Affordable Care Act overview and implications

Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a new health insurance reform associated with direct advantages besides the minimal drawbacks. One advantage of this reform relates to health care intensity and quality. As a result, the cost of health care services differs according to providers in different geographic locations. Consistency could be achieved, health care quality improved, and costs minimized if providers practice consistent with best practice standards. If this is done, the unnecessary costly care will be reduced. An illustration of unnecessary costs includes the gravely high costs associated with end-of-life care (Praiser, 2012). Mostly, families and patients require expensive diagnostic procedures, tests and treatments, which have at least minimal impact on the outcome of end-of-life problems but divert funds from more worthy issues. In addition, the current system based on a free-for-service gives physicians some financial rewards. Quality review encourages evidence-based care hence offer high health care quality at lower costs (Haas, 2013).

Advantages

The U.S. has reported spending the highest portion of its GDP on health care. However, as of early 2012, an estimated 5.5 million people either had inadequate or did not have health insurance (Barr, 2011). As a result, they could not access health care. Societies are ethically obliged to provide equal healthcare services to all its citizens. Today, employed workers are entitled to the benefit of employment. Private companies often purchase insurance and pay the physicians, providers of healthcare, and pharmaceutical companies. Healthcare consumers, patients, and providers are not encouraged to control costs. Instead, these sets of people have the incentive to provide and request more services. This is an advantage.

Disadvantages

Looking at the cons, obviously the current medical care is being offered in expensive environments like emergency departments. These services could be less expensive and more easily provided in outpatient environments. Today, physicians are giving care in emergency departments for trauma and acute medical conditions but not for mush preventive or primary care. They also do not cover skin diseases such as psoriasis, skin cancer, atopic dermatitis, and acne that are widely left unattended to in today's uninsured generation. The physician sector of the U.S. health care framework is currently being overstretched beyond capacity (Shaffer, 2009). While some hospitals appear to be struggling financially, the problem is not low occupancy but rather due to declining incomes for services rendered. This trend is not expected to reverse any time soon.

ACA stipulates that the disadvantages can be minimized by ensuring that many people can access the health insurance: this includes providing assurance of access to health care. The promise of health care services with no infrastructures for developing the services raises expectations. This is a disadvantage as it becomes ethically unjust when unmet. Many people have been given insurance to access hospitals. However, all hospitals are filled to capacity because there are no new facilities. The most logical result is that more people are left to wait for long hours and when they get on, they might have to share things such as hospital beds (Praiser, 2012). Another outcome is the increased waiting time, rationed healthcare and the overall healthcare quality will decline. Special interest groups will complain because it will not be appropriate to raise taxes to cater for the increasing costs: the entire system is subject to collapse.