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What Is The Affordable Care Act?

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The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was the biggest milestone to date in American health care policy (Saldin, 2011). There is nothing more complex or controversial in recent history than the passing of the ACA in 2010 (Davidson, 2016). The three goals of the ACA are to expand access to quality care with affordable insurance for all, work with innovation to lower health care cost, and shift focus from treatment to prevention (Rosenbaum, 2011).

The main goal behind the ACA was to provide access to affordable, quality health care by having a high-quality health insurance (Health Care Reform, 2015). There are over 319 million American in the U.S. and around 30 million of those are uninsured and underinsured. This was to be accomplished through …show more content…

In the 21st century, medicine has become very dependent on technology (Kumar, 2011). With that being said technology is one of the most costly concepts in the health care system today. While you need the best technology to provide the best quality of care, unfortunately, this drives up the cost. The cost associated with health care is a major factor in the number of Americans without coverage (Popescu, 2015). The passing the ACA into law was intended to drive down these health care costs.

This was to be accomplished through education and preventative care, the third goal (Strategic Goals, n.d.). By focusing on this strategy of promoting preventative care, this can help combat medical bills (Adepoju, Preston, & Gonzales, 2017). This cuts down on overall health care spending (Weiner, Marks, & Pauly, 2017). While there are serious health concerns within the upper and middle classes, there are significant issues going on in low-income populations, particularly inner-city and rural areas. The ACA was designed with initiatives to bridge these disparities. To combat these diseases, there is going to have to be better patient education initiatives. In these areas, there are few places to access quality care for these individuals. However, if we educated them on the importance of their health and controlling chronic illnesses such as hypertension, and promote prevention services, the health care system and the patients would both benefit. Preventative health

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