The Affordable Care Act (ACA) affects employment-based insurance in various ways as it influences employer decisions about health benefits. Although companies will continue to uphold the ACA Act, many employees will end up paying most of the insurance costs since companies will make changes that suit them. For instance, many employers claim to have made changes in 2015 in anticipation of the high-cost plan tax. In this regard, companies will increase deductibles, do away with covered services, eliminate tax-preferred savings accounts such as Health Savings Accounts, cancel all higher-cost health insurance options, and use cheap provider networks (Nordal, 2012). The legislation, therefore, may not stabilize employment-based insurance because employees will always complain when such significant changes are put in place.
Although the ACA has succeeded in achieving its primary task, there is a need for further government interventions that will help fix the private health insurance. Primarily, this is because there is widespread political opposition, public misunderstanding, lawsuits, serious underfunding, and alarming technological failures. Furthermore, government interventions will help the twenty states that refused to implement the ACA’s Medicaid expansions to give their point of views and therefore solve the underlying problems. Additionally, there is a small percentage of citizens under the age of 65 who still lack health insurance, and interventions can help to cater for these people as the principle aim of the ACA insurance is to enroll every citizen in the medical insurance coverage.
The ACA has established itself as a successful act so far. In fact, since the enactment of Medicaid and Medicare, there has never been a health insurance cover that has achieved success as the ACA (Kocher, & Adashi, 2016). It is important to mention that the ACA includes new patient protection legislations that give patients greater control over the services they receive, which has increased both transparency and competition.
Each state defines it distinct and most essential health benefits, but it must include each category outlined in the ACA insurance. Ohio expanded the Medicaid plan under the Affordable Care Act, and its federal government had addressed various scenarios regarding ACA (Nordal, 2012). According to its government, there are ongoing registrations in 2017 and will continue until January 31st. Regardless of any pre-existing challenges, subsidies for 2017 are still available in the state.
References
Kocher, R. P., & Adashi, E. Y. (2016). Hospital readmissions and the Affordable Care Act: paying for coordinated quality care. Jama, 306(16), 1794-1795.
Nordal, K. C. (2012). Healthcare reform: Implications for independent practice and organizations. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 43(6), 535.
