Impact of The Affordable Care Act (ACA)

The primary purpose of implementing the Affordable Care Act was to introduce new regulated insurance exchanges, cost-sharing, new industry regulations, and other premium subsidies (Rosenbaum 134). For this reason, the Act has seen a rise in the insurance coverage and patients have incurred reduced costs when accessing healthcare services. In particular, the Affordable Care Act has seen a reduction in the uninsured population drop by half since 2014. The purchasing model adopted by the government in implementing this Act is the reason for this success. Besides, the objective of enforcing the Affordable Care Act was to enable the poor, and senior patients have easy access to healthcare. However, the outcome shows that Americans have recently paid higher amounts for insurance premiums owing to the escalating drug prescription costs.

Upon the enactment of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, it was expected that the health insurance coverage would rise to close to 34 million people (Foster 23). It is important to note that the increasing number of people under this plan would have its financial implications leave alone the fact that its expansion would not necessarily mean an extension of care. On the other hand, the data inconsistencies of some of the enrollees have seen some funds go unaccounted for. For example, in 2014, $1.7 billion was reported by the U.S. Government Accountability Office as an unaccounted amount following acts of fraud (Davis, Williams and Sorensen 31). Similarly, there have been cases of transmitting amounts like $750 million to illegal aliens. Hence, the financial implications of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 include higher middle-class taxation and increased spending when it comes to accessing medical services. It is important to note that majority of this financial consequences are attributable to managerial failures.

The Affordable Care Act was brought before the Congress in October 2009 and later passed into law in November 2009 (Davis, Williams and Sorensen 19). Moreover, the bill was introduced by John Dingell who at the time was the Dean of the House. The approval of the Act begun with its healthcare reform where it got a 220-215 vote (Huntington et al 47). It is important to note that there was a limitation in the federal funding that led to a compromise. In particular, most of the legislators considered its enactment as a way to pave the way for the provision of abortion services. President Barrack Obama asserted that it was the solution to putting an end to undesirable practices within the insurance industry. Similarly, the removal of limits such as the lifetime dollar on medical services precipitated the need to pass the Affordable Care Act.

My perception of passing the Affordable Care Act bases its arguments on four pillars which include cost, choice, coverage, and competition. The primary reason for bringing the Act before the House was because it was considered as a means through which the government would reduce healthcare costs for the American citizens. However, this has not been the outcome as healthcare costs have risen for the average citizens. When it comes to coverage, most individuals saw that the Affordable Care Act would yield an increase in the insured population. On the contrary, most Americans have lost their covers as there has been a distortion in the insurance market. Lastly, the Affordable Care Act was to serve as a way of improving competition among the different industry players, but it has made the situation worse.

The Affordable Care Act has affected my organization in a significant way. The Act requires companies with a minimum of 50 workers to provide them with affordable insurance coverage (Huntington et al 62). Besides, they should labor for more than 30 hours weekly. However, my employer provides insurance cover to workers under the full-time plan. Therefore, this has interfered with organizational spending as 30 hours weekly falls under the part-time category. On the other hand, for companies with less than 50 employees, the insurers are unable to request higher premiums for failing to meet the pre-existing conditions. Hence, this Act has its costs which have proven to disadvantage small companies. For this reason, an increase in premiums forces these companies to cease offering their workers insurance covers.

I disagree with the Affordable Care Act because of three reasons. One is because its initial plan was to improve health access, but it has seen a rise in healthcare costs. Most patients in the early phases of the program received preventive care. However, there has been a rise in the test costs for diabetes, cancer, and cholesterol in recent years. Health insurance companies and providers contribute higher taxes to enable the provision of benefits to patients. Therefore, the costs are transferred to the consumers. In particular, the taxes paid by drug companies ($8.4 billion) have seen an increase in their products. Lastly, the Affordable Care Act would yield saving enormous amounts of money while at the same time increasing debt. For this reason, the payment by the government for these debts leads to a zero-sum game where there are no benefits.

Works Cited

Davis, Timothy L., Williams Burke, and L. L. P. Sorensen. ""AFFORDABLE CARE ACT."" (2014).

Foster, Richard S. Estimated Financial Effects of the'Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,'as Amended. DIANE Publishing, 2010.

Huntington, W. V., et al. ""Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010: reforming the health care reform for the new decade."" Pain physician
14.1 (2011): E35-E67.

Rosenbaum, Sara. ""The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: implications for public health policy and practice."" Public health reports 126.1 (2011): 130-135.