The Affordable Care Act (ACA) Health Policy

The Affordable Care Act
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The Affordable Care Act
Introduction
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a comprehensive public healthcare policy that addresses health-related issues, such as affordable and quality care, fraud, and public health and programs, by providing health insurance to Americans. Implementing the Act will ultimately permit people in the U.S. to obtain medical coverage from sponsored Medicaid programs and private insurance. The ACA significantly benefits individuals with unstable healthcare and health insurance, including those from varying religions, demographics, ethnicity, race, sex, and demographics. This paper discusses the ACA health policy and the related concepts, including the associated health outcomes, the poverty social determinant of health among the uninsured population, and the economic barriers and opportunities linked to the health policy.
Social determinants of health include varying factors in a social environment that influence people’s health or access to health care. These factors include labor market structure, poverty rate, income inequality, ethnicity or racial issues, education opportunities, social-economic deprivation, transportation infrastructure, and affordable housing (Singh et al., 2018). As a result, the ACA targeted uninsured individuals affected by varying social health determinants, such as poor individuals without access to care or with affordability issues to health insurance, low- and middle-income workers, and people with disabilities or preexisting conditions, to enhance their enrolment in the Medicaid program, prevent discriminations based on aspects like race or gender, and foster equal health coverage. The ACA advocates for comparable policies at similar rates to all people by urging insurance companies to avoid variations or exclusions of specific populations, improving good access to healthcare for everyone. Furthermore, the policy urges the government to continue addressing the affordability issues for healthcare coverage to ensure everyone accesses healthcare services regardless of race, gender, income, or religion.
Policy Statements associated with ACA
The ACA has various policy statements (intentions and plans) to expand overall health insurance coverage and target different groups. The individual mandate policy statement necessitates people without employer-sponsored insurance to purchase their insurance coverage or pay a fine but also provides some premium tax credits (French et al., 2016). Conversely, the dependent coverage provision targets young adults below 26 years and allows them to depend on or use their parents’ health insurance plans. On the other hand, the employer mandate requires larger employers to provide comprehensive and affordable health insurance coverage to full-time workers. The various policy statements increase the availability and accessibility of health insurance coverage, improving health outcomes for the beneficiaries.
Social Determinants of Health and the Expected Outcomes
Poverty, a social determinant of health, hinders the uninsured population, particularly the unemployed, people living with preexisting conditions, and low-income individuals,...