Reduce escalating healthcare costs
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) aims to reduce escalating health costs by tightening control regarding healthcare rates and procedures while prioritizing primary care, prevention, and efficient interventions (French et al., 2016). Americans’ accessibility to prior healthcare treatments and drugs, care affordability, and self-reported conditions improved significantly. It demonstrated that broader coverage through insurance premium payments by employers or individually had enhanced physician accessibility.
Expand Access to Insurance Coverage
The Act requires employers to insure their employees or face punishment. The government provides tax breaks to certain smaller firms and mandates that individuals have health care coverage. Consequently, the percentage of uninsured Americans declined, notably among non-students, the unmarried, and men (French et al., 2016). It increased the number of people visiting health facilities and additional working hours spent by health practitioners.
Promoting Health Workforce Development Is a Key
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) addresses labor force concerns with measures, such as reform proposals in graduate medical training education, additional health profession loans and scholarship programs, and assistance for nurse practitioners’ training courses. Additionally, assistance for fresh models in primary care like medical residences and management teams for chronic illnesses (French et al., 2016). Healthcare professionals gained additional training and education, allowing them to perform better and manage resources in healthcare institutions.
Healthcare Administration Complexity
Coding and billing inefficiency, as well as practitioners’ effort invested in reporting on quality metrics, are examples of administrative complexity and wasteful spending in the healthcare industry. Due to the peculiar nature of the healthcare industry in the United States, any customer unsatisfied with their treatment has few options other than hiring a lawyer, which increases cost while providing no benefit (Tseng et al., 2018). If it is repealed, price lists will be made available to the public, and Americans will have affordable access to care.
References
French, M. T., Homer, J., Gumus, G., & Hickling, L. (2016). Key Provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA): A Systematic Review and Presentation of Early Research Findings. Health Services Research, 51(5), 1735-1771.
Tseng, P., Kaplan, R. S., Richman, B. D., Shah, M. A., & Schulman, K. A. (2018). Administrative costs associated with physician billing and insurance-related activities at an academic health care system. JAMA, 319(7), 691.