Government Intervention Analysis – Low Income Healthcare

ANSWER

Affordable Care Act Expansion

The affordable care act, also known as Obama care, came into play in 2010. The aim of the act was to ensure that more people had health insurance and that the low-income population was protected in the healthcare sector. The act also aimed at improving the quality of healthcare and insurance, regulate the insurance industry and reduce the amount of money spent on health care in the US. The act came with new changes, such as insurance companies cannot raise premiums for children with pre-existing conditions or disability, adults who were not covered due to pre-existing conditions could now be covered (Trachtman, 2020).  ACA also aimed at ensuring that small businesses got coverage for their employees. The new tax credits enabled them to afford insurance for their employees.

The affordable care act has been beneficial to low-income citizens, citizens with pre-existing conditions, and the unemployed because the act ensures that their medical needs are met. The act has been helpful for many citizens in the country, but it has also invited some controversy whereby premiums have become more expensive, especially for people who had health insurance before Obama care (Trachtman, 2020).  One can also be fined if they do not have insurance and they do not obtain an exemption.  The doctors are also receiving a heavy workload with the costs being placed on them. There are also tax increases and higher insurance premiums. Employee hours are being cut by businesses to avoid covering them. The legislation primarily benefits the low-income citizens and hurts the high-income citizens. The legislation has, however, been politicized, and therefore the pros and cons of the legislation are almost the same. There are, however, populations that have benefited from it, and others have been hurt.

Many changes have been rolled out in hospitals since the introduction of the affordable care act. Many states have implemented the legislation, with others still remaining adamant about not adopting ACA.  There have constant threats of the legislation being repealed and passage of the new tax-reform legislation. Despite the many controversies surrounding the affordable care act, there are positive externalities tied to the legislation, such as children remaining under cover of their parents even when they are out of school and not living with their parents (Trachtman, 2020). This gives children time to find their footing and receive healthcare while still finding their footing, which eventually leads to them becoming productive members of the society who pay taxes and give other low-income citizens a chance to be covered.

The ACA has increased the gap between providing patients with the mechanism for paying for healthcare and receiving the actual healthcare. The legislation is applauded for the number of people who have acquired insurance since it started in 2010, but people do not talk about the number of people who have lost their insurance since the ACA rollout (Campbell & Shore-Sheppard, 2020). The affordable care act has also increased the taxes for middle-income earners, and the insurance premiums have gone up. The costs have also increased due to the development of new agencies resulting from the new rules that ACA has brought about.  Regulatory compliance costs have increased, and hospital employment costs have kept soaring. An economically speaking ACA has subtracted $250 billion from GDP (Campbell & Shore-Sheppard, 2020). There has also been a loss in growth work hours.

ACA expansion is a good idea because it increases the chances of low-income citizens to get healthcare at a lower price, but there should be some changes made to the act to ensure that it covers all members of society, including middle-income employees.

References

Campbell, A. L., & Shore-Sheppard, L. (2020). The Social, Political, and Economic Effects of the Affordable Care Act: Introduction to the Issue. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 6(2), 1-40.

Trachtman, S. (2020). When state policy makes national politics: the case of “obamacare” marketplace implementation. Journal of health politics, policy, and law, 45(1), 111-141.