Examining the Affordable Care Act Debate

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was passed in 2010 by Congress and signed into law by President Obama, is slated to change the healthcare industry in a way that hasn’t been seen before. For example, the act puts in place minimum standards for health insurance policies and bans annual and lifetime coverage caps. Also, very small businesses will be able to get insurance subsidies if they purchase it through an exchange set-up by the government.

There are many divergent opinions and explanations about different facets of the ACA. Below is a video explaining the healthcare marketplace with regards to healthcare options for small businesses:
Recently Jeffery Cain, the president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, was interviewed by Medscape on the changing state of how physicians are to be paid:

We are seeing small movements already from the ACA and expect larger changes in the near future. The small movements are things like a 10% bonus from Medicare; in addition, there are some insurance groups, such as WellPoint, that are changing the ways in which they pay for primary care to reflect the increased value that has been put on primary care, especially concerning preventive care.

Other sources, such as Rita Numerof, see some inherent issues with the ACA. As she was quoted in the Houston Chronicle:

To succeed, accountable care organizations will need large numbers of patients, she said. Bigger organizations will crush smaller ones, leaving few to compete, and health care excellence will be irrelevant…”They will be big conglomerates that will be too big to fail and too big to care,” she said. “We need a market-based, consumer-centered approach.”

These differing opinions and explanations shed some light on the continuing debate and the governing process surrounding the ACA. While it is still constantly changing and parts of the law are being reconfigured, there is a general purpose for the law itself. The effects of the ACA will soon be seen when the rest of its provisions activate. Until then, debates and theories will continue to swirl around the new healthcare system.

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 28th, 2013 at 6:07 pm. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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