the US citizens: many people who already had health insurance have to pay higher premiums now, taxes are going up in order to provide funding for ACA, and new taxes are being introduced, some of which bear heavily on the very same healthcare industry ACA is supposed to assist – such as taxes on medical devices and sales of pharmaceuticals.
ACA provides many benefits to the populace in general; but it remains to be seen what its long-lasting effects on the state of healthcare industry are going to be.
References
- Andrews, C. (2014). Unintended Consequences: Medicaid Expansion and Racial Inequality in Access to Health Insurance. Health & Social Work, 39(3), 131-133.
- Davis, K., Abrams, M. and Stremikis, K. (2011). How the Affordable Care Act Will Strengthen the Nation’s Primary Care Foundation. J GEN INTERN MED, 26 (10), 1201-1203.
- Health Coverage Under the Affordable Care Act. (2012). JAMA, 308(24), 2556.
- Iglehart, J. (2010). Medicaid Expansion Offers Solutions, Challenges. Health Affairs, 29(2), 230-232.
- Implementation of the Health and Social Care Act. (2013). BMJ, 346(apr05 3), 2173-f2173.
- Kenney, G., Marton, J., Klein, A., Pelletier, J. and Talbert, J. (2010). The Effects of Medicaid and CHIP Policy Changes on Receipt of Preventive Care among Children. Health Services Research, 46(1p2), 298-318.
- Molinari, C. (2014). Does the Accountable Care Act aim to promote quality, health, and control costs or has it missed the mark? Comment on “Health system reform in the United States”. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 2(2), 97-99.