The Affordable Care Act: Benefits and Advantages for Businesses

For any business, benefits are always an important part of the remuneration package of most employees. They often dedicate their work to delivering quality services and, therefore, expect good employee benefits to be retained for the success of the business. Although the affordable care act created a minimum coverage level for many insured healthcare benefits for most Americans, it also led to numerous expensive tax penalties for the non-participants.

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Advantages of the Affordable Care Act on Employment

The advantages of the affordable care act include free preventive care where all qualified plans of health insurance must list at least ten essential health benefits to be guaranteed with low or no coinsurance, deductible, nor copay. Also, with the affordable care act, there is no pre-existing denials or surprise cancellations such that insurance organizations cannot cancel a person's insurance policy due to an application mistake (McGough, Norris, Scott, & Burner, 2017). The depicted insurance organizations also cannot deny coverage for any condition that might be pre-existing unless the victim's plan is grandfathered.

Additionally, many ACA participants have an inclusive Medicaid such that for the states that have decided to expand and increase their program, the Medicaid coverage must cover all the uninsured Americans under 138% of the level of poverty. The ACA also introduced subsidies that make health insurance purchase to be cheaper for the people who qualify (McGough et al., 2017). The action was implemented through the 80/20 rule which depicted that 80% of a person's premium dollars would be spent effectively on healthcare rather than numerous irrelevant administrative costs (McGough et al., 2017). Also, the ACA dependents often stay under the plan of their parents' longer such that they can also have their children insured under their health plan until they reach 26 years (Dolan & Mokhtari, 2013).

Disadvantages of the Affordable Care Act on Employment

The disadvantages of the affordable act include shrinking networks such that many insurance corporations decrease their provider networks with the aim and effort of reducing costs while enacting and implementing the Obamacare requirements. The action, thus, often leaves customers with limited in-network providers (McGough et al., 2017). Another disadvantage is that coverage shopping can be complicated such that with the confusion around the ACA rollout and its marketplace, there are limited periods of enrollment, many challenges with the websites, and numerous options to choose from that makes the coverage shopping to be more complex (Dolan & Mokhtari, 2013).

Also, the uncertainty of markets can raise costs because at times while the marketplace seems to be stabilizing, some counties might still have one insurance option due to different insurance cancellations, thus, increasing their costs and decreasing the competition. Additionally, the cost has not been reduced for everyone as people who never qualify for subsidies might find the plans of health insurance sold on the market at unaffordable prices. They might, in turn, end up paying extra for a plan that covers benefits such as maternity care, which they might not require (McGough et al., 2017).

Figure1: Infographic that addresses the new ACA requirements

The depicted infographic focuses on care barriers undergone by women in America. On most occasions, they incur higher health care costs as opposed to men, especially during their reproductive years. Moreover, despite a decreased uninsured rate than men, research depicts that women are more likely to skip different recommended medical treatments or tests due to the charges (Fitzgerald, Bias, & GurleyCalvez, 2017). However, contraception cost barriers have reduced for insured women since the coverage of the affordable care act was implemented. 75% of women report that the ACA insurance covers the entire cost of birth control in their recent visits. Moreover, as opposed to men, women are more likely to have different preexisting health conditions and, thus, express concern regarding the consequences of lifting Obamacare protections which prevent the exclusion of pre-existing conditions (Fitzgerald et al., 2017).

Training Plan and Approach

Interested healthcare providers shall be required to apply for different positions through the established website with the specified qualifications. They shall then be required to submit their forms to the created healthcare center for shortlisting in case they qualified. After legal procedures have been followed, relevant authorities have approved the program, and sufficient funds acquired, the applicants shall be required to meet at the specified community set up for training. They shall then be trained on how to persuade the localists on the benefits of ACA as well as the procedures of joining the preferred insurance company. in case they accept the application, a free one-month coverage shall be offered to them to confirm the effectiveness of the program.

The employee benefit approaches shall depend on the number of clients the employee registers. During the period, free medical services shall be provided to the employees and their families, but only if they are registered under the specified insurance company. Moreover, with the affordable care act, there shall be reduced medical costs as numerous tests shall be conducted and treatment administered. Treatments will always be made easier as people will be advised to book their reservations and appointments online. However, the challenges that might be faced will be convincing the people to apply for insurance coverage as some might have cultural and religious beliefs regarding their health. Also, in case the turn out would be higher than expected, the health care team might have insufficient resources to cater to the needs of the entire community.

References

Dolan, E. M., & Mokhtari, M. M. (2013). The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA): Pros and cons. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10834-013-9352-5

Fitzgerald, M. P., Bias, T. K., & GurleyCalvez, T. (2017). The Affordable Care Act and consumer wellbeing: Knowns and unknowns. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 51(1), 27-53. Doi: 10.1111/joca.12059

McGough, P. M., Norris, T. E., Scott, J. D., & Burner, T. G. (2017). Meeting the demands of the affordable care act: Improving access to primary care. Population health management, 20(2), 87-89. Doi: 10.1089/pop.2016.0030