The Affordable Care Act
Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act is today the most talked about health care legislation in the whole of the United States of America. It is considered as the most radical of all the health care legislations to have ever been drafted. This is so because it involves an ambitious health care plan that will ensure health coverage for all American citizens regardless of their social standings in the society or their financial circumstances. There is no doubt that this program does and will continue to provide hope for many of the American people. But is it foolproof? This paper seeks to answer this question by evaluating the importance, or the lack of it, of the Affordable Care Act.
The Affordable Care Act was passed by the American “Congress and then signed into law by the President on March 23, 2010” (HHS.gov, 2013). The decision was contested but later on upheld by the Supreme Court on June 28, 2012 (HHS.gov, 2013). The term Affordable Care Act is actually used to refer to “two separate pieces of legislation — the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148) and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-152) — that, together expand Medicaid coverage to millions of low-income Americans and makes numerous improvements to both Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)” (Medicaid.gov, n.d.).
The health care act contains several provisions that are meant to improve health care provision for millions of Americans. This is intended to be achieved though expanding access to insurance cover, increasing health services consumer protection, emphasizing wellness and illness prevention, promoting the development of the health workforce, and curtailing the rising cost of health care services among other benefits (NCSL, 2011). All these provisions are good generally. However, some problems arise in the implementation level.
Good Aspects of the Affordable Care Act
One of the laudable aspects of the act is that it will help to reduce the rising cost of health care (Obama Care Facts, 2013). I believe that this will go a long way to ensure that millions of American low and middle-income families, most of whom are uninsured now, are able to access affordable and quality health care services. Affordable health care is very essential in any community since it helps to keep a majority of the people healthy enough to be able to engage effectively in productive work. I think this will work great in times of emergency. In terms of sudden illnesses, injuries that require immediate hospitalization and life threatening situations, this will be helpful especially if the family affected does not have money saved up for their health needs.
Another aspect of the Affordable Care Act that I find commendable is about the expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). It is expected that the expansion will affect up to 9 million children (Obama Care Facts, 2013). This will ensure that more children, especially from the poor families, are able to access medication. Consequently, this will help to reduce child mortality in the US. There has been a relatively high mortality rate for many children from the low-income American families due to the inability to access quality health care. Preventive health care services like immunization and vitamin boost are very essential for the development of children during the early stages of life. This proposal will therefore greatly help to reduce child mortality rates. I really like this feature of the Affordable Care Act because of its target population – the children. They are one of the most vulnerable parts of the society due to their underdeveloped immune system and their behavior to discover things. It is good to prioritize children as they are the future generation of the country. It really saddens me when I see children suffering from severe diseases, like the girl once featured in the Ellen show. She died at a very young age that led me to think, what if kids as young as her happens to contact cancer and be able to pay for their medical needs. What would happen to them? This act, supporting the welfare of children’s health is indeed helpful.
The act is also expected to benefit the small businesses with less than 50 full-time employees. The proposal to offer millions of dollars in tax credits for the small business will go a long way to help these upcoming small businesses to “offset the cost of buying health insurance for their employees” (Obama Care Facts, 2013). This is particularly amazing as far as it will help to sustain the small business. These small businesses provide jobs to many people, especially the non-college trained Americans and the aged. This provision therefore, eliminates the risk of having these small businesses shut down and instead will promote the establishment of many such businesses. This will be good for the economy.
Most small-scale business, which would essentially provide employment to the old, feared doing so because they could not afford to pay for their insurance cover. With this new proposal, the seniors will be employed more easily since they are covered and will be able to afford health care. They will no longer have to spend most f their time looking for cheaper cover and health care services. Most of their time therefore will go to productive work.
Bad Aspects of the Affordable Care Act
The act however, also has a number of negative impacts on certain categories of people and business. For instance, it fails to provide for how these ambitious medical expenses are going to be funded. This therefore, means that the high-income earners and larger corporations will be forced to pay more taxes to cater for the health cover of the low-income earners. Consequently, more Americans will be forced to adopt new health plans and new doctors as well (Dickerson, 2013). If the company is going to be forced to pay then it, follows that it has do so in its own terms. This might not auger well with the majority of the people who will be forced to pay for more than they consume. I think this looks like a socialist system that goes against the spirit of capitalism and democracy that America stands for.
Another problem with the Act lies in the funding process of the expanded Medicaid, for instance. It is proposed that the funds for the expansion will be met partly by the federal government and the various state governments. The provision for this is not very clear on how it will regulate the state run insurance exchanges. There is a possibility of some states, which are against the act, deciding to opt out “of the state run exchanges, letting the federal government run their exchanges for them” (Obama Care Facts, 2013). There is already enough reason to believe that some states that are opposed to the plan might decide to abscond their responsibilities and leave it to the federal government. Should this happen then it will mean that all the federal tax payers will have to dig deeper into their pockets in order to meet the additional cost of the health care cover for all the states that will be against the act.
The provision that makes it mandatory for businesses with more than 50 full-time employees to provide health insurance cover for them might be a time bomb just waiting to explode (Obama Care Facts, 2013). If this provision is not dealt with properly, then it might lead to bigger problems. Already some of the businesses which initially fell in this category have been forced to lay-off or reduce the working hours of some of their full-time employees. Without addressing this problem, many people might find themselves jobless again.
If a company for instance, finds it unreasonable to pay so much money for the employees then it will simply lay off people or reduce their working hours. The result is that there will be few people who are working to support the majority of the people who are not working. In addition, those left working after the layoffs will have to do more work so as to fill the deficit left by their colleagues companies will be fighting to reduce their expenses by reducing the workforce while at the same time trying to increase their profit margins by overworking their employees. This would create few workers and too many dependants which might not be good for the economy.
The Affordable Care Act, like other legislations have its pros and cons. The biggest advantage is that it carries the promise of providing quality health care for all Americans. That is very commendable. However, if it is not well regulated then it can also cripple the economy and increase the cost of health care in the long run. Its success therefore is tied onto the manner in which the administrators will effectively regulate the act.
References
Medicaid.gov, (n.d.). Affordable Care Act. Retrieved November 28th, 2013, from http://www.medicaid.gov/affordablecareact/affordable-care-act.html
HHS.gov, (2013). Read the Law. Retrieved November 28th, 2013, from http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/rights/law/index.html
National Congress of State legislatures (NCSL), (2011). The Affordable Care Act: A Brief Summary. Retrieved November 28th, 2013, from http://www.ncsl.org/portals/1/documents/health/hraca.pdf
Obama Care Facts, (2013). ObamaCare: Pros and Cons of ObamaCare. Retrieved November 28th, 2013, from HYPERLINK “http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-pros-and-cons.php” http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-pros-and-cons.php
Dickerson, J., (2013). “It Gets Better: The president always had a tough time selling Obamacare. Now his weak assurances are making Republicans look wise beyond their years.” Slate. Retrieved November 28th, 2013, from http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/10/obamacare_and_republican_criticism_the_health_care_law_s_early_missteps.html
