ObamaCare is a name of the current president of the USA to represent a complex issue of the health systems I the US. Just like the HillaryCare and RomneyCare which was used to represent those who were in power when the health care issues or policies were being enacted. The Affordable health care Act was established to increase the affordability and availability of medical insurance by the provisions it created. This Act sought to eliminate the pre-conditions for a health insurance cover and the risk of being left alone by the insurance company once you are sick. The Act further proposed additional funding through Medicaid to about $ 15.9 million and come up with State health insurance places referred to as exchanges (Selbin et al 82).
Although President Obama is behind the implementation of ObamaCare, it is an idea that dates back to 1989. It was introduced by the Heritage Foundation who the political conservative to offer many options to single player healthcare. There have been several reforms in the healthcare sector since the proposal by the Heritage Foundation. The debate took another angel in 2008 when the Democratic Party took it as its campaign platform.
There were several Acts that were passed in 2009 after the general election; the Affordable Health Care for America Act and The Patient Protection Act. In 2010, the two Acts were changed in Affordable Care Act and Patient Protection Act 2010. The affordable Care Act signed into law on 23rd March 2010.
ObamaCare is a wider healthcare scheme which has several laws while Affordable Care Act is one of these Acts within the ObamaCare health scheme. Other laws within the ObamaCare are The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act. The two Acts were signed into law and are part of the HealthCare scheme. Many people use the term ObamaCare and Affordable Care interchangeably or to mean the same thing. However ObamaCare is the larger scheme which constitutes several laws.
There have been several attempts by the Republican to repeal the ObamaCare cover. However the Supreme Court upheld the Acts and making it official law of the land. The ObamaCare cover was altered by the Supreme Court. The implementation of the marketplace health insurance was stopped while opting out of the funding the scheme by the state was restricted.
Functions of Affordable care Act
The patients are given protection in the ObamaCare cover while dealing with insurance companies and those who can afford insurance cover should have one by 2014. The Act also increases taxes and funding for health education and awareness. The Act further restricts more expenditure by the government. According to obacarefacts.com, there is a bigger impact on the ground where many people now have their rights protected. The following are summaries of the Affordable Health Care Act.
Gender discrimination and pre-existing conditions are eliminated for those who want to have insurance cover from insurance agencies. The insurance company is restricted from dropping the patient while they are sick or when ‘they make an honest mistake’. The number of years for the young ones to stay on their parents’ insurance cover was extended to 26 years. The Act further empowers clients to appeal for insurance company decisions. It also protects consumers from unreasonable rate hikes by the insurance scheme. The insurance companies are supposed to give justification for rate hikes. The Act further states that there are no co-pays to domestic violence and birth control expenses.
Beneficial acts to me
Health Care Workforce; this is where the Affordable Health Act sponsors students with repayable loans for those taking healthcare related profession. The Act further provides more job opportunities to those who are in the healthcare industry. Jobs are created by the power given to the government to recruit health care officers and expand community health centers. The expansion of the healthcare workforce is an important aspect of this law. It ensures that there is enough healthcare to meet the rapid need and demand for health care services. There are many young people who dreamt of being healthcare professionals, with the current Act they have an opportunity to achieve their dreams through loans. They have also been taken care of by the same law after they complete their studies. They will be able to get government jobs which will enable them to repay the loans.
Another section of the Act that I believe is beneficial to me is on the elimination of lifetime and unreasonable yearly limits on benefits. Prior to this law, many people have been declared bankrupt because of the annual limits on their benefits. The last section that I believe is important is the restriction where the insurance company cannot drop you when you are sick. Many companies used to drop their clients once they realize their medical coverage is too high or because of an honest mistake. The only reason that can result in being left out by medical cover is a fraud.
There is a guarantee of access to health care for all Americans. There were financial barriers that were hiding about 45 million Americans from health care insurance. With the new health systems those financial barriers have been removed and they can access medical insurance cover. Apart from removing the insurance requirements and lifetime or annual limits, the scheme also has lowered the medical expenditures by direct government funding into the program.
The Act requires that physicians share medical data of patients in order to reduce complications especially those with chronic diseases. This provision requires coordination among the medical practitioners. These provisions have an impact I the medical code of conduct and how they practice in the process of discharging their duties. There is a need for integration across different health facilities where they will be an organization based in hospitals or physician groups. Only hospitals have the capacity to invest in health records and information technology infrastructure. It would require a larger grouping of physicians in order to invest in information technology and management skills. This means that only those physicians that will adopt such systems will be compensated in the future payment systems. Patients will be the major beneficiaries if the provisions are adhered to by hospitals and physicians.
According to the opposes of the ObamaCare cover of the Affordable Care Act, it is a scheme to rationalize health care to the Americans. The ObamaCare cover aims at reducing government expenditure on health care by 30% with the next two years. Making health care affordable to all Americans has been seen as an effort to reduce the quality of health care service provision.
The ACA will increase the deficit and not reduce it. There will be a massive purchase of insurance cover by middle class American citizens. This does not reduce health care spending because there will be a large group of people that will increase health care spending by the government. The expenditure will increase with increased cost of medical services and goods. The cost cut programs in the ObamaCare are not empowered and they can be shut down by an interested party who feel threatened if they work so effectively. This means that the Act is not well protected to protect the major strides that it will achieve. There is also another issue of the approach of the healthcare systems in the ObamaCare cover; it is a top-down approach. This becomes an issue especially to physicians and hospitals that want to maximize profits from administrative fees which is restricted in the Act by reduction of bureaucracies. There is going to be a lot of spending from the private economy into health care spending (Huntington 82).
The provision of health insurance will in the long run increase the cost of insurance and reduce employment. Employers who are mandated to have health insurance for their employees will consider this factor before adding new employees. Most of the employees will be afraid to incur the extra cost of insurance in the process of hiring more people. There are provisions that have added the number of years of dependencies and pre-existing condition on the insurance policies. There are elimination of annual and lifetime limit coverage. All those provisions have resulted in reach packages where the cost of insurance premiums will increase for the employers in the process of offsetting the employees (Angell 72).
According to the surveys conducted in the US most of the Americans from both political divide support health reforms and universal health care. They have a dream of affordable medical care for all Americans. In my opinion ObamaCare cover is a very good step towards achieving health reforms and quality health services to all.
Works cited
Angell, Marcia. "Obamacare Confronts a Fiscal Crisis Why the Affordable Care Act Doesn’t Add Up." New Labor Forum. Vol. 22. No. 1. SAGE Publications, 2013.
Huntington, W. V., et al. "Patient protection and affordable care act of 2010: Reforming the health care reform for the new decade." Pain Physician 14 (2011): E35-E67.
Selbin, Jeffrey, et al. "The Obamacare Opportunity: Implementing the Affordable Care Act to Improve Health, Reduce Hardship, and Grow the Economy for All Californians." (2013).
