Essay Sample on Social Security Act of 1935: A Federal Policy Change for the Elderly

The social security Act was established and signed into law in August 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a system of the old age (Our Document.Gov,1935). It benefited the workers, the unemployed, victims of industrial accidents, assistance for dependent mothers and children, the physically disabled, and the children. Before the Social Security Act policy in the 1930s, the elderly's support was not a Federal government affair but rather the local, state, and family affair. The acct created a uniquely American solution to the older age pension problem, supported by contributions in the form of taxes. The complex administration challenges underscored the change of the Social Security Act into the Affordable Care Act.

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The Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Obama in March 2010, commonly referred to as Obamacare (Gerbis,2014). That was after the public protests, congressional dissent, and pundit vitriol of the social security act that called for healthcare reforms (McIntyre, & Song,2019). The policy helps uninsured Americans, especially the middle class, health-related provisions intended to extend the coverage of healthcare to uninsured Americans. The policy also helps lower-income families qualify for savings for health insurance plans through the reductions of cost-sharing and premium tax credits (Kenton, 2019). Moreover, the Act created market place health insurance, coupled with the expansion of Medicaid eligibility. The insurance companies are prevented from denying coverage due to the preexisting conditions.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has made more than 20 million people gain coverage, leading to improvements to care access following the subsidies and the fallen costs. There has also been an improvement in financial security with an $1140 reduction in medical debts per person gaining coverage and a 47 % drop in hospital uncompensated care cost of 10.3 billion as of 2015 (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,2020). Besides, there has been economic mobility promotion like lower interest mortgages and annual interest savings amounting to $280 million per adult gaining coverage through the expansion.

Health care Reforms or the Affordable Care Act has policy goals of reforming the private insurance market prevalently for small group purchasers and individuals. It also has the policy goal of expanding Medicaid to the working b poor with 133% income of the federal level of poverty (Silver,2013). Finally, the ACA has the goal of changing how medical decisions are made all with the primary reliance4 on the on own choices than on the regulations of the government and are bas4ed on the rationale d4ecisions that are shaped by the incentives.

However, the Affordable Care Act has major challenges with the primary challenge being access to healthcare as over 16% of American populatiu0onn lacked health insurance by 2006 despite the state and the federal government spending more than 35 billion in financing the uncompensated care in 2004 (Bernanke,2008). Uninsured people are less likely to screening services and to receive appropriate care to manage chronic illnesses. Another challenge is improving healthcare quality through technology and training. There also exists the challenge of the health care reform costs on the realms of per capita health care spending and the rapid growth of spending.

Conclusion

Finally, despite the challenges, there are proposals for reforms of the Affordable Care Act to strengthen it. One of the original proposals is expanding access to healthcare coverage for Americans. They receive moderate-income by increasing credits for moderate and middle-income families, making healthcare affordable by allowing health reimbursement accounts to purchase health insurance and incorporating value-based insurance design to support high-value service coverage (Collins,& Lambrew,2019). Finally, there is a need to improve the consumer market place experience through improved networks and formulary transparency. Together with improving the Medicaid for low-income Americans through constrain 1115 waivers (The Century Foundation,2020).

References

Bernanke, C. (2008, June). Challenges for Healthcare Reform. Board of Governors of theFederalReserve System.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bernanke20080616a.htm

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (2020). ACA Medicaid Expansion Improves Access toCare, Financial Security Health.Cbb.org.
https://www.cbpp.org/aca-medicaid-expansion-improves-access-to-care-financial-security-health

Collins, S., & Lambrew, J. (2019, July). Federalism, The Affordable Care Act, And HealthReform in the 2020 Election. The Commonwealth Fund.
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2019/jul/federalism-affordable-care-act-health-reform-2020-election

Gerbis, N. (2014, November). The History of Affordable Care Act.HowStuffWorks.com.
https://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/personal-income-taxes/history-of-affordable-care-act.htm

Kenton, W. (2019). Affordable Care Act. Investopedia.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/affordable-care-act.asp

McIntyre, A., & Song Z. (2019) The US Affordable Care Act: Reflections and directions at theclose of a decade. PLoS Med 16(2): e1002752.
https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002752

Our Documents. Gov. (1935). Social Security Act. Our Documents. Gov.
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=68

Silvers, J. (2013). The Affordable Care Act: The Objectives and Likely Results in an ImperfectWorld.US National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Health.11(5):402-405.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3767707/

The Century Foundation. (2020). Key Proposals to Strengthen the Affordable Care Act. TheCentury Foundation.
https://tcf.org/content/report/key-proposals-to-strengthen-the-aca/?session=1&session=1.