Business Finance - Management Week 10 Assignment - Interest Group Presentation

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ACA

Gabrielle McNeely

Professor Timothy Smith

Strayer University

PAD 510

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Argument In Favour of The Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is one of the significant healthcare policies that have

revolutionized the healthcare landscape in the United States. Adopting a normative approach,

the ACA acts in in line with the principle that the access to healthcare is a fundamental

human right and rather not just a right for the well-off in the society. The ACA has, through

ways such as the expansion of Medicaid and other subsidies to low-income and middle-

income families, increased accessibility and the affordability of healthcare services. Further,

this satisfies the moral imperative of the need for everyone, regardless of which

socioeconomic status, to lead a healthy life.

Viewing the issue from a positive point of view, the act has become a game-changer

not only for the American public but also for the healthcare system. Bringing in more

Americans who have not been insured to being able to afford the healthcare system leads to a

reduced burden on the public healthcare system. Improvement of preventive care in areas

where it was not previously available allows for reduced cases of ill health, which is a plus

for the country at large. Guth et al. (2020) indicate that ACA implementation has brought

about significant gains in healthcare, for instance in, improved access to care, increased

utilization of services, and more affordability and financial security for many Americans. As

such, ACA has been a game-changer in not only bringing about improvement in access to

care but also affecting the health system in terms of reducing pressure on it due to the

immense support effects that come with increased preventive care (Ercia,2021). These issues

have led to more equity in the access to care and laid a more solid ground from which to

adopt inclusive and sustainability in the approach to healthcare.

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Position Against the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Even though the Affordable Health Care Act has been well-intentioned, it has failed

to live up to the promise of improving the healthcare of American citizens. From a normative

point of view, the ACA, rather than bringing about relief to American families, has brought

more problems. Baicker et al. (2023) have shown that the ACA framework itself needed more

other recent amendments to ensure that it works out. The model has come with it a very

complex framework, which has made it difficult for competition to reign in the market. More

importantly, it is obvious from a normative approach that the burden of sustaining the various

subsidies under the approach has brought about a burden to the taxpayer. For those

individuals who believe in limited government intervention in businesses, the taxes become a

great burden to them since they believe in little or no taxes. Another is the infringement on

individual freedoms. In particular, the ACA individual mandate brings on a requirement that

either Americans have insurance coverage or they will face a penalty. As such, mandating the

purchase of health insurance is an infringement on individual freedoms and personal

autonomy. The Bill of Rights provides that individuals have the right to choose whether to

purchase or not to purchase insurance covers, but it is not for the government to compel

individuals to buying insurance against their wishes. In addition to this, the ACA has also

been viewed along the lines of it being coercive since it limits the individual autonomy and

the right to choose. Having in place the mandate for the citizens to purchase insurance covers

makes it difficult for them to make choices on the type of insurance coverage they can have.

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Response to the Argument in Favor of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Even though opponents have asserted that ACA is a game-changer policy as far as its

benefits are concerned, the shortcomings that come with this policy cannot be overlooked.

Adopting a normative approach, the access to healthcare is a fundamental human right.

Therefore, the policy falls short of the expectation of human rights by mandating coverage

and being coercive towards American citizens as it concerns their enrolment in the policy

initiative. As such, to achieve the right to healthcare among the population by using these

punitive practices is a very bad idea that needs to be corrected.

In addition, viewing the issue from a positive perspective, it could be seen that the

ACA has had a mixed effect on the quality and the costs of care. On one hand, some

individuals may opinionate that they have greatly benefited from the expansion of the ACA,

but to others, it has been a real financial strain as a result of increasing premiums and

deductibles. Norriset et al. (2022) report increased utilization of the ACA, especially with

certain services like cancer screening among the population. However, this is not the case for

all. To the low-income populations, the ACA feels like a burden to them since they have to

pay more premiums compared to the incomes they receive. Even though there might be

several cases of patients on record who have benefited from the ACA, many other Americans

continue to struggle with accessibility and access to health care, dealing a major blow to

them. This calls the need for changes to bring about reforms on the structural inefficiencies in

the ACA system. Generally, even though it was a policy that had been designed with noble

intentions, the ACA has failed to live up to its promise and the expectations of the American

citizens.

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Response to the Argument Against the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

There have been arguments against the Affordable Health Care Act but which do not

measure up to be accepted as worth of consideration. In particular, many of the arguments

against it have been rooted in ideology rather than evidence-based analysis of the impact of

the policy on the vast US population. It is important to understand that even though those

opposed to the ACA pinpoint just a few shortcomings that come with the policy, it has indeed

affected millions of Americans who have been in need of healthcare services. Adopting a

normative point of view, it would be seen that ACA adopts an approach of access to

healthcare as a fundamental human right and as such, it is always focused on living up to this

particular principle. It is on this basis that there has been increased focus on preventive

healthcare services that prevent certain health conditions, hence keeping the population more

safe. Skopec & Banthin (2022) argue that access to preventive services thanks to ACA has

increased in both children and adult people as such leading to a reduced disease burden on

not only the citizens but also the healthcare system. In addition to this, there has been

increased anecdotal evidence in which success stories tell about the success of the ACA and

the unique impacts it has had on different families. This has made it a unique policy that has

shaped and improved the lives of the majority of Americans as concerns healthcare and well-

being. By reducing the number of Americans who are uninsured, it has led to a reduced

burden on the part of the government. This has also reduced disparities in access to care and

also in health outcomes for many Americans.

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References

Ercia, A. (2021). The impact of the Affordable Care Act on patient coverage and access to

care: perspectives from FQHC administrators in Arizona, California and Texas. BMC

health services research, 21, 1-9.

Norris, H. C., Richardson, H. M., Benoit, M. A. C., Shrosbree, B., Smith, J. E., & Fendrick,

A. M. (2022). Utilization impact of cost-sharing elimination for preventive care

services: a rapid review. Medical Care Research and Review, 79(2), 175-197.

Skopec, L., & Banthin, J. (2022). Free Preventive Services Improve Access to Care.

Washington, DC: Urban Institute. proposals to expand health insurance coverage on

the number of uninsured and the cost to federal and state governments, 500.

Guth, M., Garfield, R., & Rudowitz, R. (2020, March 17). The Effects of Medicaid

Expansion under the ACA: Updated Findings from a Literature Review. The Henry J.

Kaiser Family Foundation. https://www.kff.org/medicaid/report/the-effects-of-

medicaid-expansion-under-the-aca-updated-findings-from-a-literature-review/

Baicker, K., Chandra, A., & Shepard, M. (2023, February). A Different Framework to

Achieve Universal Coverage in the US. In JAMA Health Forum (Vol. 4, No. 2, pp.

e230187-e230187). American Medical Association.