Question

The Affordable Care Act requires that all Americans have health insurance by March of 2014. Utilize your recently acquired knowledge of this new health care policy to answer the questions.

1. Define individualism and social justice in your own words and include the following:

1. Discuss how individualism applies to being socially responsible.
2. Describe social justice with the application of a mandatory requirement for health insurance.

Answer 1

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), often shortened to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or nicknamed Obamacare, is a United States federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010.

The ACA's major provisions came into force in 2014.

The act largely retains the existing structure of Medicare, Medicaid, and the employer market, but individual markets were radically overhauled around a three-legged scheme. Insurers in these markets are made to accept all applicants and charge the same rates regardless of pre-existing conditions or sex. To combat resultant adverse selection, the act mandates that individuals buy insurance and insurers cover a list of "essential health benefits".

a.) INDIVIDUALISM APPLIES TO BEING SOCIALLY RESPOSIBLE

Individualism is unquestionably a major component of the American value system. However, the consensus on individualism
hypothesis needs to be recast. For many Americans, limiting inequality and meeting at least the basic needs of all people are significant social concerns. And rather than acting mainly as a check on the potential excesses of individualism, social responsibility appears for some people to express an underlying value commitment. Individualistic priorities lead some people to oppose redistributive policies whereas social responsibility priorities lead others to support government efforts to reduce
racial and economic inequality.

To be sure, the balance struck between social responsibility and individualism is a dynamic social construction. From the vantage point of public opinion and electoral politics, the balance of power lies with the large number of ambivalent Americans who express about equal degrees of commitment to social responsibility and to individualistic ideals. Advocates of expanded social spending during the 1930s and 1940s stressed that providing greater security and checks against the vicissitudes of a market economy would enhance individual liberty; such inequality reducing actions would serve rather than undermine the value of individualism

ECONOMIC INDIVIDUALISM:

1. Differences in social standing between people are acceptable because they basically reflect what people made out of the opportunities they had (social inequality acceptable).

2. Only if differences in income and social standing are large enough is there an incentive for individual effort (income differences needed)

3. All in all, I think social differences in this country are justified (social differences justified)

4. Generally speaking, business profits are distributed fairly in the United States (business profits fair).

5. If someone has a high social or economic position, that indicates the person has special abilities or great accomplishments (success based on talent ability).

References:

http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/bobo/files/1991_social_responsibility_individualism_and_redistributive_policies.pdf

b.)

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) created a state Medicaid Expansion Initiative to provide health insurance coverage for the remaining population of uninsured adults who suffer from poverty. The program was designed as a primary tool to promote social justice. The population of poor persons has worse health status and worse health care access than do other Americans. The Medicaid Expansion seeks to redress these disparities by promoting equity through expanded health insurance coverage.

The US Supreme Court determined in 2012 that the ACA Medicaid Expansion is at state option rather than mandatory. Nationally, the initiative has the potential to provide health insurance coverage to about 18 million poor Americans, 40 % of whom have one or more behavioral health conditions. Hence, the Medicaid Expansion is of critical importance for behavioral healthcare, and it is essential that we understand its structure and operation

In a quest to achieve universal coverage, the Medicaid Expansion was designed originally to be an ACA tool to extend health insurance coverage to all uninsured adults who are poor. As a result of the Supreme Court decision, only 26 states and DC are undertaking the Medicaid Expansion in 2014; 4 additional states are undertaking an alternate model (see below); 13 states have determined that they will not undertake the Initiative; and 7 states have not yet made a decision.

Fully 100 % of the cost of the Medicaid Expansion will be paid by the federal government for 2014, 2015, and 2016. Subsequently, this amount will decrease gradually to 90 % by 2020, where it will remain permanently. As such, the Medicaid Expansion is an extremely important tool for providing financial resources to states to address the lack of health insurance among persons who are poor. Currently, these persons use emergency rooms as a primary source of care at great cost to federal, state, and county governments.

References:

https://www.behavioral.net/blogs/ron-manderscheid/medicaid-expansion-promotes-social-justice-through-equity