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Discussion 5

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Discussion 5

Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a healthcare reform known as Obamacare after the

president's office during the time. The ACA's main objective is to create innovative medical care,

expanding Medicaid and making it affordable. Affordable Care Act was passed to ensure all

Americans can afford health insurance coverage. The Act allowed families earning below the

poverty level to afford healthcare needs. The Affordable Care Act provides different exchanges.

Exchanges Established by the Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act extended Medicaid permissibility, a government program

catering for low-income families and individuals. The expansion reached millions of uninsured

Americans within the income threshold. The Act created health insurance marketplaces, allowing

small business owners to compare prices before shopping for insurance plans (Findley et

al.,2019). Through the marketplace, one can access a wide range of affordable plans with

subsidized prices for low-income people. Due to the marketplace exchange program, people can

find and enroll in insurance coverage that aligns with their specific needs. The Affordable Care

Act also prohibits insurance companies from charging high premiums or denying coverage to

someone depending on their conditions. This ensures people living with such diseases as cancer

and diabetes access affordable coverage without undergoing extra cost and discrimination.

Another major exchange provided by the Affordable Care Act is allowing young adults to be part

of their parent's healthcare plans until they reach the age of 26 when they are financially

independent (Findley et al.,2019). The provision has expanded access to healthcare for many

young adults who may have faced challenges seeking medical care. Affordable Care Act also

requires that all insurance plans sold to small groups of individuals or markets should cover basic
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healthcare needs such as maternity care, hospitalization, prevention, and mental health problems.

Every American has guaranteed comprehensive care by ensuring that major services are covered.

Why the Exchanges Failed

One of the objectives of ACA was to reduce the number of uninsured Americans, but the

policy has failed to fulfill its promises. The exchange program has continued to enroll less

population than the expected number (Handel & Kolstad, 2022). This is due to healthy people

getting dismissed since they do not qualify for subsidies; thus, the cist coverage becomes of poor

value. The Act requires health insurance providers to offer coverage to everybody who applies

and does not allow insurance to consider the person's health status when setting the packages.

The results mean that young people end up overcharged, healthy individuals and older, and

people with pre-existing conditions are undercharged (Handel & Kolstad, 2022). Due to such a

policy only, a small number of healthy and young people are enrolling in the program, meaning

that those enrolled pay expensively. The Affordable Care Act was meant to cater to people below

the poverty line. Still, with the expensive rates of paying for coverage, only a few people can

afford it.

The ACA will be Reformed.

According to recent news, ACA will be reformed to include its initial purpose and

increase the number of insured Americans. Presently, those enrolling in the ACA marketplace

get subsidized premiums, meaning that switching plans will make it easier for everyone to afford

the premium prices (Handel & Kolstad, 2022). Additionally, expanded subsidies have made

affordability easy and extended the enrolment period through expanding outreach. During the

Trump era, insurance companies were allowed to deny individuals who fell behind in paying the

premium, but this is not the case presently. Since 2022, those who fall behind in paying for their
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policies can still access a policy through binder payments (Handel & Kolstad, 2022).

Considering how the few changes have led to an increase in the number of people enrolling for

ACA, necessary reforms will benefit everyone.

In summary, the Affordable Care Act intended to provide all Americans with

affordability and health insurance coverage. The exchanges provided by the program include the

expansion of Medicaid, insurance marketplaces to compare prices, allowing young adults to

remain under their parents' coverage and including basic medical services under the insurance

coverage. The Act Failed due to the high cost of premiums for healthy individuals and young

people. As per the current news, the ACA will be reformed to cater to what it was meant to be

initially.
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References

Handel, B., & Kolstad, J. (2022). The Affordable Care Act After a Decade: Industrial

Organization of the Insurance Exchanges. Annual Review of Economics, 14, 287-312.

https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-051420-114714

Findley, P. A., Wiener, R. C., Shen, C., Dwibedi, N., & Sambamoorthi, U. (2019). Health reform

under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: characteristics of exchange-based

health insurance enrollees. Social work in health care, 58(7), 685-702.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00981389.2019.1619116