Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has made major milestones towards solving challenges that have been facing the American health care system based on the quality, access, and affordability of care services. Since ACA become law in 2010, the rate of uninsured in the US has declined by 43 percent from 16 percent in 2010 (Protection & Act, 2010). Studies have also shown that there has been significant improvement in access to healthcare services. For instance, there has been a reduction of 5.5. percent for the inability of adults to afford care. For that reason, the care act has been able to get healthcare service coverage to the majority of Americans when compared to the percent.
The act has helped deliver better healthcare services by increasing access to better and affordable care services. ACA has ensured that Americans have access to Insurance services for people with preexisting conditions. According to the act, Preexisting Condition Insurance Plan has to offer new coverage options to Americans who have been uninsured for 6 months and above due to preexisting conditions (Reeve & Institute of Medicine (US). 2014). Besides, the act has also helped deliver better healthcare services by offering free preventive healthcare to adults. The law requires that certain preventing care services like annual wellness visits should be provided to adults with Medicare.
Despite the significance of the act in improving healthcare services in the US, the act has been regarded as a long and protracted political battle because it was designed to have little or no effect on the workings of an employer-provided system where most Americans were finding their healthcare insurance. ACA only touched the lives of the people who were employed than their employers who were offering health insurance to their workers (Sommers et al., 2015). According to politicians opposing the act, the unemployed are not benefiting from ACA.
References
Protection, P., & Act, A. C. (2010). Patient protection and affordable care act. Public law, 111(48), 759-762.
Reeve, M., & Institute of Medicine (US). (2014). The impacts of the affordable care act on preparedness resources and programs: Workshop summary. National Academies Press.
Sommers, B. D., Gunja, M. Z., Finegold, K., & Musco, T. (2015). Changes in self-reported insurance coverage, access to care, and health under the Affordable Care Act. Jama, 314(4), 366-374.