Reply to A should be 200 words length A Healthcare should be a basic right for a

Reply to A should be 200 words length
A
Healthcare should be a basic right for all people. However, the United States continues to have thousands of people uninsured each year. In 2010, the Affordable Care Act was passed under the Obama administration to give people more access to healthcare that was affordable (n.d.) While the Affordable Care Act did help give millions of Americans the opportunity to get insurance, it has not been without its issues. Personally, I feel that the Affordable Care Act is incomplete and is limiting to many people who desperately need insurance, but do not meet the qualifications through the ACA to get it. Healthcare administrators have difficult positions when it comes to dealing with the uninsured. I see it in my own hospital. I recently switched departments, but used to work in the ED as an admissions RN and so many people would come in without insurance. They often are acutely ill and put a severe strain on resources. Healthcare is expensive and hospital visits are astronomical. When so many uninsured pour into the emergency department and get admitted, they are in many cases unable to pay. This passes on the cost to everyone else. Let’s get real for a minute. We all know a bag of IV fluids maybe costs a few dollars, but if you have ever seen an ER visit bill, you will notice that the charge is maybe a few hundred to a thousand dollars! Nurses aren’t cheap to pay either. So, each uninsured person that comes in seeking care can put a real strain on the entire system. It’s a difficult position to be in.
The ACA is not perfect and discludes undocumented immigrants, many elderly people, and other families who do not meet the specified income requirements. I live in California and while it may appear that Californians make a lot of money, the truth is that many families live around the poverty line. Many programs like food stamps and Affordable Care Act are based on federal income standards and are not adjusted for people who live in high cost of living areas. This leaves many families making too much to qualify but not making enough to afford coverage on their own. California also imposes a penalty for people who do not have insurance and people can pay up to $2400 in fines if they are uninsured for more than 2 months (n.d.).
The Biden administration is currently trying to revamp the Affordable Care Act and there are no plans at this time to repeal it. However, the Affordable Care Act can be a politically charged issue between Democrats and Republicans. Many Republicans are against the act and Democrats are for it. Because it is an imperfect plan that does not really solve the problem at hand (making sure the nation is insured) it remains a topic of debate.
My personal opinion is that we need a universal healthcare option available for all people. Healthcare is much less expensive preventatively vs. when people seek emergent care. I do not believe that the ACA should be completely repealed because we still need affordable options for people to gain healthcare. The ACA helped thousands of people have access to healthcare plans and penalties prevented people from being uninsured. However, there needs to be a repeal over income limits and how expensive the plans actually are. For many people, the plans are not affordable and place a financial hardship. It is easier and cheaper to pay the penalty fees than to pay the $600-800 for an out-of-pocket subsidized plan through the ACA. Healthcare insurance remains a challenging issue that requires revisitation. We must have a better system that is more equitable and fairer to all, regardless of ability to pay.
Fact sheet: Key facts about the uninsured population | KFF … KFF.org. (n.d.). Retrieved
December 13, 2021, from https://files.kff.org/attachment/fact-sheet-key-facts-about-the-uninsured-population.
Penalty. Covered California™. (n.d.). Retrieved December 13, 2021, from
https://www.coveredca.com/learning-center/tax-penalty-details-and-exemptions/penalty/.
Reply to B should be 200 words length
B
The Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act is a health reform law that President Barack Obama signed in 2010. This law has some healthcare policies intended to improve the accessibility of healthcare insurance by all citizens in the United States. The insurance coverage has cost-sharing reductions and premium tax credits that help families, and low-income individuals acquire affordable healthcare services. The United States government opens an enrollment period to allow individuals to switch or buy insurance plans every year. This discussion post discusses reasons for keeping the Affordable Care Act how the current conditions raise the concern that it should be revised.
I support the Affordable Care Act because it has brought positive health outcomes in the United States. Initially, healthcare systems in the United States were faced many challenges. One of the primary challenges was the increased cost of receiving healthcare services (Griffith et al., 2017). However, the Affordable Care Act was introduced, and all individuals started receiving affordable healthcare services. Another reason why the Affordable Care Act should be kept is to continue improving patients’ care. Before introducing the Affordable Care Act, many individuals, especially those with low income, were not fully seeking healthcare services. The cost of treatment was high, and many individuals could not afford to pay for services. Therefore, improving care among the population with different health conditions was challenging.
There are some components of the Affordable Care Act that impact individuals unjustly. First, the Affordable Care Act was introduced to reduce health care costs. However, taxes were increased to cover the expenses spent in the Affordable Care Act (Vaughan Prengaman et al., 2018). Taxes were mainly raised in pharmaceutical sales and medical devices. Another component was health insurance coverage to enable all individuals to access affordable healthcare services. However, the ideas have affected many employees because many organizations have cut the working hours to void covering employees. According to the Affordable Care Act laws, a company with more than fifty full-time employees should offer to pay for insurance covers for all employees.
The Affordable Care Act has helped many individuals, but some parts should be revised for some reasons. First, the Affordable Care Act is supposed to be modified because the costs of receiving healthcare services have not been reduced for all individuals, especially those who do not have subsidies (Vaughan Prengaman et al., 2018). Therefore, some consumers may have a care plan covering unnecessary benefits such as maternity care if they do not need it. Second, the government should remove tax penalties for individuals who are insured. The federal tax penalties were removed, but some states take advantage of penalizing insured patients.
Conclusion
The Affordable Care Act is a health reform law that President Barack Obama signed in 2010. I support the Affordable Care Act because it has brought positive health outcomes in the United States. Another reason why the Affordable Care Act should be kept is to continue improving patients’ care. The Affordable Care Act has helped many individuals, but some parts should be revised for some reasons. The Affordable Care Act is supposed to be modified because the costs of receiving healthcare services have not been reduced for all individuals, especially those who do not have subsidies. Also, the government should remove tax penalties for individuals who are insured.
References
Griffith, K., Evans, L., & Bor, J. (2017). The Affordable Care Act reduced socioeconomic disparities in health care access. Health Affairs, 36(8), 1503-1510. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/abs/10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0083
Vaughan Prengaman, M., Welle, D. L., Ridenour, N., & Mueller, K. J. (2018). Diverse stakeholder perspectives on rural health care reform in a US state that rejected the affordable care act: A case study. Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d309/7cfb30234d49c2ea0dadb54257b0f1f7ad17.pdf