The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which is often christened the Obama Care, provides provisions to Americans for more protections and rights in access to high-quality health care that is cheap to the many millions who are not insured (Rawal 16). By 2014, this law made it a requirement for all American citizens to have health insurance. The ones without minimum essential coverage were required to pay a monthly fee. In 23/03/2010, this act was signed into law. It was later repealed in 2012 to opt-out Medicaid. The law has caused many controversies among proponents and critics in America. People have different opinions on its effectiveness, positivity, and shortcoming. This essay aims at providing justifications that the Affordable Care Act is indeed advantageous and that Americans should support it.
Before the Affordable Care Act was appended signature to become law, the American healthcare system experienced systemic problems. According to a report published by Commonwealth Fund, estimated 79 million Americans could not access health insurance or were underinsured meaning that despite being insured they spent even a huge amount of money out-of-their-pocket for medical care (Gruber and Newquist 24). The force that powered this problem emanated from the fact the health care insurance schemes disproportionately locked out the poor from adequate coverage. Statistics show that about 20% of Americans live below the poverty line, and 37% of those are senior citizens who were uninsured (Cain 120). Besides, half all Americans who were underinsured lived below the poverty line as at 2012. The problem of access to health cover was so wide that 9 in every 10 Americans among the 79 million with inadequate health coverage were low and middle income earners (Brill 14). For this reason, the insurance premiums and cost of health even outpaced income increases for most Americans. The health insurance became more expensive at a faster pace than earnings accumulated for low and middle-income families. In particular, the acceleration in premiums was more pronounced for employer-sponsored insurance schemes (Gruber and Newquist 49). Most importantly, the problem in the healthcare system was also powered by the fact that individual insurance market forces determined insurance schemes. For families without guaranteed coverage or adequate coverage, they experienced constant worries due to financial constraints and over-ballooning cost of healthcare (Cain 129). However, the Affordable Care Act is revolutionizing these systemic challenges and presenting all Americans with equity and accessibility to health care insurance regardless of their incomes, class or status.
The Affordable Care Act has many benefits, particularly to the low and middle-income earners. For most high-income earners, the large organizations that do not provide insurance for their employees and some healthcare industries, the act poses some financial challenges (Faguet 101). Nevertheless, the benefits outweigh the costs. The average American gains greater benefits as opposed to few high-end earners. Most take advantage of the new protections and rights, which include the removal of discrimination by gender and the pre-existing conditions, and guaranteed coverage. Although the costs of a person’s health insurance might rise for a short while, the quality of insurance is worth because of its affordability.
The act did not come to change the way insurance plans were initially procured. Rather people can still get private insurance, government based programs like Medicare or Medicaid, or through their employer. However, it added a new way to get insurance. Insurance is now bought through State marketplaces for health insurance (Emanuel15). With the new plan, people are able to compare different plans and obtain cost assistance. Annually, there is an open enrollment period where people can get coverage. Last year’s enrollment started on 1st Nov 2015 and ended on 31st Jan 2016 (Rawal103). Many Americans earning less than 400% of the poverty line qualify for subsidies for cost assistance in the marketplace (Emanuel19). Cost assistance is in different forms such as CHIP and Medicaid cost-sharing grants and tax credits that are premium.
Since the signing of the act in 2010 by President Obama, many key features have taken place by the year. Many changes have occurred (Yagoda, Lisa & Duritz 14). In 2011, it was made possible for Americans with Medicare to get free preventive services and 50% discount on drugs (Emanuel 19). The services of programs and organizations that give accountable care were incorporated in helping health caregivers and doctors so that they could provide better care in 2012.
In October 1st 2013, in the Health Insurance Marketplace there was an open enrollment. Since 2014, Americans could now access affordable options of health insurance. Private Citizens and small businesses use the marketplace to compare plans for health care. Low and middle-income families started getting tax credits that covered significant portions of their costs. The program for Medicaid was expanded to include many low-income earners.
In 2015, more measures were taken to ensure a better quality of health care and lower costs. This was done by applying the provision that emphasizes on paying health caregivers based on the value and quality of their work and not by volume (Faguet 96). Physicians who give high-quality care get better pay than the ones that provide low quality service. Cumulatively, through these changes, millions of uninsured Americans will get covered because of the effectiveness of the Affordable Care Act.
Affordable Care Act has many benefits for everyone and all sectors. It has a Health Insurance Marketplace, which is the United States’ website for insurance of health. It allows people to apply for insurance that has been federally subsidized. Through the site, they can also get to know whether they are eligible for Medicaid. For people who meet the criteria for cost assistance, this market is the best place for them (Rawal 29). The marketplace becomes even more attractive with the presence of cost assistance than before. To get it, one has to enroll annually in a health insurance plan and to get cover.
