The Affordable Care Act: Pros and Cons

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was adopted into effect in the United States of America in 2010 during President Obama's first term in office. The primary aims of the ACA were to lower the overall cost of healthcare and to provide better health insurance coverage by American citizens. However, the law is continuing to face opposition, especially from the Republicans; funding, obtaining public support, and adoption by the states, despite achieving excellent increase coverage in healthcare. This article tries to address the financial impacts, challenges, benefits, and drawbacks of the Act on stakeholders. As a result, the paper will consider the four major stakeholders in the healthcare industry including consumers, states, healthcare providers, and employers. Approximately 40 per cent of Americans are opposed to the ACA while only 37 per cent are in support of the Act; therefore, the impacts of ACA on various stakeholders are very crucial on its success. 

Stakeholders 

The Affordable Care Act impacts the healthcare industry in several ways through many stakeholders including, consumers, employers, states, and healthcare providers (Housten et al ., 2016) . Additionally, Housten and others (2016), states that the consumers' category consists of the American citizens who receive medical care in the US. As a result, there is approximately 55 per cent of Americans who receive healthcare insurance services through their employers while only 32 per cent of Americans accept the assistance from the government. On the other hand, the employers consist of the corporations, companies, firms, and industries that employ Americans in the formal and informal sectors. Conversely, the individual US states have the liberty to enact the Affordable Care Act provisions, expand, and improve state Medicaid programs. Lastly, there are providers such as hospitals, insurers, clinics, primary caregivers, corporate partners, as well as many others. Providers integrate to provide lower cost and higher quality healthcare system. 

Financial Impacts 

One of the impacts of the Affordable Care Act on stakeholders is financial implications. The economic repercussions include disproportional ratios of specialists and primary care physicians (Housten et al ., 2016). Consequently, a significant gap in the proportion of specialists and primary care physicians indicates a decreased quality of care and increased costs. Indeed, Heisler (2013) notes that the Act relies on the concept of free preventive care and Patient-Centered Medical Home which both require adequate primary healthcare providers to dispense services. However, student shows less interest in primary care because of a 3.5million Dollar income gap that exists over work life and the rising students' loan debts. The payments to primary healthcare givers would need to be increased by $1 Thousand yearly to meet the specialists' income levels (Senger, 2013). As a result, the care act can be costly to the government and other stakeholders such as state authorities. Additionally, medical education to the general public and consumers on the significance of the act increases the cost of the Act. Moreover, affordability to consumers is a concern to the stakeholders since consumers may be confused by the low monthly premiums and the long-term value of affordable care. Consequently, the consumers might find themselves unable to pay for the affordable care in the long-run. 

Benefits of the ACA 

Certainly, the Affordable Care Act has many benefits to the stakeholders including consumers, providers, states, and employers (Senger, 2013). Firstly, consumers receive quality and affordable healthcare system through the ACA. For instance, the act allows children to be insured under the care plans of their parents until they are 26 years old. Additionally, there is an elimination of insurance restrictions on consumers with pre-existing conditions. Secondly, Housten and colleagues (2016) state that providers are offered approximately 100 per cent Medicare reimbursement rate for medical services they render in addition to the 10 per cent bonus payment. Thirdly, employers benefit from the insurance companies’ transparent competition (Cantlupe, 2013). Besides, the companies with more than 50 employees offer healthcare insurance services as portrayed by the provisions of the Act. Lastly, Senger remarks that the individual US states benefit from federal funds for improvement and expanding of the Medicaid programs, although they are at liberty to enact the provisions of the ACA plan in their own states' healthcare plans (2013). 

Drawbacks of the ACA 

According to Cantlupe (2013), although the Affordable Care Act mains at improving the quality and access to healthcare services at affordable cost to the Americans, it faced many hurdles. Firstly, Cantlupe states that the ACA aggravates the workforce shortage in the growing healthcare sector that creates the overwhelming barrier to the President's promise of quality and accessible healthcare to Americans. Secondly, healthcare providers face instability and mounting stress since the ACA increased insurance services to over 20 million Americans while the care providers remain relatively constant (Heisler, 2013). As a result, there is increased burnout, loss of healthcare provider, and dissatisfaction among the healthcare staffs. Thirdly, Michtalik and others (2013), assert that the new regulations provided by the ACA impose a burden of 190 million paper-works per year which limits patient-provider contact time. Lastly, the laws such as those reducing payments and increasing penalties hinder the accessibility of affordable care by Americans (Senger, 2013). 

Conclusion 

Since its inception in 2010, the ACA healthcare reforms have achieved many benefits including; improved access to healthcare insurance services for over 20 million America citizens and enhanced quality of healthcare system. The formulation of Obamacare has many stakeholders including; consumers, insurers, the federal and state governments, service providers, as well as others. The insurance services are provided either by the government or by the employers. However, the ACA law has also faced several controversies and oppositions from the public and the Republicans. Indeed, the increased premiums and mismanaged expectations have negatively impacted the affordable healthcare law. 

Reference 

Cantlupe, J. (2013). Alarming’ Physician Shortages Lie Ahead. HealthLeaders Media . Retrieved from: http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/print/PHY-298361/Alarming-Physician-Shortages-Lie-Ahead. 

Heisler, E. J. (2013). Physician Supply and the Affordable Care Act. Congressional Research Service Report for Congress . Retrieved from: http://op.bna.com/hl.nsf/id/myon-93zpre/$File/crsdoctor.pdf 

Housten, A. J., Furtado, K., Kaphingst, K. A., Kebodeaux, C., McBride, T., Cusanno, B., & Politi, M. C. (2016). Stakeholders' perceptions of ways to support decisions about health insurance marketplace enrollment: a qualitative study. BMC health services research , 16 (1), 634. doi: 10.1186/s12913-016-1890-8. 

Michtalik, H. J. et al. (2013). Impact of Attending Physician Workload on Patient Care: A Survey of Hospitalists. JAMA Internal Medicine, 173 (5), 375–377. 

Senger, A. (2013). Obamacare’s impact on doctors- An update. Heritage Foundation Issue Brief No. 4024 . Retrieved from: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/08/obamacares-impact-on-doctors-an-update.