Overview and Significance of the Health Care Reform Policy. Free Essay Example

Healthcare reforms in the United States of America have a tread long history. It is typical to state that many reformations have been brought forth, but only a handful of recommendations have been implemented. However, in the year 2010, the landmark reformation process occurred as enacted by the federal statutes enacted by 2010 (Adamson et al., 2019). One of the signed legislative laws are PPACA abbreviation of Patent Protection and Affordable Care Act which was passed on March 23, 2010. By March 30, PPACA was amended to the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act. What are some of the critical federal provisions in these reforms or acts? All providences involved in the ACA are geared towards expanding the insurance limits, increasing consumer rights and protections, stressing the relevance of prevention and wellness, improving the quality and performance of the health care systems within the US, engaging more people into health expertise and curb any unnecessary health care spending. The healthcare reform policy has a significant influence on America's national health expenditures.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

New Coverage

The extension of insurance coverage to all Americans has increased medical spending within a short time. Hadley and his counterparts established that for the uninsured individuals who gain medical protection would undergo an additional $1,600 of the care bills, an increase of up to 70% (Beland et al., 2020). The US Congress budget estimate shows that spending on uninsured persons if they are insured by the health care reforms, will increase by at least 25% to 60% (Beland et al., 2020). These rates are dependent on the premium paid to healthcare facilities by the currently uninsured American persons.

Saving in Public Programs

The new reform contains repealed changes to the Medicare and Medicaid payment systems. For example, the amount paid to Medicare Advantage is controlled to levels comparable to the cost of those who benefit under the traditional Medicare inpatient payment for increasing productivity and reducing the bad debts previously incurred.

Insurance Exchanges

In the past, 13% of the insurance premiums trace counts from the administrative budgets (Bumberg et al., 2019). The new law has significantly established insurance exchanges that group individuals into favorable classes, which have lowered the departmental budgets. The transfer of insurance also minimizes market spending through a more accountable posted premium, facilitated application procedures, and sharp insights into the industry practices. If all persons and small firms were to receive the same premium charges as extensive cooperation or self-insured companies do pay, then the cost of administrative budgets would decline to not more than 10% (Blumberg et al., 2019).

Health System Digitalization

The reformation policy improved the quality of information that patients available at their disposal, similar to those caregivers and the incentives facing medical caregivers, which has made the whole system efficient in the years after its enactment. The exact amount saved from the provisions collectively is uncertain, however much the commonwealth funding gives the summary of requirements within the systems of payment in the US, namely Medicare and Medicaid (Cahart et al., 2018). Another estimation suggests that an improved approach to the health care reform policy would result in significantly reduced costs to a greater extend. Just after the reform, the national health expenditure fell from 6.1 to 5.7 (Cahart et al., 2018).

Impact on the General Budget

According to Dickman et al., the national congressional estimation was that the law would reduce the federal deficit by $143 billion over the span decade ragingly 2010-2019. Significant growth of the Medicare projected as expected by 6.8% annually within the decade. The payment and the health care reform policy saved $397 billion when classes and non-Medicare provisions were removed. With additional saves from within the system digitalization, annual growth rates reduced, and the saving reached $524 billion.

History of the ACA Health Policy (including Legislative and Partisan Politics)

The history of the ACA, The patient Protection and affordable care act was passed into law by former president Barrack Obama on March 23, 2010. The action was nicknamed Obamacare because of its effects on many American families. By July 2009, house speaker Nancy Pelosi and democrats faithful from the House of Representatives revealed the plan to overhaul the underlying American healthcare system (Dickman et al., 2017). This was given the name H.R.3962, the affordable health care for American people. On August 25, 2009: Massachusetts Senator Ted succumbed death, and this leaves the senate 60-seat majority at risk of the supermajority proportion required to pass a piece for legislation.

By September 24, 2009: Democrats appointed Interim Senator Kirk from Massachusetts, this restored the 60th vote proof. November 7, the House of Representatives, 219 Democrats, and one member affiliated to republican vote for the care bill while 39 Democrats and 176 Republicans vote against it. In December 24 same year, the Senate voted, 60 democrats voted for the senator's statement, also called the Americas Healthy Future, whose forefront leader was Senator Max Baucus of California. Thirty-nine Republicans voted against the bill, and one republican senator, only one senator, did not vote Jim Bunning (Jost et al., 2020). In January 2010, a Republican senator won the elections in Massachusetts to finish the remaining terms of Senator Ted Kennedy, a democrat. He worked tirelessly and campaigned against the health care bill, which later won an upsetting victory in a state that had voted consistently for the Democratic Party.

