US Healthcare Policy

US Healthcare Policy

The Affordable Care Act, also called Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), was passed by Obama in the year 2010. The main purpose of the bill is to provide healthcare services and expand health coverage to Americans including those who are the holders of previous health insurance policy, in order to improve the healthcare system of the state. There are many advantages of the implementation of the bill; however the recent healthcare spending and expenses indicate that the law may have negative impact on the economic condition of the state (senate.gov, 2013).

According to the recent financial records, healthcare expenses comprises of one fifth of the gross domestic product. On the implementation of the healthcare bill, health insurance coverage would be expanded to more Americans including millions of citizens (whitehouse.gov, 2013). This increases the demand for healthcare related services and thus, raises the healthcare spending and government expenditure on hiring more doctors and healthcare service providers in hospitals.

According to various economists, healthcare act is partially financed by taxes with additional funds. Healthcare reforms are bound to transfer the funds from one part of the economy of the state to the other part which leads to short of cash which could have been used for stocks and debts. This indicates that there is no proper allocation of resources among different sectors of the state. By the year 2019, healthcare expenditure will grow up to 32 million for uninsured Americans. Household income exceeding $250,000 are bound to pay Medicare payroll taxes and also spend new Medicare tax based on their investment income.

While financial uncertainty drove many Americans to rein their use of medical services during the economic downturn, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will remove the patient's out-of-pocket costs for preventive care services under ...