The Issue of Repeal and Replacement of the Affordable Care Act Essay

Introduction

The issue of repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act has been received and considered as that of great concern in America. The Republicans have established the plans to repeal and replace the Act which currently manifests in form of the stories concerning GOP in fighting over the policy, reports about bills negotiated and recorded in the presence of, and known by only a few representatives of the country. Furthermore, According to Hacker and Pierson (2018), the budget analysis provides that the plans are associated with limited insurance coverage for a considerable portion of the US population. According to the ongoing plans of the Republicans seems to disregard the Obamacare of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was enacted in 2010 despite its positive effects in the health sector. Hiltzik (2018) argued that the law emerged significantly in the healthcare department when it dramatically changed the landscape. Oberlander (2016) observed that the goals of the law were to increase the number of insured, improve the affordability of health care, and achieve expansion in healthcare access. Nevertheless, a given form of revolution may since the Republicans appear to have all the reasons against the continuity of the existing application of the law. The Democrats have also reacted to the issue immediately and expressed their negative attitude towards the intentions of the Republicans to reform the law.

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Concerning the law, the United States is now experiencing many debates whereby each of the parties maintains their stance. According to "Trump Officials Scoff at 'Medicare for All' Drive" (2018), the Republicans believe that the Obamacare is no more and can no longer be considered important in the sector of healthcare in the United States. Pear (2018) stated that the Democrats on the other hand, although appear weaker on this issue, are disappointed with what the current president, Donald Trump is pushing for. As a result, the Democrats have requested for the effort of the Republicans to join them so that they can improve the law of the Obamacare rather than unnecessarily replacing it. However, the Republicans feel that the law cannot be reversed and they associate it with a death viral issue, therefore, the only strategic solution is to embrace and implement repeal and replacement ("Key Facts about the Uninsured Population", 2017). The law is likely to be no longer effective in the country since many people have limited opportunities to obtain health insurance as the insurers have fled the ACA's insurance market. At some point, both the republicans and democrats agree at some point that the cost of adjustment of the ACA law would too high to be achieved within a given period (Roubein andHellmann, 2017). However, the disagreement between the two sides is still very high.

Description and Critical Evaluation of the Current Policy

Criticism of the Current Policy

The law about the Obamacare has not had a good record since the Trump was elected to be president of the United States. According to Hacker and Pierson (2018), the Republicans led by the president have established significant criticisms towards the issue with an aim of having it repealed or replaced. According to "Trump Officials Scoff at 'Medicare for All' Drive" (2018), the push for reform is based on the criticizing argument that The ACA tends to spread costs around but do not have the capacity to contain them since the insurers wrote the law but does not cover musk of the related work as they claimed. As a result, the benefit was specifically targeted at the needs of the poor leaving the middle class hurt by the relatively high health care costs. Besides, it is also argued that the ACA has failed in reacting appropriately to the need for affordable healthcare. Hiltzik (2018) argued that the policy only focused on intervening to the healthcare issues of the Medicaid recipients. Moreover, another form of criticism is based on the loss of jobs by many doctors who were forced to close their doors following the dramatic decrease in the number of patients to which they can attend.

Emerging Arguments

The opposing sides with regard to the issue have their stance hence have currently come up with their arguments so that they protect their positions. According to "Trump Officials Scoff at 'Medicare for All' Drive", the Republicans argue that the Obamacare has not succeeded to serve as an inclusive healthcare concept. According to Roubein and Hellmann (2017), they added that its benefits are therefore felt by a given percentage of the population hence rather increases problems in the American healthcare sector. The Republicans also argued that there is a significant increase in the monthly premiums cost which is associated with the existence of the additional 20 million individuals with health care coverage ("Key Facts about the Uninsured Population", 2017). They have insisted that the previous condition clause is, however, no valid at the moment, therefore, the payers are given the task of covering the costs of the sicker patients. On this note the ACA has not covered all the preventive service costs, therefore, the payers suffer a great increase in their premium prices hence the extra expenditures remain uncovered According to Hacker and (Pierson, 2018).

