The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Case Study Example

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) (2010) aims for increasing health care accessibility across populations in the United States, while ensuring public spending on health care is kept from rising (Howard & Feyman, 2013). Indeed, the task legislators faced was one of the hardest in the history of the United States; millions of   lost their jobs due to the economic crisis and consequently lost their health insurance coverage (Kenney, Zuckerman,  Dubay, Lynch, Haley & Anderson, 2012). This increased the percentage of people in the United States without health insurance, creating an extra burden for  to care for those who cannot afford to care for themselves (Kenney et al. 2012). President Obama communicated the healthcare reform as follows:

“I think it’s important for us to make sure that 46 million people who don’t have health insurance get it. And I think it’s important for us to bend the cost curve, separate and apart from coverage issues, just because the system we have right now is unsustainable and hugely inefficient and uncompetitive.” (Fletcher and Butterworth, 2009)

Amendments, Current Status, Dates, Deadlines and Penalties

The President signed the Act in 2010, and the Supreme Court upheld the legislation in 2012 (PPACA, 2010). During the implementation process of the Act, several modifications and deadlines were introduced. The deadline for signing up for the health insurance exchange system, Access Health CT, was December 23, 2013 since the federal health law took effect in January 2014 (PPACA, 2010). People who signed up for Access Health CT plans had to pay the first month’s premium by January 17, 2014. Tthe legislation include required that “Americans to maintain ‘minimum essential’ health insurance coverage” or be penalized (PPACA, 2010If individuals do not acquire the minimum coverage required by the law and are not exempt, they would have to make a “penalty payment” (Supreme Court, 2011 ). The shared responsibility payment is a form of penalty, not a tax, according to the text of the law; however, it needs to be paid to the IRS. During the discussion of the law, 27 modifications were made to the text (PPACA, 2010). These modifications included the extension of coverage enrollment deadlines, small business participation which was put on hold, and the doubling of allowed deductibles to increase the take-up rate of the cover (PPACA, 2010).

Future Implications

Impact on Businesses. Obamacare, while increasing employee contribution levels, also provides incentives for small businesses to support their offering of health insurance coverage for employees (Fletcher & Butterworth, 2009). S Further, small businesses would be provided incentives through health care tax credits and medical loss ratio rebates (Kenney et al. 2012). Nonetheless, a proportion of the rising health care cost will be required to be covered by businesses (Furchtgott-Roth, 2012). The employer mandate also forces larger companies with more than 50 full- time employees to either provide them with health insurance or pay a penalty of $2,000 (Kenney et al,. 2012).

Impact on Uninsured and Unemployed. According to Howard and Feyman (2013), the recent Medical Progress Report notes that (Howard and Feyman, 2013), the reform aims to shift the cost increase of health insurance onto taxpayers. While the main aim of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was to provide access to health care policies for the 46 million uninsured people in America, (Howard & Feyman, 2013). (Kenney et al., 2012).

References

Fletcher, M. & Butterworth, S. (2009). Obama: Health care reform is essential to rebuilding economy. Washington Post.Retrieved from: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/07/22/a_news_conference_to_push_hard.html.

Furchtgott-Roth, D. (2012). How Obamacare Increases Unemployment. Manhattan Institute. Retrieved from http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/ir_6.htm

Howard, P., & Feyman, Y. (2013). Rhetoric and reality: The Obamacare evaluation project: cost. Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. Retrieved from: http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/mpr_14.htm#.UyZHo85qQgQ.

Kenney, G., Zuckerman, S., Dubay, L., Lynch, V., Haley, J., & Anderson, N. (2012). Timely Analysis of Immediate Health Policy Issues. Urban Institute. Retrieved from http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412630-opting-in-medicaid.pdf

Supreme Court of the United States. (2011). Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The Eleventh Circuit.No. 11–393. Argued March 26, 27, 28, 2012—Decided June 28, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). (2010). In Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from: http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/rights/law/index.html.