The Accountable Care Act or the Obamacare is an act that has increased healthcare access for many US citizens and has dramatically addressed the gap in n healthcare access and healthcare coverage. The ACA is an act that was enacted in 2010 and was developed to increase access to healthcare insurance by providing subsidies to help lower premiums for individuals with low household incomes. Medicaid expansion is the primary development under the healthcare law reform. Medicaid raised the eligibility for the program to about 137% of the national poverty level and lifted restrictions on having dependents and pregnant mothers’ access to quality healthcare services (McKenna et al., 2018). The Act has various effects on different stakeholders, as shall be discussed in this essay.
Stakeholders Affected by the ACA
The Act affects stakeholders differently. The primary aim was to increase access to healthcare services because financial barriers have been for long the most significant barriers to access quality healthcare services. ACA requires input from the state and federal governments (implementers), patients (consumers/ beneficiaries), and health care providers (Consumers) (McKenna et al., 2018). The state and federal governments are the implementors of the Act. The federal government provides incentives for the acts’ implementation. The state government decides whether to implement the Act and to what extent the Act will be implemented. The healthcare institutions are the providers of healthcare services and have several stipulated roles by the ACA. The Act will impact them directly and indirectly as both implementors and consumers of the Act (McKenna et al., 2018). Patients are the primary beneficiaries of the ACT. As mentioned earlier, the Act will increase access to quality healthcare services which will considerably affect their health. The ACT has succeeded in achieving its objectives variably but has several drawbacks, as this paper will address in subsequent sections.
The Financial Impact of the ACA on Each Group Of Stakeholders
The affordable care act has had various financial implications on the state and federal governments. The first effect was increased healthcare spending because the federal and state governments share the costs implied by the ACA. At the beginning of the program, the federal government covered all costs of the coverage for the newly added individuals from the Mandatory Medicaid savings already documented, and the coverage rates have decreased gradually, leaving up to a 10% burden on the state governments (McKenna et al., 2018). The ACA presents higher spending and fiscal deficits that threaten the program’s sustainability.
The financial institutions have benefitted significantly, including reducing uncompensated healthcare costs by expanding healthcare insurance coverage and healthcare services access. The Act has reduced the financial strain on healthcare institutions by creating a shared pool of funds, allowing institutions to focus on quality and safe patient care delivery (McKenna et al., 2018).
Patients have significantly benefitted from the ACA subsidized healthcare insurance coverage. They also have access to healthcare services for premiums way lower than the usual healthcare costs. However, the Act has led to a rebound increase in taxes to cover the federal and state governments (Caswell, K. J., & Waidmann, 2019).
Benefits of the ACA n Each Group of Stakeholders
The state and federal governments have significantly benefitted from the ACA. The ACA has achieved its primary goal and objective of increasing healthcare insurance coverage. More than 17 million Americans acquired healthcare insurance through the ACA by 2016, a considerable step towards achieving the national coverage targets (Mazurenko et al., 2018). Insurance coverage has helped reduce the federal burden of diseases through their early detection and management. The effects have been reduced healthcare sending of chronic and severe conditions because they are well-managed early in their progression (Mazurenko et al., 2018).
The Act has increased access to and utilization of healthcare services to the patients. The ACA has improved access to emergency care, prescription drugs, mental health, and home care services (Tilhou et al., 2020). These services are also available at affordable costs. Individuals with underlying conditions are protected from insurance coverage discrimination hence access to quality care and better quality of life. The ACA has led to increased quality of patient healthcare services, an added advantage to the patients.
Healthcare institutions, through the ACA, receive incentives to prevent readmissions and improve post-discharge care, thus enhancing the quality of care they provide (Tilhou et al., 2020).
Order this paper