The Democrats are also putting forward their arguments on the same as a way of justifying why the policy regarding the ACA should remain due to the importance with which they hold it with the healthcare sector requirements. According to Roubein and Hellmann (2017), the Democrats argued that the ACA has established health care programs which cover the health needs of people regardless of the State of residence (Hiltzik 2018). Besides, the Democrats still refer the country to the Accountable Care Organizations whose roles were to coordinate the health care services between health facilities across the country. Pear (2018) stated that argued that their arguments, however, appear to be disregarded as the Republicans have set to push for the replacement of the Act to achieve what they consider to be a better one.

Positions of Different Political Parties

The issue of repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act has emerged as a significant controversial topic where various groups of interest have different perceptions on the same. The controversies arise from the how the individual groups perceive the implications of the confirmation of the issue. Those who criticize base their augment of the manner in which they believe the given Obamacare has hurt many people in the healthcare sector. On this note, Pear (2018) stated that the two outstanding parties which totally have diverging vies based on the issue are the Democrats and the Republicans. The Democrats came up with the policy in 2010 under the rule of President Obama.

The law has served effectively in helping the poor to access health needs easily than before. Therefore the Democrats have long viewed as a proper approach to help every person including the unemployed to have their healthcare requirements covered. However, the election of a new president in the office under the Republican Party, came a significant level of criticism whereby the latter believes that the law is no longer appropriate and requires timely review and repeal before it is too late ("Key Facts about the Uninsured Population", 2017).

How the U.S Government Should Intervene To the Issue

The United States government has an important role to play in determining the best side to take regarding the given issue in question. I feel that the government should support the continuity for the use of the ACA in the US healthcare sector. In spite of the significant critics which emerge from the opposing side concerning the issue at hand, there are still desirable conditions which the Obamacare has enabled which may not be experienced the ACT is repealed. For example, the health insurance coverage is a great product of the law which promotes access to health care services relatively cheaper than before it was enacted back in 2010. This helped millions of people whose health services were previously not insured. Closely related to the insurance coverage is the considerable reduction in the expenses that an individual need to incur to be provided with healthcare services. I am important is to note that healthcare service quality still achieves the standard level. The US government should, therefore, consider this important quality introduced in the health sector to avoid the repeal and replacement of the ACA.

References

Hacker and Pierson (2018), Hacker, J. S., & Pierson, P. (2018). The Dog That Almost Barked: What the ACA Repeal Fight Says about the Resilience of the American Welfare State. Journal Of Health Politics, Policy & Law, 43(4), 551-577. doi:10.1215/03616878-6527935

Hiltzik (2018) argued that Hiltzik, M. (2018, February 27). Finally, a universal health care proposal that would work for everyone. Retrieved July 29, 2018, from http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-medicare-extra-20180227-story.html

Oberlander (2016) observed that Oberlander, J. (2016). Implementing the Affordable Care Act The Promise and Limits of Health Care Reform. Journal Of Health Politics, Policy & Law, 41(4), 803-826. doi:10.1215/03616878-3620953

Pear (2018, July 26). Trump Officials Scoff at 'Medicare for All' Drive. Retrieved July 29, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/26/us/politics/trump-medicare-democrats.html?rref=collection/timestopic/Health Care Reform&action=click&contentCollection=timestopicsion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection

Pear, R. (2018, July 10). Trump Officials Slash Grants That Help Consumers Get Obamacare. Retrieved July 29, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/10/us/politics/trump-affordable-care-act.html?rref=collection/timestopic/Health Care Reform&action=click&contentCollection=timestopicsion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=collection

Roubein, R., & Hellmann, J. (2017, June 23). Healthcare groups issue scathing criticism of Senate bill. Retrieved July 29, 2018, from http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/339054-healthcare-groups-issue-scathing-criticism-of-senate-bill

Shpaizman (2017) argued that Shpaizman, I. (2017). Policy drift and its reversal: The case of prescription drug coverage in the United States. Public Administration, 95(3), 698-712. doi:10.1111/padm.12315 Updated: Nov 29, 2017 | Published: Sep 19, 2017. (2018, June 11). Key Facts about the Uninsured Population. Retrieved July 29, 2018, from https://www.kff.org/uninsured/fact-sheet/key-facts-about-the-uninsured-population/