4 million young people); e) Americans that are uninsured and that have "preexisting conditions" can as of now get insurance through the "Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Program" (PCIP); f) 46 states are using Affordable Care Act resources to "crack down on unreasonable premium increases" (White House). There are additional benefits that result from the Affordable Care Act will come into play in 2014, according to the White House. Those include a new competitive insurance marketplace that will be established. In that new marketplace will be state-run health insurance exchanges where "million of Americans and small businesses will be able to purchase affordable coverage" and have the same healthcare choices as "Members of Congress," the White House explains.

As to the federal fiscal benefits from the Affordable Care Act, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports that healthcare reform can reduce the national debt / deficit by $145 billion by 2019 and by $1.2 trillion by the year 2030.

A story in the Washington Post (Singletary, 2011) explains that the GAO (which is the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress) is providing "some much-needed transparency" regarding the impact of the Affordable Care Act. For example, if, contrary to the law,...

The GAO reports that in the four states they investigated, "39% to 59% of appeals filed with insurers in those states resulted in the insurer reversing its coverage denial" (Singletary, 2011). By 2014, insurance companies will no longer be allowed to deny coverage, Singletary reports.
But as of now, denials of coverage (one of the main reasons reform was needed) happen for a variety of reasons. One reason is that there are "billing errors"; these occur because of "duplicate claims or missing information," Singletary writes. In Maryland, for example, duplicate claim submissions explained 32% of all insurance denials in 2007. In most states today, there are independent medical review panels established, and those panels are the ones that review appeals of denial of coverage.

Conclusion: While there are still many flaws in the healthcare system, the Affordable Care Act addresses some of those flaws and by 2014 -- notwithstanding myths put forward by critics that the Act will wipe out jobs and increase the national debt -- no individual can be denied coverage based on an existing condition or based on an illness that occurred after the policy was put in place.

Works Cited

Lampert, Jacqueline Garry. (2009). The Need for Health Care Reform by the Numbers. The Democratic Policy Committee. Retrieved March 29, 2011, from http://www.dpc.senate.gov/dpcdocpr.cfm?doc_name=fs-111-1-90.

Obama, Barack. (2009). Why We Need Health Care Reform. The New York Times. Retrieved March 29, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com.

Singletary, Michelle. (2011). Denied insurance under new health-care law? File an appeal, the GAO says. The Washington Post. Retrieved March 30, 2011, from http://www.washingtonpost.com.

The White House. (2011). Health…