The Impact of Affordable Care Act on US

Introduction

The Affordable Care Act that is widely known as Obamacare is a law that was passed on March 23 2010 in a bid to reform the health care system in America. The focus of this law is to provide the American population with affordable health insurance. It also focuses on regulation and improvement of the quality of health insurance and the health care industry. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has had a huge impact on healthcare arrangements since it came into effect. This paper looks into the impacts that ACA has had on the American health care system concerning aspects such as the delivery of healthcare, healthcare structure, and the general organization of the healthcare environment.

Delivery of HealthCare

The delivery of healthcare is one area that has undergone major changes. People who lacked insurance plans before have gained the power to acquire Medicaid or private insurance (Mayes, 2011). Health care institutions have embarked on investing in good health care equipment since the billing is guaranteed with the implementation of the Obama Care Act. In addition, Sommers, Kenney, and Epstein (2014) unveil that chronically ill Americans have gained a lot after the passage of this law. Unfair treatment in the past denied them the chance to secure insurance covers. Currently, the situation has changed and they are not only able to get health plans but also obtain immediate coverage and signups for high-risk pools.

Redesigning HealthCare

Baicker and Finkelstein (2011) advance that the establishment of ACA is among the major changes that have happened in the American health care system in 40 years. Acquiring a health plan is no longer a preservation for the rich. Tens of millions of people have gained access to insurance plans. The cost of health plans has come down. This situation has made health insurance plans affordable to the majority of Americans. For Instance, the Silver Plan covers over 70% of the population requires them to pay $276 per month (Sommers, Kenney, & Epstein, 2014).

Organizational

Mayes (2011) reveals that healthcare organizations that signed up for the voluntary Affordable Care Act program have had to conform to the requirement set out by the law. This requirement has forced the institutions to embark on the improvement of healthcare technologies in an attempt to offer better services to the increasing number of patients. Insurance companies that offer health plans began to deliver cheaper plans to be able to cover a large part of the population. The aim of this Medicare concept known as the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) is to ensure the good cost to value structure in the healthcare system.

Environment

The health environment has also experienced weighty effects owing to the implementation of the ACA. Workforces of health institutions have become major beneficiaries of this Act through the institution of cheaper gym club memberships, good, and healthy working environments among other benefits by their employers (Baicker & Finkelstein, 2011). The grading system that the law introduced to determine how much funding they get from Medicare not only enables them to maintain high satisfaction of patients but also ensures that they keep their environment healthy and happy (Sommers, Kenney, & Epstein, 2014).

Conclusion

The healthcare sector has undergone major improvements after the signing of the Affordable Care Act four years ago. Implementation of the Act has improved the health of many Americans and the situation is expected to get even better in the future. However, healthcare institutions will have to go through a tough time adopting the changes imposed by the Act with a limited workforce. The influx of millions of new patients to healthcare programs does not match the number of medical professionals that graduate yearly. This situation has led to a disproportionate patient-doctor ratio in most healthcare organizations.

Reference List

Baicker, K., & Finkelstein A. (2011). The effects of Medicaid coverage–learning from the Oregon experiment. The New England Journal of Medicine, 365(8), 683-5.

Mayes, R. (2011). Postmortems on the Affordable Care Act. Health Affairs, 30(12), 2455-56.

Sommers, B., Kenney, G., & Epstein, A. (2014). New Evidence On The Affordable Care Act: Coverage Impacts Of Early Medicaid Expansions. Health Affairs, 33(1), 78-87.