Analysis of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

1. Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act
SHANDALE STITTS
MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY

2. The Patient Protection
and Affordable Care
Act (PPACA) or
Obamacare was
passed into law in
2009 to increase
healthcare
affordability.
THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF THE PPACA
IS TO PROVIDE INSURANCE TO
UNINSURED AMERICANS AND TO
PROVIDE QUALITY HEALTHCARE AT THE
LOWEST RATES POSSIBLE. ALTHOUGH
THE PPACA WAS ENACTED IN 2010 THE
EFFECTS ARE JUST NOW STARTING TO
BE NOTICED IN 2014.

3. The PPACA comes with many
provisions which include:
 Expanding insurance options available to new
purchasers by creating Health Benefit
Exchanges at the state level.
 Allowing a penalty to be charged to anyone
who does not comply with the mandate.
 Imposing penalties on employers that do not
offer coverage with more than 50 full-time
employees.
 Expanding Medicare coverage
(Analysis of the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act (H.R. 3590) 2010).
• Requiring health insurance companies to cover
anyone who wishes to purchase it regardless of
medical history or pre existing conditions.
• Prohibiting health plans from revoking coverage
from customers who have already purchased
coverage.
• Requiring health premiums based on family size,
geography, age, and tobacco use.
• Requiring every uninsured citizen to obtain
insurance through private or public programs.
(cont’d)

4. Since the PPACA requires insurance companies
to accept all customers, NBC news writer Maggie
Fox reports that as many as 9.9 million people
got insurance since the last quarter of 2013,
bringing the number of uninsured Americans
down from 43.5 million to 36.3 million.
4 million more children will also be insured.
RESEARCHERS CONCLUDE
THAT BY 2019 UNDER THE
PPACA 25 MILLION
AMERICANS OR LESS WILL
STILL BE UNINSURED.
IF NO LAWS WERE PUT IN
PLACE TO MANDATE HEALTH
INSURANCE THE NUMBER OF
UNINSURED AMERICANS
WOULD BE 53 MILLION IN
2019, HOWEVER.
.

5. By 2019 around 28 million Americans
will obtain insurance through the
Health Benefit Exchange
The Health Benefit Exchange offers four basic plans with different values:
Bronze (60%), Silver (70%), Gold (80%),
and Platinum (90%). The values represent the percentages that health plans will
pay on medical bills. As the years go on, more and more people are using the
Exchange as a way to find the perfect health plan that suits them. On the other
hand, most people obtaining insurance through the Exchange are people with
poor health conditions. This will make the cost of everyone’s insurance plans to
go up.

6. The downside to the PPACA is that between
2014 and 2019 government spending
associated with the insurance coverage
provisions will increase by $899 billion.
Most of the increased spending will be due
to insurance coverage going up. Taxpayer
and state funds are going to have to
increase to keep the program in motion.

7. The PPACA
requires
individuals and
companies that
do not purchase
insurance to pay a
penalty.
BETWEEN NOW AND 2019 IT IS
ESTIMATED THAT 54 MILLION
DOLLARS WILL BE COLLECTED
FROM INDIVIDUALS WHO OWE
PENALTY PAYMENTS.

8. 33 billion will be
made from now
until 2019 from
employers that
owe for penalty
charges.
 Penalties on large businesses are starting to
create a strain on the job market. Higher
health care costs demand for higher taxes
from larger corporations for funding.
 This cycle will more than likely hurt America as
a whole.
To avoid the penalty
some small businesses
will cut employee
hours or not hire.
Remember, fines are
not paid for the first 30
employees.

9. The top 2 percent of people and big
companies will have to pay higher taxes.
This, in turn, has allowed the
government to create159 new
boards, agencies and programs to
oversee spending and to ensure the
PPACA is working correctly.

10. Medicaid/ Medicare
spending will also
increase over the next
few years. The PPACA
expands the eligibility
of people that can
receive Medicaid or
Medicare
THE PPACA ESSENTIALLY CUTS
BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OUT OF
MEDICARD/MEDICAID
FUNDING ONLY TO REINVEST
IT. A COMMITTEE HAS BEEN
SET UP TO OVERSEE SPENDING
WHICH IS NOT GOING SO
WELL DUE TO UNINTENTIONAL
CONSEQUENCES.

11. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
has its advantages and disadvantages. However,
the advantages outweigh the disadvantages
when it comes to the average uninsured
American citizen. It is to ensure health insurance
for everyone. Overall it was a risky but great
decision to make.
MANY CORRECTIONS AND OTHER REGULATIONS HAVE TO BE MADE FOR IT TO BE
THE PERFECT PLAN (ANALYSIS OF THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE
CARE ACT (H.R. 3590) 2010).

12. References
FOX, M. (2014, APRIL 16). OBAMACARE HELPED UP TO 10 MILLION GET INSURANCE,
GALLUP FINDS. RETRIEVED NOVEMBER 29, 2014, FROM
HTTP://WWW.NBCNEWS.COM/HEALTH/HEALTH-CARE/OBAMACARE-HELPED-10-
MILLION-GET-INSURANCE-GALLUP-FINDS-N78446
JEANNE S. RINGEL, FEDERICO GIROSI, AMADO CORDOVA, CARTER C. PRICE,
ELIZABETH A. MCGLYNN. (2010). ANALYSIS OF THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND
AFFORDABLE CARE ACT (H.R. 3590). ANALYSIS OF THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND
AFFORDABLE CARE ACT (H.R. 3590), 1-13. RETRIEVED NOVEMBER 29, 2014, FROM
HTTP://WWW.RAND.ORG/CONTENT/DAM/RAND/PUBS/RESEARCH_BRIEFS/2010/RA
ND_RB9514.PDF