Impact to North Carolina from Health Reform Act
The Affordable Care Act and North Carolina's Uninsured Population
NUR6050
October 2, 2014
Affordable Care Act and North Carolina's Uninsured Population Introduction
The Workings of an Affordable Care Act The PPACT is more widely referred to as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA is the product of years of political debates and movements to reform the American health care system. Originally, conceived as an alternative to a single-payer health care system, the concepts behind the ACA date back as far as the 1980’s. Although progression of the ACA was stunted for several years, it was eventually redesigned and signed into law on March 23, 2010. The purpose behind the ACA is to control healthcare cost while providing equitable and cost-effective health care coverage to millions of uninsured Americans. The ACA’s was drafted using two pathways for which delivery its reform mandates would be executed. According to Brad (2024, "individuals with incomes falling within 138 percent of the federal poverty level and (2) creation of state-based virtual insurance exchanges to service the needs of individuals and small businesses".(p. 2) As a safety net, federal subsides were centered under individuals with earned incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty line. The aforementioned points noted, are not comprehensive of the 2000 plus page ACA,; however, they are the basis for this topic. Impact of the Affordable Care Act One key element of the ACA that has proven vulnerable to unfavorable political action or retaliatory efforts in general is the power given to the states regarding expansion of Medicaid benefits. “For states that do expand Medicaid, the law provides that the federal government will pay for 100% of the expansion for the first three years and then gradually reduce its subsidy to 90% by 2020” (Medicaid Eligibility, para. 6). As Searing stated in his briefing, Governor Pat
NUR6050
October 2, 2014
Affordable Care Act and North Carolina's Uninsured Population Introduction
The Workings of an Affordable Care Act The PPACT is more widely referred to as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA is the product of years of political debates and movements to reform the American health care system. Originally, conceived as an alternative to a single-payer health care system, the concepts behind the ACA date back as far as the 1980’s. Although progression of the ACA was stunted for several years, it was eventually redesigned and signed into law on March 23, 2010. The purpose behind the ACA is to control healthcare cost while providing equitable and cost-effective health care coverage to millions of uninsured Americans. The ACA’s was drafted using two pathways for which delivery its reform mandates would be executed. According to Brad (2024, "individuals with incomes falling within 138 percent of the federal poverty level and (2) creation of state-based virtual insurance exchanges to service the needs of individuals and small businesses".(p. 2) As a safety net, federal subsides were centered under individuals with earned incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty line. The aforementioned points noted, are not comprehensive of the 2000 plus page ACA,; however, they are the basis for this topic. Impact of the Affordable Care Act One key element of the ACA that has proven vulnerable to unfavorable political action or retaliatory efforts in general is the power given to the states regarding expansion of Medicaid benefits. “For states that do expand Medicaid, the law provides that the federal government will pay for 100% of the expansion for the first three years and then gradually reduce its subsidy to 90% by 2020” (Medicaid Eligibility, para. 6). As Searing stated in his briefing, Governor Pat
References: Blumenthal, D., & Collins, S. (2014, July 17). Health Care Coverage under the Affordable Care Act — a progress report. The New England Journal of Medicine, 275-281. http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMhpr1405667 Dukes, T., & Leslie, L Luhby, T. (2013). States forgo billions by opting out of Medicaid expansion [Entire issue]. CNN. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/01/news/economy/medicaid-expansion-states/index.html Murawawski, J Ricketts, T. C. (2013). How the affordable care act will affect access to health care in North Carolina. North Carolina Medical Journal, 74, 324-329. Searing, A. (2014). North Carolins’s medicade chioice:Options and implications [Fact sheet]. Retrieved from North Carolina Justice Center: http://www.ncjustice.org/sites/default/files/MedicaidFactsheetMarch20.pdf