The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been passed in 2010 and since then altered American healthcare in a number of ways, however, sometimes, not in the ways it supposed to. The key features were implemented gradually with each year, from 2010 to 2015. They include New Consumer Protections, which implies providing information for consumers online, and regulation of lifetime and annual limits of insurance coverage (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016, p. 56). The same year features that improved quality and lowering costs of healthcare were implemented; as well as attempts for the enhancement of availability of Affordable Care, which included “providing access to insurance for uninsured Americans” (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016, p. 56). In the following years, the act was being integrated furthermore, with the government constantly increasing access to the reform for Americans, while lowering the costs.
The ACA was aimed at making affordable health insurance available to more people, expanding the Medicaid program, and urging new innovative ways to deliver healthcare services that lowered the costs simultaneously (HealthCare). During the implementation of the act, these factors collectively will make quality healthcare affordable to an average American. The act “reflects many tenets proposed by American Nurses Association”, which are concerned with healthcare being a basic human right, and talk about it being “safe, effective, patient centered, timely, efficient, equitable” (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016, p. 56). ACA puts strong emphasis on prevention medicine, and, for instance, establishing a Prevention and Public Health Fund, providing grants for prevention activities” which results in higher rate of public wellness (American Medical Association). The act also contains several entries that deal with the enhancement of quality of healthcare offered, sponsoring research to study different medical strategies’ effectiveness, as well as attempting to reduce medical errors (NCSL).
Affordable Care has been a subject of long-lasting debates and political battles due to its conflicting nature de-facto and on paper. One of the most well-known instances of ACA that do not work so well, is its tenet that “people with pre-existing conditions cannot be denied coverage or charged higher premiums” (Abrams, 2020). However, before this part of bill was passed, “insurers could charge excess prices for—or outright deny—coverage to all kinds of people, including pregnant women and cancer survivors” (Abrams, 2020). Thus, the Act seemed to work against its own aims – which is the main reason behind its opposition and criticism.
References
Abrams, A. (2020). 10 Years Later, Obamacare’s Complicated Legacy Still Shapes the Nation. Time. Web.
Affordable Care Act (ACA). (n/d). HealthCare.gov. Web.
American Medical Association (AMA). American Health Care Act: Summary of Key Provisions, as passed by the House of Representatives on May 4, 2017.
Stanhope, M. & Lancaster, J. (2016). Public Health Nursing: Population-Centered Health Care in the Community (9th ed.). Elsevier Mosby.