Communications Consortium, Essay Example

There is currently a debate concerning the utility of the Affordable Care Act. While there is no doubt that this plan is helping families gain greater access to affordable care in many situations, this legislation has in reality contributed to the disparity between groups of people that are able to access this government mandated health insurance. A majority of the plans that are available on the market are expensive, but considered to be well worthwhile for families of at least four (HHS, n.d.). $700 per month for general and emergency care is beneficial for individuals that will frequently take advantage of these packages, which is especially the case for young families with children that need to receive regular well visits.

On the other hand, the plan costs approximately the same price for individuals. In many cases, young people are calling the health insurance extremely unaffordable, as these costs can add up to more than $7000 per year for services that they are not certain they will use. Even plans that consist of only emergency care cost approximately $3500 annually. It is evident that the Affordable Care Act was made primarily with families in mind. As a consequence, it is only helping the families while hurting the remainder of the nation’s youth. These added expenses are simply not feasible for many young working adults, who are still concerned with paying off college loans and landing their first jobs.

Many young adults questioned about the Affordable Care Act have noted their dismay, stating that the fine for not having health insurance is more affordable than the health insurance itself in many cases. These individuals are concerned about what will happen to them during an emergency, but they also believe that the cost for their hospital care will in many cases, be less without insurance than their yearly insurance plan would be. As a result, many of them are willing to take the risk and be subject to the fine. Although the actual price of the federal fine for being without health insurance continues to increase, individuals that have not subscribed to a plan still pay less than $600 annually as a punishment. Therefore, this is seen as a more affordable alternative, even though these individuals are dismayed that they do not have the money to be able to cover this added expense.

Overall, it seems that the Affordable Care Act is designed to benefit families, while it is meant to detriment the individual. This is especially the case for individuals from low income backgrounds. In many cases, people are not able to subscribe to health insurance programs because they do not have jobs. Therefore, not only are they not being given this benefit as a part of their work, they are unable to pay out of pocket for additional costs. This situation becomes even direr when these individuals apply to government funded programs like Medicaid and find that they are not eligible. For some people, it seems that the Affordable Care Act makes health care even less accessible. It is necessary to consider these problems and mention them to your representative. If you cannot access affordable health care, it is time to fight to make alterations to this law to ensure that truly equal health care can be acquired by all.

References

Communications Consortium. (n.d.). Op-Eds. Retrieved from http://www.ccmc.org/node/16179

HHS. (n.d.). Affordable Care Act. Retrieved from http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/rights/\