The implementation of “Health Insurance Exchange” in the framework of Obamacare program is likely to have a significant impact on three critical aspects: customers’ demand, pricing policy, and supply.
First, and foremost, it is necessary to focus on the changes that are likely to take place in the customers’ demand field. The implementation of the relevant law has transformed the basic principles of demand formation. Thus, people that used to choose whether to purchase a health insurance or not basing on their inner motives and estimations are now legally obliged to have an insurance coverage. Therefore, the major difference resides in the fact that the customers’ demand is now regulated by law. From the perspective of a “free market”, the relevant intervention is rather unfavorable. The artificial raising of customers’ demand minimizes the regulation power of clients in price setting due to the fact that the level of competitiveness in the insurance market will sag significantly (Glied and Ma 9). In the meantime, some specialists note, the increase in the demand is not as crucial for the market as it might seem. It is presumed that even though more people will now have a medical health insurance, the majority of them will not use the medical services more frequently than they used to do (Brezina et al. 194). In other words, people who purchase health insurance will not necessarily use them in practice. Therefore, the pressure on the supply sector might turn out to be less critical than one might expect.
The lack of balance between demand and supply is likely to have a negative impact on price setting. According to the basic principles of the law of the market, the decrease in supply leads to the inevitable cost rising. Thus, many analysts state that the implementation of the relevant law deprives American people of the right to control and regulate the costs of their medical service (Boyes and Melvin 89). Therefore, health insurance companies will receive a chance to impose higher costs for less medical care. Thus, the principal argument of the supporters of the Obamacare program that the new regulation provides equal terms for receiving the service seems to be irrelevant. In order to compensate for the reduced prices offered to particular social groups, health insurance companies will raise the costs of service for other people (Holahah and Garrett 2).
In addition, the implementation of the relevant law is likely to have negative outcomes from the standpoint of supply. Hence, according to the experts’ opinion, the health care market will face the problem of the supply shortage due to the sharp increase in customers’ demand. Most specialists agree on the point that the system overload is inevitable with the implementation of the new regulations (Mulligan 3). The American health care workforce has experienced the shortage of specialists for several decades. Now that the demand will rise significantly, there is no doubt that this shortage will become particularly critical. The decrease in supply is likely to result in a series of negative consequences such as additional difficulties in accessing providers, reduced time of service, increased cost, extended waiting time, and the general decline of the quality of the care delivery (Anderson par.2).
The relevant analysis shows the close interconnection between demand, cost, and supply. The principal negative impact of implementing “Health Insurance Exchange”, therefore, resides in disrupting the balance between these elements that is critical for a “free market”.
Works Cited
Anderson, Amy. The Impact of the Affordable Care Act on the Health Care Workforce. 2014. Web.
Boyes, William, and Michael Melvin. Microeconomics, Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning, 2015. Print.
Brezina, Paul, Anish Shah, Evan Myers, Andy Huang, and Alan DeCherney. ” How Obamacare Will Impact Reproductive Health.” Seminars in Reproductive Medicine Journal 31.1 (2013): 189-197. Print.
Glied, Sherry, and Stephanie Ma. How Will the Affordable Care Act Affect the Use of Health Care Services? 2015. Web.
Holahah, John, and Bowen Garrett. How Will the Affordable Care Act Affect Jobs? 2011. Web.
Mulligan, Casey. “The impact of health reform on employment and work schedules.” American Journal of Medical Research 2.1 (2015): 1-5. Print.