ACA Improvements in American Healthcare

What improvements in medical care did the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) create?

The ACA expanded Medicaid by providing funds for states to increase the number of its lower income citizens (those who have incomes less138% of federal poverty level) who were able to get medical coverage under Medicaid. Some states were able to opt out of offering this coverage due to a Supreme Court ruling in 2014. Since then some of these states that opted out have opted in again.

The ACA created online exchanges (Marketplaces) for individual s and small businesses to shop for standardized plans. These plans are created and operated by private insurance companies, not the federal government.

The ACA created tax credits to subsidize for Marketplace plans in 2014. Those subsidies were greatly increased as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Making them more generous to more people. The Inflation Reduction Act extended these benefits through 2025. The Big Beautiful Bill eliminates these enhanced subsidies.

The ACA allowed young adults to stay on their parent's insurance until age 26.

The ACA, through these improvements reduced the national uninsured rate from about 24% to about 10%.

There were several improvements to the quality of insured healthcare and protections to those insured.

The ACA prohibited insurers from denying coverage or charging extra for preexisting conditions. This prohibition increased the number of persons who could be covered, and also reduced the cost of coverage to individuals.

The ACA mandated coverage for many preventive services like screenings, vaccinations, contraceptive care at no cost by those insured. This requirement alone reduced the long term cost of health care by catching conditions before they required very expensive care (cancer, diabetes, cardiac disease, etc).

The ACA prohibited limits on the annual and/or lifetime limit on care cost by insurers.

The ACA required plans to set limits on out of pocket spending for health care. This requirement was required in the Biden Inflation Reduction Act for those on Medicare. The Annual Out of Pocket expense for those on Medicare was reduced to $2000.

The ACA required insurers to spend a minimum percentage of premiums on care or issue rebates to consumers. Personally, I remember in the early years of the ACA when my monthly premium payment were reduced because the insurer (BlueCross/BlueShield) was required to make rebates. I guess their actuaries have improved their estimates in later years.

The ACA mandated what it called Ten Essential Health Benefits which included hospitalization, drugs, and maternity care. This mandate is the one that created great resistance from some, who complained that “Men don't need maternity care”. However, because of this mandate, all who buy heath insurance get quality care covered by their policy.

All in all, the ACH increased the cost of health insurance...but it greatly reduced the long term cost of healthcare.

Obamacare ("ACA") was designed to be incapable of lasting without continual government support, i.e. increasing taxes.
As bonefang indicated Joey is carrying the water (lying, exaggerating, deceiving) for Democrats.

LOL Bone, good one!

Woody, the next two years will tell if the aca will continue because most of the money the federal govt provides for subsidies to those less than 65 who get insurance from the marketplace plans and from Medicaid will be gone, it seems to be. But the other regulations that were created by the ACA will continue. Plans will be more expensive but they will cover more.

Just as those w tds hate everything trump so do those who hated Obama will hate everything he is responsible for.

ACA had a lot of good things going for it but it’s called Obama care and the proof of it’s effectiveness is that no one has been able to offer anything close to it.

And so 320 million other Americans have to pay more taxes.

I don't know a thing about ACA other than it was an insurance forced on Temp Workers who did not have any insurance.
My factory paid outstanding benefits (medical and savings) to our Full time workers but around 2010 my factory stopped hiring full time workers and went to Temp Services for the work force.
These Temp Services did not, may not offer medical and savings benefits.

Thus the ACA was born/created! as a solution for those in need of insurance. "Workers hated it" being forced on them. They cried about the lower wages their TEMP Employer paid them, compared to the wages the Full time worker received, for preforming the same job! I can still hear them bitching about having to pay $125-$200 per month based on single or family plans, but a few years later many workers were glad they had some sort of insurance, to help cover some medical expenses! Plus several started getting hired full time based on their performance.

The GOP has always hated the ACA, Obamacare as they like to call it! YET, THEY have not produced a better Plan, just concepts of Plans!
GOP, DO SOMETHING about coming up with a better plan, that cry and bitch about it's the Democrats!

