Affordable Care Act Health Policy (Term Paper Sample)

Final Paper: Affordable Care Act Health Policy Name Institutional Affiliation Abstract This paper focuses on the healthcare policy passed by the Obama administration commonly known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The US had been going through a financial crisis and the cost of healthcare had been soaring, especially for the people from poor economic backgrounds. The healthcare system of the time offered medical coverage with high premiums which meant that only wealthy Americans could afford the services. This situation hindered a large percentage of the American population from accessing the same services since the demographic lacked the finances to register for such insurance policies. This situation also affected many employees since most companies were offering health insurance based on the income of the worker. However, the ACA ensured that every worker was eligible for the same medical cover and small businesses were given subsidies so that they could afford the requirements made by the legislation. The ACA also supplied funds to private companies to ensure that they could offer insurance premiums at a reduced cost. Despite the intentions of this legislation, the ACA has faced criticism including the increased federal and state expenditure on healthcare, and also the eligibility rules. The current administration is keen on disbanding the entire ACA system. This situation shows a bleak future for the policy since various states are passing legislation that limits the power of the ACA. The main issues involve the amount of funding given to private health insurance companies and the eligibility requirements for the ACA policy. However, this paper calls for a fairer approach regarding the reforms in the Affordable Care Act. This approach should ensure that the underlying issues of the legislation are resolved without compromising the access to quality health services by Americans from poor and low-income backgrounds. This move will also work as a platform towards the creation of a better healthcare system that can eventually improve the public health of the greater American community. Introduction This paper looks into the full review of the social community policy known as the Affordable Healthcare Act commonly known as the Obama Care or the ACA (Affordable Care Act). This analysis will focus on the historical context of the policy, the implication of the same policy on the society, and the current political and stand of the same legislation in American communities. Historical Context of the Policy The history of the ACA policy started prior to the 2008 US presidential elections. During the campaign of the then Senator, Barack Obama, one of his policy was to make health care affordable to every US citizen despite their level of income (eHealth 2018). This move seemed impossible considering that the country was undergoing a financial crisis at the time. This transformative policy aimed to change the entire healthcare of the US where employees and other Americans relied upon medical insurance from private companies. The premiums that were charged by these companies were too high for common US citizens and this situation made many to opt out from comprehensive medical cover. However, despite the challenges such as the lack of support after the death of Senator Ted Kennedy, the Obama administration managed to pass the policy in 2010 (eHealth 2018). The ACA had some short-term and long-term objectives. The short-term goals that were to be implemented within the first 90 days after Congress passed the policy were to reduce the premium charges on the medical cover for small business to ensure the same facilities could offer insurance to their employees (eHealth 2018). The other goal was to increase the number of qualified individuals for medical cover by lowering the qualification protocols through funding from the federal government. Finally, the health coverage for the retirees and the senior citizens was revised to include more complicated health services (eHealth 2018). This approach was to reduce the cost of healthcare for the Americans, especially the communities from low-income backgrounds. The long-term goals of the ACA were to increase the number of uninsured Americans from the 30% at the time to over 60% in a few years, also, the policy aimed to lower the requirements by the insurance companies in regard to the people who qualify (eHealth 2018). Using this approach, the ACA was to increase the age limit for the health coverage to 26 years regardless whether the recipient was a student or not, the individual could be covered by the insurance policy of his or her parents until the age of 26 (eHealth 2018). The same policy made it mandatory for the insurance companies to create a comprehensive appeal process for every client with an issue or a claim. This move was meant to protect common Americans from any form of financial manipulation from the corporations (Dolgin & Dietrich, 2011). Problem Statement The contents and the objectives of the Affordable Care Act show how this policy had the right intentions for the American society. However, the issue is whether the objectives of the policy met the intended outcomes and also how much this legislation costed the federal government. Through the analysis of the current situation of this policy, the benefits and relevance of the ACA policy can be evaluated based on its impact on the community. The analysis will also assess some of the stakeholders that were adversely affected by the legislation and the critiques presented on the ACA. This review will present the viability of the ACA policy and whether it is beneficial to the community. Current Policy Developments The current developments on the ACA policy look into the actual impacts of the legislation compared to the projected outcomes. This evaluation approach will focus on the ideology of the policy, the effects and outcomes of the same policy, and the people who gained or lost after the implementation of the legislation. Ideology The ideological perspective of the ACA was to provide affordable and cheap healthcare services to every American. This policy intended to ensure that every US citizen could receive quality medical care in any hospital across the country despite his or her level of income (Dolgin & Dietrich, 2011). The same cover was supposed to be extended to the direct dependents of the recipients of the ACA. The cover was extended to the children of the ACA beneficiaries with an age limit of 26 years regardless of their educational or professional status (eHealth 2018). This approach aimed to improve the public health of the community by providing increased access to quality healthcare services for every American citizen. While this legislation has some positive goals for the society, many people were yet to fully understand the entire context of the ACA. The policy aimed to improve access to medical care for every American by expanding the requirements of other measures such as Medicaid which was used in most states, while also increasing the percentage of individuals who use Medicare as health insurance. This move intended to increase the number of Americans without health insurance and also offer a wider array of medical services for the individuals and families that relied upon other forms of cheap medical cover (Harris, 2014). Therefore, the Affordable Care Act can be seen as a policy that had the right intentions towards the improvement of public health while also minimizing the expenses incurred by low-income individuals who seek medical services. Causes and Consequences The ACA attempted to increase the number of insured Americans in the healthcare system by more than 50%, reduce the state and federal expenditure on healthcare through social services, and to reduce the cost of medical services for every insured American (Kirsch, 2014). The projected outlook indicated that the legislation was likely to benefit the American population. However, according to various reports, these outcomes were not fully met. First of all, the projected increase in the number of uninsured American citizens barely reached 50% of the targeted figure (Kirsch, 2014). Additionally, the expenditure from the state and federal governments increased slightly during the years after the ACA was implemented. However, despite, these negative outcomes, the same statistics indicated that the average American was spending about 28% less on medical services when compared to the implementation of the ACA. The positive results continued to show 4 years after the ACA legislation was passed. These findings indicated that the more the number of insured people, the less the state governments were spending on social healthcare services. This situation is linked to the fact that the communities with a higher rate of medical cover were more likely to go to the health facilities for checkups (Harris, 2014). The outcome ensured that several diseases were detected at an early stage and the situation significantly reduced the expense of the treatment or prevention of the disease. The same move saw more people being attracted to register for medical cover, which reduced the number of uninsured Americans. This situation met with the ideological perspective of the policy since it increased the percentage of the population that was covered by a comprehensive health insurance (Harris, 2014). Furthermore, the same approach made sure that the public health of American society was significantly improved using minimal cost while avoiding various bureaucratic hurdles. Gainers and Losers The obvious gainers from the ACA policy are the Americans from poor and low-income backgrounds. The initial premiums which were being charged on the common US citizens. These health insurance premiums were meant to benefit the middle-class and the wealthy communities of the US (Rubin, 2011). Thus, the situation put the rest of the Amer...