The Affordable Care Act (Essay Sample)

The main goals of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) were to increase the total number of insured people, improve the quality of health care and reduce the costs of healthcare (Glied, Ma & Borja, 2017). There is a point that is lost when it comes to the discussion about the differences between access and affordability. Health insurance acts as a financial mechanism that is used to pay for healthcare while access in the process of actually obtaining and receiving healthcare. The ACA seems to have widened the gap that exists between the provision of patients with the mechanism of paying for healthcare and actual receipt of the healthcare services.
The Affordable Care Act helped in alleviating healthcare disparities among citizens in the United States. It also increased access to healthcare as it brought healthcare coverage to millions of Americans and reduced the rate of uninsured by 8.6% (Health payer intelligence, 2016). According to Center, Woods, Manchikanti & Purdue Pharma (2017), the ACA has been applauded for leading to an increase in the total number of insured people which has been more than 20 million.
However, the ACA has not worked well for the middle, and working-class as they receive less support and most especially the people that earn over 400% of the federal poverty level and this group comprises of 40%