In efforts to combat long-standing health care inequities and delivery issues, the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, was put forth by President Obama upon taking office and later passed by Congress and signed into law in March of 2010. This was not the first effort by the United States Federal Government to address the healthcare system, other healthcare reforms were headed by Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton. Namely, under President Johnson, Medicare and Medicaid were passed in 1964. According to Jonathan Gruber, the ACA was created in an effort to combat rising health care costs and high numbers of uninsured American citizens. Paradoxically, though the United States has one of the most technologically advanced and cutting edge …show more content…
The approach is modeled after the 2006 healthcare reform in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts plan was based on a three-prong system: fix the broken non-group market (insurance companies cannot refuse to cover individuals based on preexisting conditions), all citizens must have healthcare (the individual mandate), and the establishment of government subsidies to help those unable to purchase insurance. The ACA adopted this plan as it base and then added and changed some aspects. Several facets of the ACA went into effect immediately, others later. Namely, under the ACA, people cannot be denied coverage due to preexisting conditions, state exchanges were established in order to maintain some aspect of the free market in health care, children can remain on their parent’s insurance plan until the age of 26, and tax penalties will be enforced upon those who do not purchase insurance, among many others. The ACA also worked to expand Medicaid, however, this decision was left up to the states. Wyoming’s state government elected not to receive federal monies for Medicaid expansion. The minimum level of benefits afforded to everyone under all coverage options according to the ACA are: ambulatory services, ER visits, maternity and newborn care, prescription drugs, lab tests, pediatric services, preventive and chronic disease care, rehabilitation services, mental health and substance use services, and