‘Over 105 million people living in America today no longer have to worry about having their health benefits cut off’ (Secretary WH) . Since enacted, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been able to provide for millions of lower and middle class Americans a secure and reasonable healthcare plan that best suits their medical needs. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) also commonly refer to as ‘Obamacare’ was a solution implemented in 2010 to help reform the precarious healthcare system in the United States. The ACA imposed three key reforms adopted from the successful Massachusetts system of healthcare. First, the ACA established a “guaranteed issue and community rating requirements” which essential barred healthcare insurances …show more content…
Burwell on which they were asked to evaluate whether the executive branch’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act was consistent with the language of the law as enumerated by congress. In other words, the Supreme Court had to tackle the issue about whether the ACA tax credits are available in states that have a federal exchange instead of a state exchange. States, according to the law are given full autonomy to form an “exchange” provision of their own that would allow people seeking healthcare coverage to shop for individual health plans. However, if states fail to implement an exchange then the federal government’s Health and Human Services (HHS) would directly intervene to establish one for the …show more content…
Burwell. As chief justice Roberts elucidated in his majority opinion that “such Exchange, under section 18041 instructs the Secretary to establish and operate the same exchange that state was directed to establish under section 18031…. because they do not differ in any meaningful way”. So therefore, state exchanges and federal exchanges must uniformly meet the same requirements, perform the same functions, and serve the same purposes. It is indeed fair to say that the wording of the phrase does explicitly mention that exchanges established by ‘states’ only would receive refundable tax credit, however such interpretation would definitely destabilize the individual insurance market in any state with a federal exchange, and also likely to create the very ‘death spiral’ that congress designed the act to avoid. In which the cost of medical premiums will rise significantly, the number of people buying healthcare insurance to decline, and insurers leaving the market entirely. Chief Justice Roberts also explained how the structure of section 36B itself suggests that tax credit are not limited to state exchanges. Section 36B(a) initially provides that tax credits “shall be allowed” for any “applicable taxpayer.” Furthermore, section 36B(c)(1) then defines an “applicable taxpayer” as ‘someone who (among other things) has a household income between 100 percent and 400 percent of the
Plaintiffs in King v. Burwell filed a lawsuit to the United States District Court for the Eastern District for Virginia, challenging the IRS rule that tax subsidies are available to all eligible Americans regardless of whether they purchase insurance on a state-run or federally-facilitated Exchange. Among other things, plaintiffs argued that they will be economically injured by the IRS ruling because they will be required to choose between buying health insurance or paying the Minimum Coverage Provision penalty. Plaintiffs also claimed that the purpose of the ACA was to induce States to set up their own Exchanges by withdrawing tax subsidies from States that chose to allow the federal government to operate Exchanges on their behalf.
that expand on existing state regulation of medical coverage. The law requires timetables that started with twelve procurements in September 2010, with choices and execution all through 2011-2013. The perfection of these medical coverage laws apply to the dispatch of medical coverage Marketplaces or Exchanges, which went live inside of every one of the 50 states as of October 1, 2013, and offer strategies that produce results for buyers and individual enrollees starting January 1, 2014.
These “cost-sharing reductions” are not the same subsidies that were at issue in King v. Burwell, which decided that certain tax credits would remain available for eligible Americans regardless of which Marketplace (state or Federally-facilitated) was used to purchase health insurance. “Cost-sharing reductions” help individuals pay for out-of-pocket costs by reducing cost-sharing (deductibles, copayments, etc) on health insurance plans. These reductions are available to individuals whose income is between 100% and 250% of the federal poverty line and who sign up for insurance through a Marketplace. House v. Burwell is still pending at the lowest level of the federal court system. The Judge assigned to the case has not yet ruled on whether the plaintiffs should be allowed to bring the case at all (called
Implementation of the ACA would require an extensive expansion of the Medicaid program to low income adults in each state.³ The Congressional Budget Office projects that a previously 30 million uninsured Americans, approximately 92% of the legal, non-elderly population, will have coverage by 2022.³ The federal government will pay for 100% of the costs of expanding Medicaid programs until 2016, and then gradually fade their contribution to 90% by 2020.³ Currently, expansion of the Medicaid program is voluntary and several states have stated that they intend to turn down their share of the billions of dollars that has been made available to each state solely for the expansion of this program.³ States deciding to not expand their Medicaid program will not only exclude many poor, vulnerable families from access to an important health care program, but will also exclude themselves from an economic stimulus for their state and thereby decrease the strength of their health care delivery systems by not allowing them to be more financially stable for the long
Charles, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was intended to correct the historical issues related to cost and access in the health care system in America (Pagel, Bates, Goldmann & Koller, 2017). The ACA was an attempt by the US government to ensure access to health insurance was available for more Americans. The historical role of the government in health care prior to the ACA had been that the government should only have a little involvement in the delivery and reimbursement of services with respect to having a role in policy making for the protection of the public’s health (Williams & Torrens, 2008). The role of government involvement has changed through the Medicare and Medicaid government programs. Today, these programs have the
While researching the state of Colorado for different types of healthcare policies, the most talked about policy was all centered around the State lead Connect for Health Colorado. Colorado’s path to building this insurance marketplace started years before the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In 2006 the General Assembly passed the Senate Bill 06-208 which created the Blue Ribbon Commission for health care reform. The goal of the marketplace was to assist individuals and smaller employers to find insurance options offered through the state. There were only a few minor changes made in Colorado prior to the passing of the ACA.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also referred to as the "Affordable Care Act" or "ACA" or "Obama Care") is the major health care reform bill passed into law on March 23, 2010. The debates surrounding the PPACA have been volatile at times, and continue to be the most intense public examinations of any piece of legislation in our recent history. The affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is ripe for repeal. For the American public, there are ample reasons for dissatisfaction: higher costs; arbitrary and sometimes absurd rule-making; bureaucratization of an already overly bureaucratized sector of the economy; incompatibility with personal freedom and religious liberty; enormous spending and heavy taxation; and widely acknowledged design flaws, evident in the ACA’s hopelessly complex and unworkable subsidy schemes, boondoggle bailouts, and collapsing co-ops. Nonetheless, other ACA legal challenges were still facing the healthcare law. In December 2015, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court arguing against the constitutionality of the employer insurance mandate within the Affordable Care Act. The law contains a number of experiments designed to drive down health costs, such as Accountable Care Organizations. The whole idea is to move the system away from paying for volume and toward paying for value. We still don't know whether that will happen. But it's fair to say that reducing the cost of health care will make it easier to expand coverage. The nation’s gains in health care coverage and delivery system design over the last several years have made measurable differences in the lives of millions of Americans. There are many ways to achieve a high-performing health system. But it’s critical that the nation remain committed to this goal.
