The Affordable Care Act has made tremendous strides toward making health insurance more accessible and affordable, yet there remain gaps within its law that create challenges to its effectiveness. A lack of funds for advertising and outreach have caused coverage issues; improper administration of risk stabilization programs poses risks to premium tax credit enrollment.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandates health coverage for all Americans and establishes exchanges to shop for it. Furthermore, premium subsidies and cost-sharing reductions may be available to those who qualify.
It requires all Americans to have health insurance
Before the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, millions of Americans were without health coverage – many facing financial difficulty and bankruptcy as they attempted to cover medical bills themselves while others could not afford coverage due to preexisting conditions or other considerations. With its provisions mandating that all Americans obtain coverage or pay a penalty fee. The Affordable Care Act changed that reality.
Health coverage was made more affordable through premium tax credits and reductions in cost sharing, prohibition of lifetime limits on coverage and rescission, mandates that preventive services are covered without cost sharing from plans, and allowing young adults to remain on their parents’ health plan until age 26 in order to more easily find affordable and comprehensive health coverage.
As a result, the uninsured rate has significantly declined. This trend holds for both low-income households (due to Medicaid expansion and subsidies) as well as middle and upper-income families, across all age, race and educational levels.
It gives people tax credits to help pay for health insurance
Households generally qualify for the premium tax credit if their household incomes fall between 100% and 400% of the poverty line (based on family size). The credit is paid directly to insurance companies, then returned when filing income taxes. It may change during the year based on income so it’s essential that households monitor changes in income throughout the year and report any necessary adjustments.
The Affordable Care Act established a premium tax credit to assist people in paying for health insurance through the Marketplace. Normally, this credit is only available to people not eligible for Medicaid or CHIP in states that expanded coverage to people earning under 138% of poverty level and prevents health insurers from denying coverage or charging higher premiums to people with preexisting conditions. Individuals can claim this credit either when enrolling in their Marketplace plan or at tax time.
It protects people with preexisting conditions
People living with preexisting conditions require reliable health care coverage. Without Affordable Care Act protections, they could be denied insurance or face higher costs than others. They also risk losing it should their jobs change, become self-employed or they go through life events such as divorce or retirement – prior to the ACA insurers often limited benefits by setting annual and lifetime limits or adding exclusionary riders that limit coverage.
The Affordable Care Act prohibits such practices, allowing insurers to charge the same rate for all applicants and plans. In addition, essential health benefits must be included and community rating and guaranteed issue are implemented as consumer safeguards to help millions of Americans obtain affordable coverage; congressional proposals purporting to be alternatives do not offer equal protections for people living with preexisting medical conditions.
It allows young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26
Prior to the Affordable Care Act, young adults often lost access to their parents’ health coverage upon turning 18. As they aged out, these youth could lose eligibility for public programs such as Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program and struggled to find affordable private plans.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) permits young adults up until they turn 26 to remain on their parents’ plans, regardless of whether or not they live at home with them, helping to increase enrollment among this demographic group while significantly decreasing uninsurance rates among this age bracket. This provision has helped increase enrollment among this subset while significantly lowering uninsurance rates among this subset of the population.
Young adults no longer need to depend on their parent’s plan for health coverage – thanks to new health exchanges with income-based subsidies and coverage for preexisting conditions that insurers could deny them before. They’ll have access to any doctor they choose as well as free preventive care such as annual checkups and birth control prescriptions; all provisions expected to increase insurance uptake among young adults drastically.
