Healthcare Reform for the Affordable Care Act

Healthcare Reform
Name
Institution
Health Care Reform
Overview of Healthcare in the US
Healthcare issues have been rampant since long ago and has been the concern for many nations globally. Many countries have been trying to improve the quality of medical care of their citizens. Health is directly connected to how productive nations are and therefore, is a priority for countries all over the world. Different countries have been enacting reforms while aiming to improve healthcare and ensure everyone is covered and has access to readily available healthcare. However, ensuring everyone is healthy and stays healthy is quite expensive and many countries come to learn this the hard-way. In the US, the situation has not been any different with the Democrats and Republicans often at loggerheads while trying to forge an effective healthcare plan. However, as many would agree, finding a working and most of all effective healthcare plan is not an easy endeavor.
During the 2008 campaign, healthcare was treated as a priority issue and rightly so because the country had yet to have a working healthcare plan which is acceptable to all. Almost every proposed plan ends up having its faults, and the country is always divided regardless of the suggested plan. Gill (2018) stated that “the US spends more money on health care than any other nation” something which any leader would want to change. Health reforms in the United States were put into consideration for more than a century. While some of them were successes, most of them were failures, and one major reason here is because the US health care system is a web of both private and public programs.
The disagreement between politicians is often blamed for the many issues the healthcare system has because often, they have failed to agree on the way forward. While some of them advocate for price controls, others seem to be staunch believers of market competition which they believe will help reduce the cost of healthcare. The lack of consensus is indeed something that has helped to drag the issue of healthcare and to ensure no solution is deemed worthy. While it remains to be seen whether the politicians will ever reach consensus, it is essential to acknowledge the steps the country made with the Obamacare or the Affordable Health Care Act.
The Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act, ACA, also known as Obamacare was implemented in 2010 by the former US President, Barrack Obama. It was passed to help the citizens who were unable to gain healthcare access. Healthcare spending in the United States was not affordable to many people. ACA was brought in to help expand healthcare access to many Americans as well as condense the growth of healthcare spending in the country. President Obama famously said that health care “should be a right for every American” words which still echo in the minds of everyone who heard him say that. Apparently, Obama believed that ACA would help solve the country’s healthcare problems. However, as it turned out and for various reasons, this Act still fell short despite offering hope to individuals who were struggling for better healthcare coverage.
One of the provisions in the ACA was one that aimed to improve health quali...