The Affordable Care Act
The United States is a great nation that strives to become a leader in global economic development. Therefore, since health is a social welfare that affects economic growth, the country looks into creating appropriate strategies such as the Affordable Care Act to meet the healthcare needs of its people. The United States looks up to the experiences and mistakes of other developed states in coming up with appropriate policies for the Affordable Care Act.
Osborn and Squires’s article explores a survey of eleven developed states including Australia, New Zealand, Netherland, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, and the United States. Out of these eleven states, the United States had the most barriers to healthcare in terms of costs, quality, and accessibility. Majority of the countries also had challenges in healthcare affordability and accessibility for low-income earners. Netherland emerged the best; it had the most availability, engaged, coordinated healthcare system. The United States look up to countries such as Netherland in developing policies for the Affordable Care Act (Osborn et al., 2016).
Developed states such as Canada, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom improved healthcare accessibility by placing no deductible cost of primary care. In countries such as France exempts adults with one out of thirty-two chronic conditions stipulated by the state from cost sharing prescription drugs and primary care. Sweden charges $ 120 annually for health care visits that involve cost sharing. In Germany, chronically ill patients are only charged 1% of income for cost sharing (Osborn et al., 2017). These policies have been influential in developing the Affordable Care Act. Through ACA, the United States has lowered the costs of health care and limit for insurers’ thus increasing accessibility for those with chronic conditions.
The Affordable Care Act works in the direction of Jeremiah 33: 6 that states “Nevertheless, the Lord will bring health and healing to you: I will heal my people and let them enjoy abundant peace and security.”