Question

Insufficient health care for some often is seen as a problem of insufficient income to purchase health care

Discuss two alternatives to social programs that provide health care. How have these programs (or others) changes since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act?

Answer 1

Following are the two alternatives to social programs that provide health care:

1. Medicare-- Medicare is a national health insurance program in the US, to provide health insurance for Americans aged 65 and older, but also for some younger people with disability status.

2. Medicaid : Mediclaid provides health coverage to millions of Americans, including eligible low-income adults, children, pregnant women, elderly adults and people with disabilities. Medicaid is administered by states, according to federal requirements. This program is funded jointly by states and the federal government.

Changes since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act(ACA). The ACA was spectacularly successful in expanding health insurance to people previously uncovered.

a) About 20 million Americans have gained health insurance coverage since the ACA was enacted. The ACA's coverage gains occurred across all income levels and among both children and adults, and disparities in coverage between races and ethnicities have narrowed.

b) The ACA protects people with preexisting conditions from discrimination. The ACA codified protections for people with preexisting conditions and eliminated patient cost sharing for high-value preventive services.

c) ACA goes beyond coverage, requiring employers to provide breastfeeding mothers with breaks at work, making calorie counts more widely available in restaurants, and creating the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which helps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) and state agencies detect and respond to health threats such as COVID19.

d) Medicaid expansion helped millions of lower-income individuals access health care and more. A large body of evidence shows that the Medicaid expansion increases utilization of health services and diagnosis and treatment of health ailments, including cancer, mental illness, and substance use disorder. Medicaid expansion is associated with improvements in health outcomes such as cardiac surgery outcomes, hospital admission rates for patients with acute appendicitis and improved mortality rates for cardiovascular and end-stage renal disease.