RESPONDING TO DISCUSSION 200 WORDS EACH

RESPOND IN 200 WORDS: The patients will be able to continue with their physicians if they are on the plan’s providers’ network. One of the primaries aims of PPACA was to remove the bureaucracy between healthcare insurance and access to physicians (Oshegbo, 2018). The plan’s primary objective was to increase healthcare coverage, especially for low-income earners; however, barriers to access, such as needing the health insurers’ approval before seeking medical attention, were impediments to universal healthcare (Oshegbo, 2018). They were eliminated by PPACA, making healthcare more accessible across all social classes.  

However, the plan’s scope is too wide to be implemented in a short period to realize its true implications for the healthcare industry (Green, 2018). Its full implementation, which includes invoking all its provisions, would take years. Also, its understanding would take more time as it is currently facing objections due to the high premium payments involved, tax increases, and the extra workload and costs for medical providers.  

Expanding Medicaid roles has had a significant impact on healthcare access. It has increased the coverage in most states and significantly reduced the rates of uninsured individuals. More individuals that were not covered in the previous roles have been absorbed, which has resulted in improved access to healthcare (Denham, 2021). Further, the expansion of Medicaid has also led to the reduction of costs in offering coverage. There is more income from the increased coverage, and the government uses the savings from the expansion to offset costs in other areas (Denham, 2021). The non-reimbursed care costs have also been reduced for hospitals and clinics as the expansion has seen the uninsured significantly reduced. 

RESPOND IN 200 WORDS: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was signed into law on March 23, 2010, by President Obama. The Act was enacted and passed to provide health care coverage to everyone in the United States without discrimination. The Act was to expand the Medicaid program to help provide coverage, and the Federal government was going to help provide money to the States if the States would expand their Medicaid program. Even though the Federal government would help the States with the funding, not all states expanded their Medicaid programs. Employers were supposed to offer insurance to their full-time employees, but the cost was still too expensive for the employees, or the employers would cut employees back to part-time, so they did not have to provide insurance.

    The PPACA was to give individuals a greater choice in their health and their healthcare decisions. Trying to provide affordable healthcare has led to troubles in controlling cost, improving quality, and expanding access so that all individuals have healthcare. Congress worked on an agenda that says the government cannot dictate to the physician that the individual restoring health insurance regulation to the state and Medicare and Medicaid be part of the free market forces of choice and competition. The PPACA was to include a provision that would help entice the insurance companies to provide insurance, and the government would offset the loss for the insurance companies. The Federal government did not have money to refund the insurance companies, and they withdrew their participation. The insurance companies left patients out in the cold, so to speak if their physician did not take the insurance that the patient had now. After the individuals thought they would be able to keep their physician, that changed. The individual was not able to keep their physician because insurance companies were trying to save money by limiting the number of physicians that they allow in their network. Insurance companies pulled out because of the astronomical loss of money.

    The Federal government was going to fund health insurance through the Medicaid program, and when the Federal government did not have enough money to keep the program going, it then went to put the problem back on the States. The States already having money woes, could not fund or would not fund the expanded Medicaid program leaving people without insurance.