The Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act of 2010

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010
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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010
Purpose of the Act
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was developed, and signed into law by President Obama in 2010. This is the reason why the act is at times called ObamaCare. It is critical that the act was intended to serve purposes such as providing healthcare services to all Americans, improve the quality of healthcare services and to contain the costs of healthcare services. It is notable that the aforementioned healthcare problems arose after the Medicare law was enacted because it is assumed that the law burdened the healthcare industry. According to Canna (2013), old people gained access to free medical services, yet the government could not afford to pay for the services. As a result, the cost of healthcare services increased making it inaccessible to all Americans. It also resulted in poor healthcare services because the old were receiving services the government could not afford.
History of the Act
The effects of Medicare made the American population shy away from implementing medical policies. In fact, Gruber (2011) argues that it was the second last successful medical law after PPACA despite the fact that that presidents unsuccessfully tried to sign medical laws for decades. For instance, republicans opposed President Bill Clinton who proposed a healthcare reform bill in 1993. Additionally, Ron Wyden and Bob Bennet presented the Healthy Americans Act in 2007, which was also unsuccessful. Nonetheless, Governor Mitt Romney successfully enacted an insurance expansion bill in the State of Massachusetts in 2006. In fact, the success recorded by Romney laid the foundation upon, which many presidential candidates formulated their policies. This owes to the reality that both President Obama and Hillary Clinton modified Mitt Romney’s idea and used it for their 2008 presidential campaign. It is the reason why PPACA was signed into law in 2010.
Key Features and Impact of the Act
PPACA is the most comprehensive insurance plans America has had for the last forty-five years (Gruber, 2011). PPACA has characteristics such as transforming the non-group insurance demand in the country and advocates that most residents possess health insurance plans. Additionally, the act subsidizes private insurance plans and expands public insurance plans significantly. It also reorganizes and reduces spending under Medicare in addition to raising revenues from taxing Americans. It follows that implementing the Act could transform the American healthcare system significantly. For instance, the Congressional Budget Office anticipates that the act will escalate health insurance plans to 32 million people. The same office also projects that the act is likely to increase government spending by $ 1 trillion in the coming decade (Canna, 2013). It follows that the act will increase accessibility of the healthcare system to many Americans owing to the 32 million people who will gain access to health insurance. Additionally, the reform will prevent hea...