The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was put in place in order to improve population health, health care access and health care quality. This would have ensured slowed down the increased rates of health care costs but these aspects seemed difficult as the new law created challenges for North Carolina and the families. The challenges were similarly felt across businesses, health professionals and organizations as well as insurers in the state. There were many complexities in the new law as well as many consequences that affected the population. Among the major reasons why the affordable care Act was put in place was to make health insurance more accessible and affordable. It helped build on the existing systems to expand coverage to uninsured population by extending Medicaid coverage to more low-income adults. It also ensured that it strengthened the employer-based health insurance system. This was accompanied by making it easier and more affordable for many individuals and small businesses to purchase private coverage. However, the new health Act brought about many impact on the population especially those people who were not insured.
This paper will focus on discussing the impacts of the Affordable Care Act on North Carolina’s uninsured population. It will bring out the impact in terms of how the Act affects the population and the economics of providing care to patients from the organizations point of view. Similarly, it will focus on discussing how the patients will be affected in the relationship to cost of treatment, quality of treatment and access of treatment. This will be accompanied by the ethical implications of the Act for both the organizations and the patients.
In North Carolina, about 1.6 million non-elderly people which are about 20.4% were uninsured as per 2009. The uninsured comprise of children and young people who live in households with income less than 139% of the poverty level required by the federal (Obiol, 2013). The rates are distributed in terms of Hispanics with the exception of elderly adults at age 65 or above, African-Americans who accounted for about 23% of the uninsured and 15% of the non-elderly Whites who lacked health insurance. The Affordable Care Act affected the people of North Carolina in that it requires the state to provide access to an online market place or exchange where individuals and small businesses may compare, select and purchase private health insurance policies that offer a minimum level of coverage (Obiol, 2013). This strategy affected the population as most of them were uninsured and therefore could not access these facilities (Obiol, 2013). The population that was uninsured could not afford the private policies that were required by the Act. It subjected the people to systems that drove them to enrolling to premiums against their own health.
The impact of the economics of providing care to patients from the organizations point of view indicated that they had to be attributable to the federal government. Organizations were subjected to establishing their own exchange as well as operating exchanges that were cooperated by the federal government (Hwang, Griffin, Hall, 2013). This would turn all administration of health care marketplace to the federal government. It would also give the administration of government more options to decide the best way to comply with provisions of the Act. The Act will bring about new requirements that will ensure that insurers spend at least a minimum amount of the premiums they collect on medical expenses and quality improvement. This will exempt them from spending on administrative costs or retaining them as profits. Therefore, from an organizations point of view it will affect the economy (Hwang, Griffin, Hall, 2013).
The patients will be affected in the relationship to cost of treatment, quality of treatment and access of treatment. This will occur due to the requirement from the Affordable Care Act for the states to expand Medicaid coverage to most uninsured adults who have modified adjusted gross income of less than 139% of the federal poverty level. The state will pay for the newly eligible individuals but leave out those who would have been eligible under the state’s Medicaid eligibility rules. The patients ineligible for coverage will be left out and thus fail to access the services or even meet the costs that will guarantee them quality treatment. The patients will be subjected to new policies that will cover a package of essential health benefits that include hospitalization, emergency services and mental health treatments. This will in turn mandate them to enroll for these policies and insurance coverage in order to access treatment. They will also have to incur costs through insurance policies.
The ethical implications of the act for both the organization and the patients are that they will be able to compare and purchase health insurance policies through the federal health insurance marketplace. It will also enable them to identify the relevant coverage policies that are effective for them depending on their household earnings. Similarly, the organizations will get to offer the opportunities that are appropriate for them Milstead, 2013).
References
Hwang W; Griffin L; Liao K; Hall M (2012). The cost of Medicaid coverage for the uninsured: evidence from Buncombe County, North Carolina. North Carolina Medical Journal [N C Med J], 73(4), 263-268.
Milstead, J. A. (2013). Health policy and politics: A nurse's guide. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Obiol CS, (2013). Informing consumers about North Carolina's new federally facilitated health insurance marketplace. North Carolina Medical Journal [N C Med J], 74(4), 312-314.
