Discussion – week 3 peer responses

Peer 1

Jerri-Ann Rowell

RE: Discussion – Week 3

Top of Form

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded and improved health insurance coverage in two primary ways (Willison & Singer, 2017). First, the number of individuals receiving insurance coverage expanded by increasing access to coverage through Medicaid expansion and providing subsidies to purchase private insurance on the health care exchanges (Willison & Singer, 2017). The first way provides an outlook as to how ACA helped those who have Medicaid and those who have private insurance. However we were all soon to learn how most do not benefit from ACA.  Second, the ACA upgraded the quality and scope of coverage by improving benefit design, including implementing the essential health benefits (EHBs) (Willison & Singer, 2017). Essential health benefits are minimum insurance benefits encompassing 10 categories of care, which the ACA required all individual and small-group market plans, as well as all plans sold on the health care exchanges, to cover (Willison & Singer, 2017). Mandating benefits for individual and small-group markets was a historic step, improving population health by providing access to crucial health care services for millions of Americans (Willison & Singer, 2017). Although some components of the ACA are popular with Republican policymakers, including coverage for preexisting conditions and Medicaid expansion, the EHBs’ future is in doubt (Willison & Singer, 2017). “Be careful what you wish for” could be directed towards those who pushed aggressively for the passage of the Affordable Care Act (Blackburn, 2018). Even though the failings of the law are now apparent, the administration continues to peddle untrue promises to the American public with false hopes such as: “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” and “if you like your plan you can keep your plan” or “it is affordable once you get the subsidy” (Blackburn, 2018). Even prior to the passage, Republicans correctly predicted none of those pledges would hold true and sadly, Americans are seeing the devastating consequences of this government-run approach to health coverage (Blackburn, 2018). In regard to this, it is making it easier for the people to vote for those opposed to ACA (Blackburn, 2018). No one will vote for someone who is advocating for something they cannot afford and has clearly been shown that it is not in the people’s best interest.  It’s important to highlight not only the failures of Obamacare, but the work being done by the House GOP to repeal and replace it as well. (Blackburn, 2018). We recently learned, via Health and Human Services, that premiums for 2017 will rise by an average of 25% (Blackburn, 2018).  In many states, those increases will be much higher; Arizona (116%), Oklahoma (69%), Minnesota (59%), and in my state of Tennessee, 63% (Blackburn, 2018). After this news, you