Affordable Care Act

Well, since the Supreme Court voted in favor of President Obama's Affordable Care Act, I thought I would share the article that I wrote about the Affordable Care Act, which was published in a local newspaper in March 2012. And it reads...

ObamaCare is not the point
Domanique F. Culpepper, MPA, RHIA, RPhT, CPhT

The bottom line is all Americans need access to quality care. Yes, everyone should be required to have health insurance, and here's why. When the average uninsured person gets hurt or becomes sick, their first stop is the emergency room instead of a physician's office. It is common knowledge that health care services cost much more at an emergency room than a physician's office. Common sense should also reveal that a person's right to choose whether or not to have health insurance is less important that the social burden the lack of health insurance poses on the public, as well as health care facilities as a whole.

Though the Hill-Burton Act, which later became Title XVI of the Public Health Service Act, was enacted for the purpose of subsidizing health care costs for the indigent, its purpose would be non-existent if everyone had health insurance in the first place. Sure, there are some who can afford to pay for health care services without health insurance. Perhaps, those individuals may go about financing their health care in a different manner. But for the bulk of the American population, who can not pay cash for annual exams or cardiac catherizations, mandatory health insurance coverage should indeed be in place, and it will, once 2014 comes around.

When focusing on the content of the new federal law that requires everyone to obtain and maintain health insurance, and not the name of it, perhaps the advantages of it will become more noticeable. Two key advantages of the Affordable Care Act include the expansion of health care coverage and improvement of the quality of health care services. In other words, everyone will have access to health care services, which in turn should facilitate the ability of health care providers to properly treat patients in a timely manner. The idea is that preventative maintenance can help control certain diseases, while preventing others. However, the American people must not expect President Obama to solve every single problem (inherited or otherwise), especially when some of the tools are within the power of the people.

Regarding power, coverage is expected to vary from one state to the next. This makes sense because different health conditions affect people in various parts of the United States. Another advantage of the Affordable Health Care Act is that small businesses will not be forced to provide insurance for their employees and contractors. Other major advantages include the removal of penalties for pre-existing health conditions and tax credit for the purchase of a health insurance plan.

Whether this plan is referred to as “ObamaCare” or not, all Americans need to access to quality health care. That is the point. To learn more about how to estimate your health care costs visit www.healthcare.gov