Affordable Care Act (ACA) famously known as Obamacare was introduced to govern the rights of patients and the healthcare professionals. The act is concerned with certain principle provisions, which are called federal provisions. These provisions include the extension of insurance accessibility, consumer insurance protections increase, the need to promote the quality of health and system performance, promotion of health care givers development, and to curtail the rising health care costs. Basically, the Affordable Care Act puts the consumers in control of their health care (American Psychiatric Association N.P).
To implement the ACA at federal level, various rules have been developed since 2010 to help put into use the provisions in the act. Implementation at federal level lies in the hands of the U.S Department of Health and Human Service as well as other government agencies. There are various policies that help in the implementation of Obamacare, one of these policies is the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act 2008 (MHPAEA) which amended the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Public Health Service Act (PHS Act), and the Internal revenue code in order to increase parity between mental health and substance abuse disorder benefits and medical benefits. MHPAEA basically dictate that the financial requirements (like co-insurance) and treatment limitations (like the number of visits) required on mental health and substance abuse disorder benefits cannot be more limiting than the principal financial requirements and limitations on treatment that are applicable to all medical benefits (American Psychiatric Association N.P).
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The act which was expected to be fully operational in the start of 2014 has faced numerous hurdles from both the Republicans and Conservatives. Some of the congress from both parties were advocating for one year delay in its implementation. Some of the issues cited include the idea that Obamacare will see more people leave private employment and start their own businesses without worrying about health care since it will be catered for in the new plan. This will hurt the U.S economy as taxpayers’ money will be overcommitted to fund healthcare to a larger population of non-working population. In addition, some lawmakers cited the risk of increasing Treasury’s ability to borrow enough money to a measure defunding the health care law (Greenwald 153). The time required for business, employers and cover providers to comply and adjust to the new requirements of the law also brought about controversy in the law.
Generally, the Obamacare is transformational but I do not think it is the last bit of health care reforms the United States will ever have. This is so because, despite being politicized by the Congress from both ends of the political divide, other parties including insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, employers as well as some government employees continue to challenge its implementation. Some provisions such as covering children below 26 years under their parents cover also sound absurd considering that most children become independent from as early as 18 years of age. This means that it will be costing America’s taxpayers huge sums of money to maintain or support health care of non-working individuals who opt to get into private business. Future policy must involve all stakeholders in addressing the current shortcomings. The legislations in the future must specify how those in private business and those retiring early unnecessarily in order to enjoy health care benefits will be treated. Overall, the Affordable Care Act gives hope to millions of Americans particularly the underprivileged or the minority groups who have over the years been left out of coverage. Together with other legislations such as MHPAEA, ACA holds great hope for the future health of Americans.
