Health Care Reform Analysis

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Life is filled with unpredictable circumstances. Accidents, medical emergencies, and sickness can occur at any moment. For this reason, American’s often rely on the comfortability of having healthcare coverage. Healthcare coverage is not full proof in alleviating out of pocket costs but it does aid in decreasing debt. In Starr's, Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle over Healthcare Reform, Starr poses the notion of whether health insurance should be given or be earned. It is an undeniable fact that healthcare coverage can be considered a necessity. Therefore, as a necessity, it should be provided without penalty to those who are unable to afford it. This change must start from the forerunners of reform, the policy makers. With …show more content…
It took a leap of faith from the Obama to introduce this idea of the Affordable Care Act, that has further maximized the change in healthcare coverage. Starr tells the readers that the Affordable Care Act was not socialized medicine, but an attempt to fill the gaps without much disruption to the healthcare policies already implemented. The affordable care act is a healthcare reform law that was set to lower the tax credit for individuals who currently are between the 100 to 400 percent poverty line. The main goal of the ACA was to increase the number of Americans that are uninsured, driving America closer to their goal of having a single healthcare system. It took a great amount of courage for the Obama administration to propose such a plan that many policymakers in the past had been averse to. Instead of setting to change the policies that were previously implemented, the ACA made minor changes allowing most the structure to stay the same. The ACA gave small incentives to businesses who supported the ACA with the incentive to have their workers covered. It also did not authorize fines or penalties amongst those individuals who are uninsured due for whatever reason they chose. The ACA, however, is not perfect. Under Medicaid, the government pays 100 percent of the cost for Medicare beneficiaries for up to three years. By being more responsible for the cost of Medicaid the states may be required to spend more upfront but will experience lower cost on uncompensated hospital visits ACA rewards states that have the most limited Medicaid eligibility because the match is higher for those who are newly eligible. The state sees this policy as a flaw that originated with the original Medicaid formula. Policymakers could not come into agreement that these tweaks in the previous