Affordable Health Care Reform

Many Americans believe that their healthcare system is the finest in North America, and probably among the best in the world. This is not true. The American healthcare system ranked last out of 10 other developed countries’ systems, including Australia, Germany, Canada, France, Sweden, New Zealand, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, in a survey by the Commonwealth Fund in 2014 (Hellmann). Countries were placed according to several factors, like access to a physician or quality of care (Hellmann). That same year, 42 million Americans below age 65 were estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to be without health insurance (“Health Reform”). America also ranks 26th among 36 countries in the Organization for Economic …show more content…
Clearly, reform is necessary, which was why the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), or just Affordable Care Act (ACA), was enacted in March of 2010. The ACA focuses on improving aspects of the American healthcare system, such as quality of care, availability and affordability of care, and equality across demographic lines. Among the acts lofty aspirations is to extend health insurance coverage to 23 million previously uninsured Americans by 2023 (“Health Reform”). Critics of the act say that it is far too costly, and will cause more financial damage than improvement. However, without reform, America’s enormous healthcare expenditures will surely add up. Despite its initial high costs, the Affordable Care Act must continue to be improved and implemented into the American healthcare system because it has covered millions of people with health insurance and improved upon the quality of American …show more content…
As was mentioned before, preventable illnesses like diabetes and heart disease cause 7 out of 10 deaths in America (“Health Reform”). Also, preventative care can help a patient avoid the top 9 out of 10 leading causes of death in America (Fox and Shaw 1). In fact, an estimated 100,000 lives could be saved if individuals in America received proper and recommended preventative care services (Fox and Shaw 1). Unfortunately, only 3% of America’s gargantuan healthcare expenditures go toward preventative care—while a ridiculous 75% of those expenditures is spent treating preventable diseases (“Health Reform”). The necessity of preventative care is obvious, which is why the ACA mandated that, by 2018, all health insurance plans include coverage for preventative care services (Riggin 31). Currently, the ACA requires a large amount of health insurance plans to cover preventative services without charging a deductible or copay (Fox and Shaw 1). Additionally, individuals who became eligible and enrolled for Medicaid because of the ACA expansion will have access to a large selection of preventative services, and will not pay copays or deductibles for certain services deemed “essential” (Fox and Shaw 2). The Affordable Care Act will continue to make preventative care services standard in insurance plans, yet another reason to continue its

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