In January 2010, eHealth published research that looked to find opinions from public domain over the perceptions of health care. March 11, 2010, the 60-seat pass lacked, in favor of the Democratic Party and thus, a budget Reconciliation for the pack to be arrived at in support of the bill. The use of budget required only 51 senator's votes for the law so that it may come at the president's desks. March 21, 2010, has the Senate version of the health care policy approved by 219-212 vote with all Republicans and 34 democrats voting against the bill. Finally, on March 23, 2010, then-president Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into laws of the US.

What are the Current Challenges Associated with ACA Law?

Before the ACA has assented into law on 23rd march, the health care industry had the number of obstacles when the low earning citizens and patients with serious illness were taken to consideration. The ACA has been able to avail the health care coverage for millions of US citizens than ever registered. Moreover, the uninsured rates were reduced to 8.6% (Pie terse et al., 2016). However, the landmark posed challenges it has overseen in recent years after its implementation. The profits for the insurance companies decreased since they had to incorporate low earners and must now cover the cost of health care for those with pre-existing conditions and cover the entire treatment.

Cover for a Pre-Existing Condition

Affordable health care has eliminated the clauses, which allowed payers to refuse the patient's better coverage; this is a positive development for patients but represents a challenge to the payers. Under the ACA, the payers are not allowed to charge high premiums to patients with pre-existing conditions, leading to losses after paying for their medical care. Law firms have resolved recommendations to help curb this problem. For example, the house speaker Paul Ryan suggested creating a universally accessible program; invest $25 (Redcay et al., 2019) billion to improve risks and reinsurance processes.

The Individual Mandate and the Health Insurance Exchanges

ACA requires payers to cover expenses for preventive services delivery like immunizations, checkups, and cancer screening; this leads to spending a lot by the payers who pass these risks to the consumer by charging higher premiums. Since the individual mandate, require eligible citizens to purchase health care covers or risk tax penalty; this makes many people without employer sponsor covers have little choice than buy the expensive premiums through the health insurance exchanges. The health exchange, on the other end, allows for application to medical sheets whether or not one is qualified for Medicare (Redcay et al., 2019). The individual mandate was meant to bring more adults to the act and provide a lower risk population for the payers. Unfortunately, the adults have resolved for the penalty. Payers suffer in these state of affairs because an older man is to pay not more than three times what 21-year-old pays. Payers are running at losses because the elderly population is serving the health insurance exchanges, i.e., penalty.

Stakeholder Analysis

The stakeholders are the consumers (patients), the service provider (payers), service, and the government. The terms of providing affordable health care will unite both the opposing and proposing ends. However, with the increasing input costs, the government is fast losing on controlling the public policy related to the ACA. For proper health care providence, the US government has tried several strategies but with the fail of realizing the actual goals. Providence of health care to the majority of the people is not possible considering the number of input proportions.

An example is the lack of doctors and other health practitioners, which is very vital in providing health-care still bags many unanswered questions. The challenges of ACA, as described above, shows the need for health cess to the payers, which cannot be added with government budgets (Rice et al.,2018). In these cases, the government can provide for the interest and tax-free bonds, which allow the public to raise funds required to pay the bills saving the payers lots of tax.

Healthcare options and analysis of tradeoffs

The health-care system in the US has focussed on value payment formats. The main argument is that the market is the arbiter of value, and therefore what remains is unleashing its potential. With the right incentives, the market shifts race towards high care and reduce the consumption of low valued strategies, thus, improving health-care while containing the costs. However, much they are engaged, the consumers cannot have all information to make informed choices; this is a limitation, which requires a tradeoff (Rosenbaum et al.,2017). The US considers this two-leveled scheme. Tradeoff applies to set the health-care budget with a more extensive overall summation. Secondly, it applies to the limit of such budgets. Without the tradeoffs, cost management within the country is left on an individual proposition; this has resulted in increased patient payment in terms of premiums and reluctance to cover the new treatment. Thus, health-care without tradeoffs is more expensive than the assumed quality of care.

What are the Current Health-Care Policy Recommendations

The first health-care policy recommendation is lowering costs. The American people need its congress to provide relief from the ACA high costs and reduced choice making. The need is affordable insurance that will allow a peaceful mindset among the people. The other is flexibility; the law must be flexible and give resources to the state government to ensure its original desires are attainable shortly. Lastly, private cover can be used as the current health-care policy recommendation.