The Patient Protection and The Care Act of Healthcare

The patient protection and affordable care act is a significant healthcare reforms act which has been developed to ensure that the quality of healthcare is affordable to majority of the United States citizens. The affordable care act has significant emphasis on the quality of care and thus the overall implementation of the affordable care act focuses on improving the quality of healthcare. The affordable care act authorizes the creation of health insurance marketplaces, which are aimed at helping individuals, and small employers select and enroll in high quality but affordable private health plans. The act also requires that the united states department of health and human services to develop quality data collection and put in place quality certification standards to ensure that the quality of healthcare is not compromised.

Evaluate the impact that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has and will have on the uninsured population in the U.S.

The affordable care act through individual mandate require that all taxpayers subscribe to a healthcare insurance cover, which covers them and their dependents. The individual mandate within the healthcare reform act became effective in 2014 where individuals have been tasked with maintaining a healthcare coverage policy or pay a tax penalty for noncompliance, which is executed through the internal revenue code. The compliance requirements that are considered in this case focus on the understanding that individual need to maintain a minimum essential coverage that is comprised of a number of public and private health insurance covers. There are individual who are exempted from the individual mandate and not be subjected to any tax penalty. Such individuals include the people who are incarcerated, religious beliefs, low-income families and the undocumented individuals. This population therefore form the uninsured residents (Buettgens & Hall, 2015).

The uninsured population provides a number of reasons considering their inability to afford any of the available healthcare insurance covers. The high cost of insurance is the main reason cited by many of the uninsured population, which makes it a burden for them. 45% of the uninsured population in 2016 cited high cost of insurance as a key reason why they remain uninsured. Many individuals are unable to get access since they are unemployed, which makes it very difficult for them to afford a health insurance cover. The increasing cost of healthcare is making it very difficult for health insurance providers unable to develop low cost covers, which are able to ensure that every individual is able to achieve quality healthcare (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2015).

The managed competition within the delivery of affordable act has been able to create an understanding on what needs to be considered and certify that better measures are in place to create an improved environment where it would be very easy for insurance providers to adopt better measures to improve the quality of healthcare delivery. There are a number of key factors, which are influencing cost of healthcare in recent times, which makes the sustainability of the health insurance covers in place questionable. It is important to ensure that there are better measures in place where it would be very easy develop effective healthcare covers that are responsive concentrating on addressing the underlying issues within the healthcare environment (Kumar & Khiljee, 2016).

Different states in implementation of the patient protection and affordable care act expanded their Medicaid while others did not expand their Medicaid making it very difficult for members of the states to afford the existing healthcare costs. Many individual remain ineligible for financial assistance for healthcare insurance coverage. Some people who are eligible for financial assistance in acquiring healthcare insurance may not be aware of their success in acquiring quality healthcare under the affordable care act (Buettgens & Hall, 2015). Current success and failures of the affordable care act.

The affordable care act has streamlined the healthcare industry where individuals are able to select their own healthcare insurance covers in ensuring that there is a better environment where they would be able to receive quality care and standard cost based on their healthcare. The healthcare insurance health covers form a risk pool where individuals who subscribe to a single cover form one pool where the individual who claim are much fewer than those who pay which makes it easier for insurance healthcare providers to meet the demands of healthcare subscribers. The consideration of individual mandate has ensured that taxpayers and their dependents are protected from the skyrocketing cost of healthcare. The patient protection and affordable care cat has been effectively developed to ensure that every united states citizen is able to receive standard quality care based on the various insurance packages that have been put in place (Kumar & Khiljee, 2016).

The cost of healthcare insurance has been highly increasing making it a burden to taxpayers who have to shoulder the high levels of premiums whereby it has been considered as a burden to many taxpayers especially the low-income individual individuals. The healthcare premiums are expected to go up in 2018 by approximately 50%. This consideration is creating a very difficult environment where the cost of healthcare is becoming very difficult for individuals to afford especially the middle class and the low class who are spending so much financing the ever-increasing health premiums as developed by the affordable care act. The uncertainty of the affordable care act has made it very difficult to create a clear understanding on the sustainability of the affordable care act. Insurers have been raising the premiums since the long-term presence of the affordable care act is in doubt with regular debates, which are aimed at creating a different healthcare policy, which is believed by the Republicans that it is an advanced version of the affordable care act (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2013).

The Implication of the Acts Success and Failures

Many of the American citizens have healthcare covers, which ensures that they are guaranteed quality healthcare based on the healthcare insurance covers. The overall focus on the need to develop a clear healthcare environment has really improved the overall environment where quality healthcare can be achieved. The cost of healthcare has been significantly managed where employees and their employers play a key role in contributing to the healthcare system making it more affordable.

The high cost of healthcare insurance have created a very difficult operational environment where many individuals have remained uninsured. In 2015, approximately 46% of uninsured adults in the United States asserted that they tried acquiring health insurance cover but they were unable due to the existing rates, which are very high. The situation has been made worse by the uncertainty in the health market. Medical insurance covers as developed under the affordable care act were aimed at creating an enabled environment where the cost of healthcare would be effectively managed and control the cost of healthcare from increasing. The current cost of healthcare insurance is considered more expensive than mortgage, which is leading many American individuals into financial ruin, which is something, that affordable care act aimed at controlling (Croft & Parish, 2013).

Policy Changes That I Would Recommend

An important change that I would have put in place is to introduce payable returns. Currently many United States citizens especially the low-income households view the individual mandate as a financial burden, which is of no significant use in limiting the cost of healthcare. The payable returns would introduce a focus where individual taxpayers would be liable to a certain percentage of the total premiums paid annually. This will ensure that healthcare insurance subscribers do not view healthcare insurance covers as a burden.