Week7 Discussion: Affordable Act

Week7 Discussion: Affordable Act

Week 7 discussion The Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act is a controversial topic, and there probably are many different viewpoints represented in our class. For this discussion, let’s start by focus on understanding the basics of the Healthcare Marketplace so that we can provide accurate information to our patients and communities. Please explore the healthcare marketplace website at https://www.healthcare.gov/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. Choose the Get Answers tab toward the top of the page. Review several of the topics in this tab and share two things that you learned about how the marketplace works. How does this information apply to those in your community? As a healthcare provider, has this raised any ethical questions or concerns for you?

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also the Affordable Care Act or colloquially known as Obamacare, is a United States federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obamaon March 23, 2010. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 amendment, it represents the U.S. healthcare system’s most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since the passage of Medicareand Medicaid in 1965.[1][2][3][4]

PPACA’s major provisions came into force in 2014. By 2016, the uninsured share of the population had roughly halved, with estimates ranging from 20 to 24 million additional people covered.[5][6] The law also enacted a host of delivery systemreforms intended to constrain healthcare costs and improve quality. After the law went into effect, increases in overall healthcare spending slowed, including premiums for employer-based insurance plans.[7]

The increased coverage was due, roughly equally, to an expansion of Medicaid eligibility and to changes to individual insurance markets. Both received new spending, funded through a combination of new taxes and cuts to Medicare provider rates and Medicare Advantage. Several Congressional Budget Office reports said that overall these provisions reduced the budget deficit, that repealing PPACA would increase the deficit,[8][9] and that the law reduced income inequality by taxing primarily the top 1% to fund roughly $600 in benefits on average to families in the bottom 40% of the income distribution.[10]

The act largely retained the existing structure of Medicare, Medicaid and the employer market, but individual markets were radically overhauled.[1][11] Insurers were made to accept all applicants and charge the same rates regardless of pre-existing conditions or demographic status (except age). To combat the resultant adverse selection, the act mandated that individuals buy insurance (or pay a fine/tax) and that insurers cover a list of “essential health benefits”.