When the ACA was passed. Democrats opined that approximately 30 million people were without healthcare. Now some 15 years later. There are about 30 million people without healthcare!

Bcva...EXACTLY correct

Bcva...EXACTLY correct

iblondo09 - you got it wrong. Everyone " has " healthcare. It's healthcare INSURANCE that's the issue.

If someone NEEDS treatment, they go to a hospital ER - they WILL get treatment. Some level of treatment, at least. You might not get a heart transplant, or a lung transplant. Then again, you just might.

So those 30 million who didn't sign up for it ? I remember that being discussed when Obama was prez. He said those folks would have to pay a penalty on their income tax. We never hear anything about THAT now, do we ? Wanna bet THAT isn't enforced in any way ... ?

And the whole thing about not being able to choose your own doctor ... and the hanging question : if you're old or seen as being too frail - who makes the decision to end treatment, that your life is not worth continuing ??

Those were some of the big objections at the time. They seem to have been forgotten though ...

And yet the ACA is still a failure, the ACA has caused us taxpayers premiums to skyrocket because the ACA is a tax on working class health insurance premiums.

And these COVID era subsidies are for people making enough money to cover themselves.

A single man making 100k a year should not be getting working peoples tax dollars for his health insurance premiums.

The ACA costs more than it is worth.

problem is, thanks to John McCain we are stuck with the ACA and there is no way to roll back our premiums.

Dems want universal, who knows what the Republicans want, Repubs are too divided on the issue.

Tough for the Dems to work with the republicans on anything when Dems spend 24/7 calling Republicans fascists Nazis.

When Obamacare was started so many people who were part time lost their insurance coverage. I used to be able to go to any Dr.. Now my insurance company tells me what Dr's I may see. The waiting list to see a new Dr. can be 4 to 6 months. It's turned into a real mess.

Propaganda you forgot a few things

It required people to purchase health insurance or pay a penalty whether they wanted insurance or not

it required taxpayers to pay for health insurance for other people

It required insurance companies to covered things the the consumer did not want, therefore raising the cost of health care for all.

It increased health insurance for those already purchasing it in order to pay for things they did not want and pay for people who could not afford it

It required people to give up their life long doctors. if you like your health care plan, you can keep it was a lie

Obamacare has increased the cost of health care and health insurance for everyone

On a per person basis, Obamacare is far more expensive than anticipated for taxpayers

Obamacare’s “expansion” is due in large part to improper Medicaid enrollments. 3.3. million people are on Medicaid who do not actually qualify

You can claim benefits, but you are overlooking that the government is now paying for health insurance from taxes paid by people who work.

If the government paid for housing costs, it would be a financial benefit for those receiving housing but it costs everyone else.

It is easy to proclaim the benefits some people receive when receiving when the government just takes money from other people to give things that people dont need to people that cant afford it

My wife and I were made to drop our Company health insurance when we turned 65 and pick up Medicare.
Knowing Medicare alone would not be good enough we each chose a Supplement insurance to go with our Medicare.
All is good for us, thus far... Supplements have gone up 10-20 a year but "at each fifth year cycle" it has gone up 50-60 dollars, then back to 10-20 per year.

Like I said, I do not know much about ACA but instead of bitching about how terrible it is, may be get your GOP to come up with a real plan, Not just concepts.

Tonyb, are you equally upset that the your taxes pay for federal government subsidies for farmer's crop insurance? Regardless of the income of the farmer, small or very large, the feds pay up to 60 percent of the cost of the crop insurance for as many as 100 different commodities. After all, it's your tax dollars at work.

The ACA destroyed the payer-mix for many clinic and hospital systems in rural areas. Thereby causing diminished services and near bankruptcy for many institutions. You forgot that one Joey.

27% of farmers are on ACA

Tony, any idea why there was that requirement? For one reason, it spreads risk. Try researching how risk pools work.

We pay double for health insurance compared to the rest of the G6 and get worse results. Thats not because of the ACA.

We need to stop politicizing Healthcare and follow what other countries are doing better than us.

You mean slouching more and more into socialism?

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