Healthcare is a right that everyone should be able to partake in, but if a person does not have health insurance, healthcare can become very costly and unreasonable. The cost of healthcare insurance is the major reason why the United States wanted to have healthcare reform to begin with, but it wasn’t an overnight process. In order to understand the Affordable Care act, one must understand how the American healthcare system worked to begin with, and a short history of it Once one understands the history and the former healthcare system, it will be easier to understand what the Affordable care act is, does, and plans to do.
According to discover the Networks (2013), “From the moment President Obama and the Democrats began pushing for healthcare reform, they repeatedly emphasized the notion that approximately 45.7 million Americans—roughly 15% of the country’s population—lacked insurance“ America‘s former healthcare system was neglecting 15% of the population, and it’s obvious that this needed to be changed, in America, there are three popular ways of getting insurance: Medicaid, and through a persons place of work.
Medicare is a government health insurance usually used for people over the age of 65 and disabled people; The Affordable Care Act has not taken away any benefits of Medicare, just added to them. Advantages have been added to benefit patients, like allowing doctors to use more recourses to make sure that a patient’s treatment is consistent. Medicaid is a government run healthcare insurance system that helps support the needs of people with low income and children; if a person qualifies for Medicaid and their state approved the expansion, then that person can get low cost or free insurance.
When to comes to insurance supplied by a person employer, the overall insurance has not changed, but it has now become illegal to not have insurance in the United States.
This issue has become the main reason why Americans don’t agree with the Affordable Care Act, because they believe they should have the right to choose if they have insurance or not. The main purpose of the healthcare reform is to help people who do not have insurance, be able to afford it and take care of their health. The Affordable Care Act has made it possible for people to make small monthly payments for their health insurance, and possibly pay nothing at all. At this point in the health reform, if a citizen doesn’t have health care insurance form some medium, they will be taxed with a plenty of $695 a year; the upsetting aspect of this is that some people believe paying this fine will cost less than the insurance and agree to pay the fine instead. There has also been a new law put in place, that any workplace that has 50 or more employees working full time have to offer them insurance or face a fine.
Overall, the Affordable Care Act has only added more finical aid and time to the insurance plans America already has in place, the only problem with the new healthcare reform is that every state may have a different policy, which could become confusing. Nevertheless, it has certainly become more possible for low-income families to receive healthcare than ever. According to the New York Times (2014), around 8 to 11 million uninsured American’s have become insurance after having accesses to the Affordable care act changes. The number of people who have gone from uninsured to insured is a great number, but the important part about the Affordable Care Act in 2014 is if it’s actually affordable The New York Times discusses how many people get government assistance when attempting to get the new healthcare insurance: Of the 7.3 million people who signed up for private insurance through online exchanges during the first enrollment period, 85 percent qualified for federal subsidies that decreased the cost of their premiums.”
This information means that most of the people attempting to get insurance who could not before, are getting federal subsidies, which makes healthcare more affordable. The only issue with information about the Affordable Care Act early on, is that it’s impossible to tell the overall affect it is having on the American citizens yet. Many years will pass before we know the actual affect the healthcare reform is having on the older and younger generation, which is what is scaring people into being against the Affordable Care Act. I am neither for nor against the Affordable Care Act, because I believe it is too early to tell if it has been successful or not. However, I can say that it makes me happy to know that people who didn’t have access to health insurance now do I was/am lucky enough to have excellent healthcare insurance through my.
Father’s work, and without that I would be in a lot of debt over the years for simple doctors visitsl understanding the history of America’s healthcare system is very important towards understanding why they want to change it, and how the healthcare reform is changing. It would be impossible to understand what America wants to change about their healthcare system if one does not understand the strengths and weaknesses. The major issue with the former healthcare system is that some lower-income citizen’s could not afford to have the luxury of healthcare insurance, but health insurance should be believed it be a human right. The best way to help people receive healthcare insurance is to lower the cost, make access easier, and make it a law that everyone has to have the insurance or face a fine possibly higher than health insurance would be. There is no certain way to know yet if the reform is working, but it’s better than not changing it at all.
Importance of Affordable Care Act for Health Insurance. (2023, Mar 13). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/the-importance-of-the-affordable-care-act-in-order-for-people-to-have-health-insurance/