The Impact of the Affordable Care Act on the American Life Essay example

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The Impact of the Affordable Care Act on the American Life

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed by Congress and signed into law by the President Obama on March 23, 2010 (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2015). It was one of the most expensive healthcare reforms in the U.S. since the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 (Lathrop, Hodnicki, 2014). The ACA was targeted to provide insurance coverage to Americans that had no opportunity to afford it before and improve the quality of the current healthcare system (Lathrop, Hodnicki, 2014). After introduction of the ACA there were a great number of debates whether the healthcare reform was successful or not and if it had a positive or negative impact on Americans’ life. In spite of the fact that the ACA increased health care spending and middle-class taxation and resulted in claims for administration concerns, the ACA has a positive impact on the Americans’ healthcare, since it increases affordability of the healthcare system, reduces inequity of Americans, and improves the quality of the healthcare system.

First of all, it is necessary to say that the adoption of the ACA increased the access of the healthcare system for low-income and socially less protected Americans and immigrants. It reduced the inequity in healthcare between different groups of population. With reference to Blumberg (2012), the ACA gave an opportunity for 32 million additional Americans to have health insurance coverage. As a result, it reduced the health uninsured level from 18% to 6% of the population (Blumberg, 2012). The ACA included the expansion of eligibility for the Medicaid program to all non-elder people with income up to 138% of the national poverty level (Blumberg, 2012). It meant that people who got $23,000 - $32,000 had an opportunity to participate in the Medicaid program (Blumberg, 2012). In addition, the states that chose to participate in the expansion of the Medicaid program, the federal government proposed to finance it for the first three years completely and for 90% after that (Blumberg, 2012). It meant that states would pay only 10% for the expansion of the Medicaid program (Blumberg, 2012). As a result, today 28 states and DC expanded Madicaid and more than 12.3 million additional individuals were included in Medicaid and CHIP in 2015 in comparison with October 2013 (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2015).

What is more, the healthcare reform has improved the provision of the preventive and primary healthcare services (Lathrop, Hodnicki, 2014). It gave new opportunities for nurse practitioners, certified nurses, certified nurse midwives, and clinical nurse specialists (APRN) (Lathrop, Hodnicki, 2014). The requirements for their education and professionalism were increased, since they were admitted as equal partners in the healthcare teams. The APRN with a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree are able to provide a primary care and preventive care. They are also involved in the clinical research works, direct patient care, …

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