Health and Medical

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The Affordable Care Act more profoundly known as the Obama Care was signed into becoming law on March 23rd of the year 2010 with the intention of helping millions of the United States citizens acquire health insurance as every individual in the country has the right to health (Protection & Act, 2010). By the time of its signaling, a majority of the patients in the US were not covered by the health insurances and to some point, the sick individuals were denied access to health insurance covers especially their application during a sickness. As a result of the inability to cover a wide range of individuals by the present insurance covers, the United States government under the leadership of President Obama saw the need to institute an insurance cover that could cover every citizen in the American nation. The primary aim of the Obama care was to ensure that every citizen had health insurance that could aid them in catering for their treatment cost in the times to which the fall sick, making it able for every person to access health care services without restrictions.

The Affordable Care Act has instituted some reforms concerning the manner to which the health care is delivered in the United States (Shi & Singh, 2014). For one it has aided the less fortunate individuals to gain access to the health providers, but on the other hand, the program has not lowered the costs to which are associated with the care, a fact that still makes the health program unaffordable to all. Besides, the Act created quality in the system of health delivery to which tries to improve day by day but as well has continued to introduce excessive compliance reporting that threatens to the quality programs through focusing on creating reports and not on the patients. It can, therefore, be deduced that the Obama care puts much emphasis on the creation of the reports neglecting the patients, and thus despite having a lot of individuals being covered by the policy, the quality of healthcare has deteriorated.

Despite the Act’s intentions of providing accessible and affordable care to all, the Obama care has been faced by a lot of controversies that have led to a majority of the people questioning the program. It is a fact that the introduction of the Affordable Care Act has made the health care system of the United States worse than the previous situation. The reason behind is that the Obama care is no longer affordable and that a majority of the people feel that they are double taxed as the insurance premiums are too much expensive because every individual is entitled to be covered by the program (Center et al. 2017). The health care costs in the United States are very high, and this triggers the most significant problem to the affordability of the health insurance plans as they too tend to become expensive.

Concerning the accessibility to the health services, the Obama care has made it possible for thousands of individuals access the healthcare services with the help of the mandatory insurance (Collins et al. 2015). Consideration that it is a constitutional requirement for every person to have access to quality and affordable health care, the patient protection, and affordable care act has made it possible for the less fortunate access health as they are catered for by the insurance. It is now possible that a majority of the people can apply for the coverage regardless of their health condition. However, the accessibility to the health services gets limited due to the high cost of living and as well the increased cost of healthcare.

It is true that the healthcare is a goose that lays golden eggs for the insurance companies and the drug manufacturing companies as they happen to be the primary beneficiaries of the insurance programs. The companies tell lies to protect their billion dollar profits, and the insurance companies go to an extra mile of stemming individuals once they are diagnosed with chronic ailments and as well penalizing individuals when they don’t pay the premiums as expected. It is therefore hard to offer universal health care to all as it is faced with multiple challenges that eventually end up affecting the quality of services delivered to the patients.

References

Center, H., Woods, C. A., Manchikanti, L., & Purdue Pharma, L. P. (2017). A critical analysis of obamacare: affordable care or insurance for many and coverage for few?. Pain physician, 20, 111-138.

Collins, S. R., Rasmussen, P. W., Doty, M. M., & Beutel, S. (2015). The rise in health care coverage and affordability since health reform took effect. New York: The Commonwealth Fund.

Protection, P., & Act, A. C. (2010). Patient protection and affordable care act. Public law, 111(48), 759-762.

Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2014). Delivering health care in America. Jones & Bartlett Learning.