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Almost an year has been passed and October also marks the first anniversary of the catastrophic roll-out of the President’s signature Affordable Care Act. Let’s have a look what it has scored and where it lost in a brief review. Undoubtedly it has helped some Americans but for many others it has proved to be a source of discontentment.Most of the health care professionals, local businesses and families were affected badly by the massive new law of healthcare.
As per the Kaiser Family Foundation, “Despite mandates being delayed, key provisions ignored by the White House and taxpayer subsidies handed out to ineligible applicants, this summer saw the law reach its most unpopular level yet – a 53 percent disapproval rate.”
Supporters stressed on the point that ACA has achieved the lowest uninsured rate for America since 1997. In contrast a closer analysis reveals the true facts that it has been achieved by pushing patients into government plans like Medicaid. The number of Americans who rely on private health care plans continues to fall. More and more people are losing their health care plans at work.
What ACA did is, it pushed many people into government exchange plans that often cost more and restrict which local doctors and hospitals can treat them. Even the officials from White House have refused to predict the number of people who will enroll on ACA the second year. Nevertheless the congressional Budget Office estimated the number to be around 13 million.
People can re-enroll from 15th of November and as for the prices, the new prices will vary. Some people enrolling for a second year will discover they overpaid the first year and see decreases of 2.5 percent, like in Oregon. More will learn their plans were underpriced and will face average monthly increases of 6 percent, according to a review of the 38 states that have finalized rates. Louisiana residents will see an increase of over 15 percent.
Morreover the Experts also speculated that ACA covered health care plan will also experience a network shrink as it will offer fewer choices of doctors, medicines and local health care providers as compared to last year.
According to a recent analysis by the American Action Network, “Next year senior citizens in the popular Medicare Advantage plans will see health care benefits cut by an average of $1,530, rising to over $3,700 a year by 2017 and this is due to severe Medicare cuts in President Obama’s ACA that were delayed past the recent presidential election”.
