Obama Care and Its Effects on Healthcare in The United States

My understanding of healthcare reform is basic. However, from my research on the impact it has on healthcare finance, I would say that, Healthcare reform is a governmental and political initiative that was introduced to cut down high cost of healthcare and make it affordable to everyone. Healthcare reform has gained many names including Obama Care or the Affordable Care act, was made law in 2010 by ex-president Barack Obama’s Administration as a means of ensuring that Quality affordable healthcare and insurance is accessible to Americans either through their employer or the government.

One cannot talk about healthcare reform without talking about the affordable care act (ACA). The Affordable care Act was intended to make drastic amendments to the healthcare industry here in the United States. Currently, we have seen a lot of these changes happening which only means that the promises of the ACA are already in effect and more of such changes may be introduced over the next few years. The idea of healthcare reform stems from years of high healthcare cost and discrimination towards individuals with pre-existing conditions including the elderly. Primarily, people who are employed in the United States have the option of receiving group health insurance from their employer. But for the unfortunate ones without the luxury of having insurance through their employers, the cost of healthcare insurance can sometimes become expensive and stressful.

However, because of the Affordable Care Act, today, millions of working- and middle-class families no longer will have to worry about the high cost of their visit to the hospital. And likewise, other Americans who already had health insurance now have better coverage because, certain regulations that came alongside the affordable care act prohibits certain discriminatory acts such as women been charged higher premiums than men for the same plan, people with pre-existing conditions been denied coverage and young adults aging off their parent’s policy when they turn age 19 or graduate from college.

Additionally, the impact of healthcare reform on healthcare finance can be seen in the restrictions that the affordable care act has placed on insurance companies and their sometimes-unreasonable increase in premiums. As at the beginning of 2014, insurance companies could not raise premiums for infants or children because of a pre-existing condition or disability and adults who previously could not get coverage because of a pre-existing condition, and who have had no insurance for 6 months or more would now get insurance.

Prior to the implementation of healthcare reform in the United States, the cost of healthcare kept increasing affecting many people and costing the country too much in medical bills. High costs made the U.S. health care system cost up to twice as much per person compared to any other developed country. A simple truth about healthcare reform is that, though, the financial impact of it varies based on an individual’s age and their immediate health status, healthcare reform affects virtually all Americans. Technically, the Affordable care Act has fulfilled all its promises fully. Because, its goal of increasing the number of insured Americans and the increase in the quality of care while trying to stabilize or reduce costs have been implemented squarely. This is an open debate since, some still have doubts and feel that America is in no need of healthcare reform.

Nonetheless, healthcare reform’s significant financial impact in healthcare finance is almost unnoticeable for everyone especially those who work in healthcare industry. Depending on which direction you look at it from, the affordable care act has successfully expanded health insurance coverage just as it was promised. With its achievements, the fundamental thing to do is to collaboratively, find ways of sustaining its cost-control success. How has it achieved cost-controlled success? Financial report by the Office of the Actuary of the Department of Health and Human Services projected that its financial impact according to the “Estimated Financial Effects of the ‘Patient Protections and Affordable Care Act’ estimated prior to its passing that, the health care costs under the Affordable Care Act would reach about $4.14 trillion per year in 2017 and constitute 20.2% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country. That projection became questionable a year later in December 2018, when that same office released the official tabulation of health care spending in 2017, the bottom line: cumulatively from 2010 to 2017 the Affordable Care Act had reduced health care spending by a total of $2.3 trillion an estimated $650 billion lower than projected and kept health care spending under 18 percent of GDP.

One reason the Affordable Care Act’s success in cost control goes unappreciated is that no one experiences the difference between projections and reality itself. Furthermore, the 80/20 rule under the Affordable Care Act, has limited how insurance companies operate and charge healthcare expenses. Under this rule, insurance companies must spend at least 80 cents of your premium dollar on your health care or improvements to care and must publicly justify their actions if they want to raise premiums by 10 percent or more for small businesses.