Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Introduction

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provide the American citizens to have access to quality and affordable healthcare services and also create the necessary changes in the healthcare system to manage costs. According to Congressional Budget Office (CBO), PPACA will provide health insurance to cover about 94% of Americans within the set budget of $900 billion by the President in order to reduce health care cost and deficit in the next ten years period (http://dpc.senate.gov, 2012). Medicaid is considered as the federal program that enables the old age people to cover their medical cost after the age of 65. The rising expense of healthcare, the affect of the aging population and declining revenues in the economy has continued to pressurize program's ability to provide quality healthcare services to millions of aging beneficiaries in this financially sustainable scenario.

Discussion

President Obama signed the “Affordable Care Act,” into law on March 23rd, 2010. This law was meant to make health care affordable to most Americans. That the plan would bring its members; 50% discount for brand names in the Medicare, Expanded coverage for young adults, Small business tax credits and Pre-existing condition insurance plans. This plan has lead to heated debates where, while some people see it as favorable, there are those who oppose, terming it as expensive, delivers too little, excludes the majority of Americans and it is unconstitutional overreach by congress. This health plan law is now in the hands of the Supreme Court to make the final judgment, so that it may not be fully implemented in 2014. It is mandatory for all automobile drivers to have auto insurance in most states in this country, and they pay for it heavily either for 3rd party or comprehensive coverage (http://www.healthcare.gov, 2012)

This healthcare reform will give a new opportunity for old people with mental and physical disability and illness to cover their healthcare cost. The purpose of the bill is to improve Medicaid, by creating an easy way for low income and other uninsured people who cannot afford their treatment of illness and diseases. But this bill has created many problems among people of United States in terms of quality of the health services that they are being provided particularly old age people who have mental and physical disability. This is due to the fact that the law has not been implemented effectively by the federal government. Some people who are suffering from mental illness have achieved effective healthcare but other beneficiaries are still unsatisfied with the quality of services provided by healthcare professionals.

The Medicaid program under the PPACA law was approved by the Supreme Court for the approval of expansion by modifying enrollment requirements. According to this expansion plan, those people who are qualified for the insurance coverage will not exceed the limit of 133% enrollment including both middle and low class people (http://www.healthcare.gov, 2012). This means that currently there are 17 million people who are eligible for ...