For the Americans, who earn less than 400% of the poverty levels, the new law gives them vast advantages. Average families have gotten reduced premiums (Yagoda, Lisa & Duritz 112). Because of the increase in coverage through CHIP/ Medicaid, the marketplaces for health insurance, the mandate of employers, and Medicare, means that many Americans without insurance will now get coverage. The ObamaCare provides many benefits and protections to citizens. Health care services are being expanded and the penalties for pre-existing conditions eliminated (Koh, Howard & Sebelius 1299). Through this act, lower incomes earners who make less than 138% of the poverty level are now eligible to get Medicaid because of its expansion.
Middle-income earners who make between 133% and 400% of the poverty line and people who are employed can now use subsidies of out-of-pocket and tax credits on the exchanges. By doing this, they will be able to save 60% of the current premiums cost (Koh, Howard & Sebelius, 1297). This makes insurance affordable for about 23 million people in the country.
The act also has provisions for exemptions for people with particular hardships who cannot afford insurance (Emanuel 15). Affordable insurance is that which costs not more than 8% of what a person earns in a year. For the silver plan, cap cost is at 9.5% for tax credits for individuals who make between 300% and 400% in the poverty level (Koh, Howard & Sebelius, 1296). In open enrollments, enrollees get cost assistance to reduce their expenses for out-of-pocket and costs of premium.
The Affordable Care Act benefits women too. Now, more than 47 million women can get health services for women such as wellness and preventative services (Koh, Howard & Sebelius, 1298). It is no longer a requirement by the law to have the new beneficiaries of these women contribute out-of-pocket payments. It is a requirement these days for insurers to charge women and men the same. Through the act also, there is more coverage for contraception making the life for American women easier.
Businesses also get to benefits from ObamaCare. Small businesses with less than 25 employees get tax credits in millions from it. These loans help the companies compensate for incurring health care insurance costs for their employees (Emanuel 57). Previously, small businesses had problems providing their workers with benefits. No wonder 50% of the uninsured Americans were either small business employees, owners or the dependents of these two (Koh, Howard & Sebelius, 1298). Many employees find the employer-sponsored plans affordable.
Despite all these benefits, there are a few non-supporters of this act in the country. They critic that there are penalties put forth for people who have not been insured. The fees taken depend on one’s income, the year, and their household size (Faguet 49). They, however, fail to recognize that these measures have only been put forth to convince many people to get insured and avoid putting their lives in danger.
Besides, the act has made the authorities to ban lifetime and annual limits and benefits for insurance policies (Yagoda, Lisa & Duritz 59). This has made insurance less of a moneymaking enterprise, and transformed it to a healthcare venture for benefitting all Americans. Additionally, critics have been questioning the viability of the overall Obamacare because of the government’s healthcare website- Healthcare.gov problems. At first, it had downtimes, crashed oftentimes and had systemic failures. It also used to have pushed-back deadlines. This is however not a reason to have such an efficient act scrapped (Koh, Howard & Sebelius, 1297). Others, who have failed to comply with the law’s requirements, have had to pay more than they used to in private plans for health insurance. This in no way shows that the law is inefficient. It only proves that it is keen on upholding its standards, and this is a good thing for its subscribers. All these disadvantages are only a drop in the ocean when compared to the countless benefits that the act brings (Yagoda, Lisa & Duritz 78).
In conclusion, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act have many substantial benefits when compared to the few disadvantages it has. It indeed helps safeguard the health care and security of Americans by expanding access for health cover and making it mandatory for all Americans. Affordable healthcare was one of the greatest challenges for Americans especially low-income earners; however, ACA streamlined the provisions and made private health covers affordable.
Works cited
Brill, Steven. “America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System” New York : Random House, 2015. Print.
Cain, Herman. “The Right Problems: What the President, Congress and Every Candidate Should Be Working on.” Los Gatos : Smashwords, 2016. Internet resource.
Emanuel, Ezekiel J. Reinventing American Health Care: How the Affordable Care Act Will Improve Our Terribly Complex, Blatantly Unjust, Outrageously Expensive, Grossly Inefficient, Error Prone System. , 2015. Print.
Faguet, Guy B. The Affordable Care Act: A Missed Opportunity, a Better Way Forward. New York: Algora Pub, 2013. Print.
Gruber, Jonathan, and H P. Newquist. “Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It's Necessary, How It Works.” New York: Hill and Wang, 2011. Print.
Koh, Howard K., and Kathleen G. Sebelius. “Promoting prevention through the affordable care act.” New England Journal of Medicine 363.14 (2010): 1296-1299. Web.
Rawal, Purva H. The Affordable Care Act: Examining the Facts. , 2016. Internet resource.
Yagoda, Lisa, and Nicole Duritz. Affordable Care Act for Dummies. Hoboken: Wiley, 2014. Web.