Dr. Donald A. Barr in Introduction to US Health Policy discusses the different methods in which states attempt to expand health care coverage throughout his book. In chapter eight, The Uninsured, Barr focusses on one such successful expansion. Massachusetts increases the number of people insured in their state through individual mandate, a term used to describe when a government requires individuals to obtain health care (240). After the success of Massachusetts, the federal government attempted a similar system through a policy called the Affordable Care Act (ACA). How does the ACA compare to the Massachusetts’s policy? Though the ACA was made to reflect the Massachusetts’s individual mandate policy, they also have some key differences.
The Affordable care act was enacted in order to reform the health insurance industry and to make health insurance more affordable and to provide better health care coverage for the citizens of the United States. The Obama administration set out with the goals of: expanding access to health insurance, lower the uninsured rate, and to reduce the costs of healthcare. The focus of the act is to use regulations on the federal and state level to maximize health care coverage for all citizens of the U.S. In this section I will examine the factors that have come to play into the creation of the affordable care act and the back ground
The challenge between both federal and state authority is how it has been brought up with its federalist structure of American government. Debating over what kind of power should belong to each, most of the power goes to the states under the Constitution to govern daily actions. Since the early 1970s, the federal government has been regulating areas that deal with insurance. However, everything the state does has to be subject to anticipation of the federal government when a lot of concerns start coming into play whether if it about interstate commerce, defense or foreign relations. Fear that states could get overwhelmed with influential lobbying, insurers would seek to weaken consumer protections and raise prices on the insurance. While it has done some good for some over the past few years, Obamacare, or also known as the Affordable Care Act, has helped drop the uninsured rate from 18 to 12.9 percent, allowing more Americans get health insurance However, it is failing to keep the promise of low cost, affordability and care quality. In the long run, Americans will not get the coverage needed to sustain the supposing opportunity of cheap health care. Its flawed political negotiations and trade-offs gives favor to corporate stakeholders in the medical industry over patients and family’s needs for medical support. Having a weak federal oversight of the programs running within the states
The second title of the Affordable Care Act is the Role of Public Programs. Medicaid will be extended to lower income families and the federal governement will take over these cost. It will simplify the medicaid process and provide better care to the individuals. All hospitals will be expected to provide care to any patient with medicaid services. This title will provide an office to improve management on both a state and federal level for medicaid and medicare individuals (Responsible Reform for Middle Class,
In 2010 the American government passed new health care legislation, called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), in order to reform the United States health care system. This health care reform opens the door for some Americans who have never been eligible for affordable health care insurance to obtain it beginning in 2014 (Sparer, 2011). All the states will enact this legislation but some will limit the provision provided to their citizens (Kaiser Commission, 2013). North Carolina is one of the states that have chosen not to enact all of the ACA’s provisions (Kaiser Commission, 2013). In this paper, I will look at health care
In the first quarter of 2016 the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) legislation has lead to 20 million Americans gaining healthcare coverage, and a record low uninsured rate of 8.6 percent (U. S. Department of Health & Human Services [DHHS], 2016). Yet the verdict is out on whether the PPACA has been an improvement or a liability holding back the United States (US) healthcare system’s potential. The legislation was first integrated as a guide to the US healthcare system when it was signed by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010 (Rosenbaum, 2011). It planned to fulfill goals of improving access, affordability, and quality in healthcare (U. S. Department of Health & Human Services [DHHS], 2015). Full implementation of the healthcare reform was established on January 1, 2014, marking the start of individual and employer responsibility provisions, state health insurance exchanges, Medicaid expansions, and individual and small-employer group subsidies (Rosenbaum, 2011). As a whole the PPACA intended to “reframe the financial relationship between Americans and the health-care system to stem the health insurance crisis that has enveloped individuals, families, communities, the health-care system, and the national economy” (Rosenbaum, p. 131, para. 2). While the legislation has not fully
Once the foundation of the U.S. health care system was reviewed, we began our study of the new regulations. The Affordable Care Act contained three main provisions. The first provision was expanding Health Insurance Coverage. Elements of the regulation included offering coverage to the vast majority of currently uninsured Americans by expanding access to Medicaid to cover all non-elderly individuals below 133 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL), and establishing state-based health insurance exchanges, which will offer Americans a range of private health plan options, with federal tax
Since the initiation of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, Americans have been put back in charge of their individual health care. Under this new law, a health insurance marketplace provides a haven for individuals without insurance to gain coverage. Just this year, citizens found out early whether they qualified for Medicare or the CHIP formally known as the Children’s Health Insurance Program. So much is to be learned about the Affordable Care act and this paper provides the roles of the different governmental branches, along with other important factors associated with this law.