Affordable Care Act and Racial Inequality in Healthcare

Affordable Care Act and Racial Inequality in HealthCare
Student Name
University
Course
Professor Name
Date
Affordable Care Act and Racial Inequality in HealthCare
The state of the United States healthcare system had been a source of concern for many, particularly before the implementation of healthcare reform through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also called Obamacare. While the act has dramatically improved the accessibility, affordability, and quality of healthcare for many Americans, experts do not consider the ACA a fully universal healthcare system (Holahan et al., 2016). However, the ACA is a significant step towards universal healthcare, as it requires nearly all Americans to have coverage and may eventually cover all Americans, including undocumented foreigners. Americans who can afford it may have access to high-quality healthcare, but access to healthcare largely depends on having health insurance. For those who do not have insurance, inadequate healthcare is a leading cause of death, surpassing even chronic diseases such as diabetes and the globally recognized killer, HIV/AIDS. Uninsured adults in the United States of America often go without necessary medical treatment or preventive care and are more likely to have poor health compared to those with private insurance or generally better insurance plans. Additionally, uncovered American citizens suffering from chronic illnesses such as cancer may struggle to manage their health due to a lack of an adequate insurance system.
Not having health insurance can also negatively impact children's development and education, as well as the productivity of the workforce. Uninsured adults who eventually become eligible for Medicare at age 65 typically require more medical care than those with insurance. Still worse, American citizens not eligible for insurance are more likely to end up dying in medical facilities and have a higher risk of premature death than those with insurance plans. Uninsured individuals often rely on emergency rooms for medical care, which can strain healthcare facilities. They also receive much care from emergency rooms without paying for it. In addition, uninsured American citizens are subject to approximately $100 billion in medical cover services each year for conditions that could be detected and cured earlier and cheaper if they had insurance and access to preventative healthcare.
The population of uninsured American citizens has increased due to higher health insurance premiums, changes in the job market, and insufficient funding for programs like Medicaid and CHIP that provide healthcare for those in need. In the mid-2000s, almost 47 million Americans, or approximately 16% of Americans, were uninsured. A sum of 16 million American citizens was partially covered, meaning that several uninsured Americans have incomes less than $25,000. Given that all ethnic and racial categories are affected, African Americans and Hispanics are disproportionately impacted and have higher rates of uninsured individuals than whites (Himmelstein et al., 2018). The healthcare crisis in the United States concerns society because the entire country shares the costs of providing healthcare for uninsured and underinsured individuals. Without a solution, there is a risk of creating a permanent group of people with limited access to healthcare, including African Americans, Hispanics, and the working poor. Therefore, a better national healthcare system was necessary to address this issue.
President Obama believed that all Americans have the right to healthcare and called for reforms to the medical plan in the US in the early weeks of his administration. President Obama acknowledged the previous administration’s efforts to improve the existing healthcare insurance imbalance between the whites and minority groups such as African-Americans and Hispanics. These acknowledgements pointed directly to former United States President Theodore Roosevelt’s efforts to establish a national healthcare insurance system in 1912. Since then, the United States has had several discussions on implementing a universal healthcare system for over a century (Eisenach, 2014). Prior to passing the Hill-Burton Policy in 1946, those on the liberal side were advocating for universal healthcare.
The Hill-Burton Legislation also named the Hospital Survey and Construction Act, was put in place in 1946 to expand and improve the healthcare infrastructure across the US. One provision of the legislation was the provision of "charity care," which required hospitals receiving funding under the act to issue cheaper or accessible medical attention to low-earning American citizens (Largent, 2018). This provision aimed to ensure that low-income individuals had access to healthcare services, even if they could not afford to pay for them.
While the charity protection provisions of the legislation were a step towards increasing access to healthcare for low-income individuals, they still needed to address all of the barriers to care that these individuals faced. For example, the act did not address issues related to transportation or other logistical challenges that may have made it difficult for low-income individuals to access care. In addition, the act did not require hospitals to provide care to all low-income individuals, only those who qualified for the act's charity care provisions.
The community care provisions of this law were an agreement made by the conservative party to address the concerns of the liberal party; this meant that more work was needed to address the ongoing barriers to care that these individuals faced. Therefore, President Obama legalized the Patient Protection, ACA and Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act (HCERA) use in March 2010 (Eisenach, 2014). These two pieces of legislation make up the new healthcare system in the United States. Despite this, ACA has withstood numerous attacks, particularly from conservatives, which Congress passed without any votes from Republicans. Nonetheless, the American Medical Association (AMA), which had previously opposed a national healthcare program, supported the ACA and played a critical role in its passage due to its reputation and influence in the medical community (Oberlander, 2018). The National Medical Association (NMA), which had also advocated for a national healthcare plan, contributed to the shift in public opinion. Since its implementation, there has been significant debate about the ACA's impact on healthcare access for different minority groups in the US. There is evidence that the Affordable Care Act has positively impacted healthcare access for minority populations.
One of the ways the ACA aimed to do this was by expanding Medicaid coverage and establishing medical insurance marketplaces. The Affordable Care policy extended Medicaid, a nationally-funded healthcare plan fo...