Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - Essay Sample

Introduction

Since time immemorial, health care in the U.S has often been a continuous conversation focussing on premium cost, accessibility of the health care facilities and care for the underserved people. Several presidents tried implementing universal insurance coverage with limited success. However, in 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA was going to cost the taxpayer millions of dollars. The urban institute estimated that about thirty million Americans could lose coverage and if this looks expensive, a repeal would cost even more and distort the total coverage market (Talbert, Martin, Frazier, and Byas, 2018).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Due to the implementation of the ACA, taxes raised were largely borne by the wealthier citizens and a repeal would mean a huge tax cut on them. In the last few years, many citizens, including the U.S government administration, have come across this notion of replacing the ACA. Nonetheless, Talbert, et al. (2018) add that it is important to note that repealing the ACA without a laid out strategy will be a disadvantage to the state.

Taking a case scenario described by Newman, Pollitz, and Levitt (2017), the repeal will have an effect on the elderly. These are adults in their fifties or early sixties and are mostly the ones diagnosed with critical conditions such as cancer and diabetes. These kinds of conditions have been denied coverage by insurers. The current law replacing ACA known as the American Healthcare Health Act (AHCA) will cause an increase in the number of uninsured aged between fifty to sixty-four years to 5.1 million by 2026. The most affected adults will be those with an income of below 200% and the uninsured will increase to 29% from 12% by 2026 (Newman et al., 2017).

The changes in the ACA will have a spillover effect in the pharmaceutical sector making the cost and accessibility of drugs hard. The legislative and judicial sectors of the government greatly influence the final reforms needed. In March 2012, the supreme court was set to hear two cases about medical advantage payment reform and Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). These court decisions will definitely affect the running of the health care system and especially the pharmaceutical sector. The major aim of ACA is to provide all Americans with affordable care and bringing in reforms will cause a major financial interference (Larrat, Marcoux, & Vogenberg, 2012).

References

Larrat, P., Marcoux, R. M., & Vogenberg, F. R. (2012). Impact of Federal and State Legal Trends on Health Care Services. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 37(4), 218-226. Retrieved March 12, 2019, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3351856/

Newman, T., Pollitz, K., & Levitt, L. (2017, June 5). How ACA Repeal and Appeal Proposals Could Affect Coverage and Premiums or Older Adults and Have a Spillover Effect for Medicare. Retrieved March 12, 2019, from www.kff.org: https://www.kff.org/health-reform/issue-brief/how-aca-repeal-and-replace-proposals-could-affect-coverage-and-premiums-for-older-adults-and-have-spillover-effects-for-medicare/

Talbert, P. Y., Martin, L. F., Frazier, M., & Byas, D. (2018). Benefits and Challenges o the Affordable Care Act: What Should be the Future of ACA in 2018? Acta Scientific Medical Services, 2(5), 10-16. Retrieved March 12, 2019, from https://www.actascientific.com/ASMS/pdf/ASMS-02-0076.pdf