Affordable healthcare in the US continues to be among the most controversial public policies. The fact that the affordable care act aimed at providing equal healthcare access to all individuals within the United States was considered both a moral and ethical reason to advocate for the policy and ensure the implementation of the Act. Moreover, it served as a significant contribution to the health industry as it dramatically increased insurance coverage nationally ( Wong et al., 2015). Similarly, another moral reason for the implementation of the policy is the fact that it promised to improve public health as the number of insured individuals would increase significantly . The country has since observed an increase in the number of insured individuals, while the number of uninsured individuals declined significantly further cementing its claim for affordable healthcare to all. The private healthcare sector in the US is further identified as the largest internationally based on its continuous growth, which is facilitated by government programs.
Similarly, the government has significantly invested in the public health sector, which combines to work cohesively with the private sector to supplement each other. Nevertheless, scholars find that this creates a moral minefield based on the fact that public funding supports private insurers who are centered on profit making rather than the health of patients ( Heintzman et al., 2017) . There was hence an ethical consideration of the need for a platform that allows for access to better healthcare by granting health insurance to those who had previously been unable to acquire and access similar services. Moreover, Blumenthal, Abrams, and Nuzum (2015) affirm that Medicaid was expanded and thus allowed the government to strengthen the private-public partnership, further emphasizing its moral significance.
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Since the law is dependent on the private sector to fund the insurance coverage and initiatives such as the ACA, the introduction of the Act not only benefited citizens but also created new business opportunities for insurers ( Blumenthal et al., 2015) . However, individuals seeking to use the public sector to acquire insurance may experience failure based on the lack of participation from the private sector whose primary goal is to obtain profits and hence creating an ethical dilemma that leaves millions of citizens uninsured.
References
Blumenthal, D., Abrams, M., & Nuzum, R. (2015). The affordable care act at five years.
Heintzman, J., Bailey, S. R., DeVoe, J., Cowburn, S., Kapka, T., Duong, T. V., & Marino, M. (2017). In low-income Latino patients, post-Affordable Care Act Insurance disparities may be reduced even more than broader national estimates: evidence from Oregon. Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities , 4 (3), 329-336.
Wong, C. A., Sap, M., Schwartz, A., Town, R., Baker, T., Ungar, L., & Merchant, R. M. (2015). Twitter sentiment predicts the Affordable Care Act marketplace enrollment. Journal of medical Internet research , 17 (2), e51.
