The Affordable Care Act (ACA)

In the beginning, Medicare was thought of as a "sickness insurance program." There were concerns that large segments of the population, especially laborers, who could not afford to pay their medical bills. While Medicare was in its planning stages, the American Medical Association (AMA) opposed a national plan from the start. "The AMA, in common with many Americans, thought of medical care as largely a private transaction between a medical practitioner and a patient. There was no need for the State to intervene in this relationship" (Berkowitz, 2008, p. 82).

Health care should not be considered a political argument in America; it is a matter of basic human rights. Something that many people seem to forget is that the US is the only industrialized western nation that lacks a universal health care system. The National Health Care Disparities Report, as well as author and health care worker Nicholas Conley and Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), strongly suggest that the US needs a universal health care system. The most secure solution for many problems in America, such as wasted spending on a flawed non-universal health care system and 46.8 million Americans being uninsured, is to organize a national health care program in the US that covers all citizens for medical necessities.

On March 23, 2010, the former President signed a law called the Affordable Health Care Act, also known to everyone as ObamaCare. The Affordable Care Act didn’t happen until January 1, 2014. The goal for the Affordable Health Care Act was: expanding coverage, hold insurance companies accountable, lower health care costs, guarantee more choices, and enhance the quality of care for all Americans. Medicaid is a jointly funded, Federal-State health insurance program for low-income and needy people. It also covers children who are disabled and other people who are eligible to receive federally assisted income maintenance payments.

The cause of the Revolutionary War was to end tyranny in Great Britain, because the American Colonies were being taxed without representation. The thought of having more taxes like that is crazy to our society now. There has been a common argument about the United State’s healthcare crisis. People in America are starting to ask questions such as “Why am I paying so much money for healthcare and getting close to nothing back?” The truth is America pays the most money on healthcare but does in fact get nearly nothing back from their healthcare agencies. People are arguing about whether America should get universal healthcare.

Social Reform Period (1960-1970) During this time, Medicare and Medicaid were introduced by the President Lyndon Johnson. America looked like a “country that was blessed and had hospitals and professionals that were the envy of the world” (Stevens, 1996). However, doctors worked many hours because poor and elderly citizens had more access to health care. Doctors stated that “lower-class patients were often dissatisfied with their medical services and wanted government medicine” (Stevens, 1996). This caused a strained relationship with doctors and patients and patients didn’t want to receive care anymore.

A comparable example of government run health care is the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The VHA is generally considered to be poorly managed, with many veterans having difficulties making appointments and long wait times. Opposition to a single-payer system suggest that the issues with the VHA are reason to believe that the same issues will be present with universal government run health care. Also, according to NCPA.org, “Most public insurance in this country is actually administered by private insurance companies” and “most people with public insurance are in private sector health plans” (Goodman). This means that many positive examples of organization and administration we’ve seen so far with our public health care options, such as Medicare and Medicaid, have actually been outsourced to be managed by private

The United States currently abides by the Affordable Health Care Act’s legislation to provide millions of Americans affordable health care plans. Unfortunately, some individuals have struggled to pay for either the premiums that are offered by insurance companies or the penalty fee that is issued for not having any form of insurance. However, if changes are made to increase tax rates, free universal health care can be provided to all citizens. Under the Affordable Health Care Act, a marketplace consisting of many insurance providers is made available to the public. People can then narrow their insurance options based on their annual income, family size, and other factors.

Healthcare insurance have developed over years since it started since 1920 and that was a route for HMO. Healthcare insurance may be private like blue cross and public like Medicare, Medicaid. Most far reaching private health insurance programs take care of the expense of standard, preventive, and crisis human services techniques, furthermore most professionally prescribed medications, yet this was not generally the situation. The ascent of private protection was joined by the slow extension of open protection programs for the individuals who couldn 't secure scope through the business sector. For example, When an injured person goes to the emergency room and receives treatment, he has to pay for the treatment even if he has an insurance the hospital bills goes to the insurance or to the center of Medicare and Medicaid services and if he does not have any insurance he has pay from his pocket and if he is not able to pay it hospitals may write off the payment or payment is paid by some charity.

Many Americans were led to believe that the introduction of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2009 would put an end to disparities in health care access. While it did improve the situation for a small percentage of the population there are still many Americans who lack access to good quality health care. Health care access in America is determined by money and those in lower socioeconomic groups frequently tend to miss out on adequate care. In a recent health care report by the national health research foundation Kaiser Family Foundation, it was noted “health care disparities remain a persistent problem in the United States, leading to certain groups being at higher risk of being uninsured, having limited access to care, and experiencing poorer quality of care” (Kaiser Family Foundation). The current health care

Some people are fortunate enough to qualify for Medicare or Medicaid but those people are considered to be low income families. The United States should provide health care for all citizens. This would be beneficial because diseases and disorders would be caught earlier, the cost of medicine would decrease, and people would go to doctors for annual checkups. For instance many people die from diseases and disorders they are not aware of. High blood pressure is often

Briefly explain why according to this article average Americans cannot afford health care. (1-2 sentences) Is due to disparities in high healthcare cost, uneven distribution of resources, inequality of wealth and income. 6. A primary goal of the ACA was to improve access to health care. But affordability remains the problem.