The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted into law by the head of state, Barrack Obama on March 23, 2010 making it a United States federal statute. It seeks to provide better medical security by having an all-inclusive insurance reform that will among other things, lower the costs of healthcare, have the insurance companies held accountable, and overall enhancement on the quality of healthcare given to the American people ( Feldman, 2011).
It is one of the most debated issues in the Obama administration with just as many people who are for the policy and just as many who are against it. There was a need to have an effective healthcare plan in the country and when the Affordable Care Act was proposed, it was met with opposition, especially from the conservative groups who saw it as a disruption to already existing healthcare plans and see a rise in the overall costs of healthcare in the country.
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The Affordable Care Act is built on specific policies that allow it to fulfill its mandate to the American people. The first is that it is accessible: for over 50 years, the American government has struggled to find a healthcare system that would place the needs of patients first. All systems put in place failed as there were millions of Americans who did not have health insurance and those who did ran the risk of it falling when they were in need of it. The Affordable Care Act has seen the number of those uninsured decrease significantly as well as a high number of Americans getting onto health insurance policies (McDonough, 2011).
The second fact about Affordable Care Act is that it is affordable for the American people. A study by the Commonwealth Fund revealed that in 2014, fewer Americans were struggling to pay their medical bills, the highest drop since 2005. With more market players in the insurance business, consumers now have more choices of affordable premiums. The third fact regarding the Affordable Care Act is that it advocates for quality in terms of the services being offered to patients. Patients are now being put first and there are fewer harms coming to them. They now have stringent protections and flimsy polices and barriers to acquiring health insurance are being edged out.
The Affordable Care Act can be viewed from three perspectives: the functionalist perspective is concerned with calling attention to the contribution being made by the health care industry to the society and its overall stability. The Affordable Care Act has been seen to work as more Americans are able to access healthcare and meet other bills without having to worry about this. The healthcare industry continually seeks new recruits and technology in order to provide the best care to their consumers. A conflict theorist will focus the bureaucratic influences that will hamper the health care system from providing adequate care to patients. When doctors and hospitals are overwhelmed with paperwork and other disruptions, they will not be able to carry out their primary task which is the care of patients. The healthcare industry is likely to collapse due to the alienation of the poor in the country.
An interactional theorist is concerned with the status of the healthcare plan on a specific level, such as how does it affect minorities, the elderly in the society and so forth. According to this theory, our behavior is influenced by the roles we have accepted to play. By thinking that medical insurance is not affordable and that is for the rich in the society, those in the lower classes will resort to less effective means that prove harmful in the end.
Carrying out a study on what Americans think about the Affordable Care Act would be to compare the neighborhoods; one that is lower class and another that is classified as being rich. Using data from the medical facilities located in these areas, it is possible to determine the extent to which the Affordable Care Act has changed the access to medical care. Some of the questions to ask while carrying out the study would be:
Do you currently have insurance? If yes, who is your carrier? If not, why?
Do you think the Affordable Care Act has made any changes over the years?
Do you think that Affordable Care Act is more expensive than other covers such as the employer based insurancecoverage?
References
Feldman, A. M. (2011). Understanding Health Care Reform: Bridging the Gap Between Myth and Reality . Florida, CRC Press.
McDonough, J. E. (2011). Inside National Health Reform . California, University of California Press .
