Health Problems in Urban Community Essay

Introduction

A portion of the American population considers the Affordable Care Act as one of the major achievement of former president Ballack Obama. The act aimed at facilitating the provision of Medicare and Medicaid to the residents of the United States without any bias. However, during Trump's campaigns, he promised to abolish the "Obamacare Act" and establish the American Health Care Act, which he termed as a revolution to the healthcare sector in the country. The Obamacare act has exhibited significant reforms and achievements during its operational period, while the American Health Care Act has some precedented benefits and drawbacks as the new administration votes to repeal the Obamacare Act. Hence, the Obamacare exhibited benefits such as increased Medicaid financing to states, reduced the number of uninsured individuals through income-based subsidies, and reduced insurance premiums. However, the American Healthcare Act also poses benefits such allowing people with pre-existing conditions to access insurance coverage.

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Differences

The Obamacare proposed aimed at increasing Medicaid funding to the states, which facilitated the attainment of affordable healthcare across the nation. The program instituted massive funding from the federal government to improve the conditions of the healthcare facilities and personnel in the country. Such a move increased the quality of the services offered to the patients in all the public health facilities. However, the proposed American Health Care Act is against the funding awarded to the state government. Trump termed the move as a burden since it led to the accumulation of public debt or deficit budget since the administration had to incur extra expenditures in the long run (Adepoju, Preston, & Gonzales, 2015). Thus, the administration vouched for the provision of fixed Medicaid to the states, which will be significantly cut to accommodate the state's ability and reduce the reliance on borrowed finance to fund the program. Therefore, the different principles adopted by the two presidents meant that the Obamacare yielded more benefits to the citizens especially the low-income individuals since they could have access to cheap but quality public healthcare facilities.

Moreover, the Obamacare has reduced the number of uninsured citizens by more than 14 million. The policy has been taunted as the most affordable program ever in the US. This was achieved due to the strategies such as the extension on the year-range, such that the parents can include their children in their insurance covers up to the age of 26 years. The move was seen as an affordable one since it gave the youth provisions to settle and become stable such that they can afford to pay for their insurance policies (Adepoju et al., 2015). Additionally, the favored the low-income citizens, since the government offered income-based subsidies, such that the government would collect insurance taxes, and in turn use, such funds to subsidize the individuals earned less than 138% of the federal poverty level. On the other hand, the American Health Care Act is expected to increase the number of uninsured citizens by 14million by 2018. Such projections have been arrived at due to the elimination of income-based subsidies. This means that the system vouches for an individualized form of coverage, which means that the people living below the poverty levels will not be able to access insurance coverage.

The Obama care was based on the individual mandate, such that it sanctions all the residents in the US to purchase an insurance policy. In the move to ensure that the American population had access to quality and affordable healthcare services, the Obama administration made it compulsory for the people to be covered. This faced massive criticism from their opponents, who termed the policy as unconstitutional and inflicted on privacy and choice provisions of an individual. Hence, the American Health Care Act gives the citizens the freedom to chose whether to subscribe to an insurance plan or not (Adepoju et al., 2015). For instance, they cited that a healthy young citizen should not be forced to incur massive amounts of money on healthcare insurance which they do not need. Therefore, such persons ought to be awarded freedom to chose whether to subscribe to an insurance policy or not. Hence, this move is expected to massively reduce the number of individuals under insurance to by more than 14million in 2018.

Similarities

The Affordable Care Act provided regular premiums to individuals with pre-existing conditions, making it one of the affordable policies in America. This thus enabled individuals with chronic and critical health conditions to access insurance coverage and allow them access healthcare services at an affordable rate. Similarly, the proposed American Health Care Act ensures that citizens with pre-existing conditions are not discriminated or denied access to health insurance. However, the policy has introduced variations in the premiums paid by the citizens, which would be based on the age, location, and the history of tobacco consumption by the holder of the policy. Therefore, the plan will be characterized with variations in the cost of insurance premiums.

Conclusion

The Obamacare exhibited benefits such as increased Medicaid financing to states, reduced the number of uninsured individuals through income-based subsidies, reduced insurance premiums, and the individual mandate and compulsory purchase of the insurance over the AHCA. However, the American Health Care Act also poses benefits such allowing people with pre-existing conditions to access insurance coverage which is similar to the achievement made by the ACA. Therefore, such characteristics mean that the repealing of the Obamacare act will impact the healthcare system negatively with results such as increased number of uninsured citizens, unaffordable insurance premiums especially for the poor, and poor-quality healthcare facilities and services due to the reduction in the federal funding.

Reference

Adepoju, O. E., Preston, M. A., & Gonzales, G. (2015). Health care disparities in the post-affordable care act era. American Journal of Public Health, 105, S665-S667. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH....