The Affordable Care Act for Society

The Affordable Care Act is not perfect. It was not when Congress passed it in 2010 and like most laws, ACA will never be perfect. I am quite versed in the Affordable Care Act due to my health issues including cancer. There is more than two pros and two cons but I will notate the ones I feel are important to me. The first pro is the Affordable Care Act protects people with pre-existing conditions from being denied health insurance. The ACA gives everyone a lifelong guarantee that health insurers cannot, under any circumstances, discriminate against them based on pre-existing health conditions. This includes cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure. The second pro is all new plans are required to provide free preventative care. The ACA requires that most health plans cover preventive care—like cancer screenings, vaccines, birth control, blood pressure tests and more—at no additional cost. Under the ACA, women have saved hundreds on oral contraceptives. These normally have low deductibles or co-pays, which is very handy to those who are proactive in their healthcare. The cons are that anyone without insurance will pay a fee. The aim of Obamacare is to ensure people are insured all year round. Therefore, if one is uninsured or does not have an exemption, one is fined since it is considered that not having insurance means you are passing your costs onto others. The fine is/was expected to rise over time. The second con is the employer mandate states that all companies with more than 50 employees must provide their workers with health coverage. The downside of this is that some businesses may have to cut employee hours to avoid paying for their healthcare. Therefore, these employees not only will have a penalty if they cannot acquire healthcare but their income is cut. My personal thoughts come from working in a physician’s office and listening to patients. Providers need available information on quality and cost for every patient. As we all know, you cannot improve what you do not know. Healthcare systems need to focus patients on getting the right care in the right location. This means care delivery across separate facilities and excellent services across geography. The person I interviewed voiced concerns that she was not familiar with the general concept of insurance and she had serious reservations about spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a policy she may not end up using. Considering most lower-tier plans under Obamacare do not offer any out-of-network coverage, she feared going to a doctor who is not on her list, and end up being on the hook for the full cost of the visit. I could see from interviewing her that she cares very deeply about health care reform. We both agreed that the fight for America’s health could only be won with bipartisan support from both congressional leaders and the health care community at large. The interviewee said that the current healthcare really helped her in regards to having a pre-existing health condition; insurers can no longer drop her or refuse to cover her. She has Type 1 Diabetes, so she does not know where she would be without the Affordable Care Act. The hindrance comes with the cost of the premium for the healthcare plan that she needs to cover all healthcare needs.

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