President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) on March 23, 2010. This landmark legislation made healthcare coverage more readily available, targeted abusive insurance practices, and sought to control costs within healthcare.
Market reforms included in the Affordable Care Act include access for young adults to coverage, elimination of preexisting condition exclusions and lifetime limits in health coverage plans, as well as regulations banning lifetime caps for health coverage. Implementation varies between states but most took either legislative or regulatory action to implement these changes.
1. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Three years since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), debate around health care reform has shifted away from whether its constitutionality and toward how best to implement its provisions. Since its enactment, ACA has made significant changes to how Americans obtain coverage – offering coverage to nearly 94% of population.
The Affordable Care Act’s key reforms include access for young adults to coverage, the elimination of preexisting condition exclusions, the minimum set of essential health benefits required, and lifetime limits being prohibited. While implementation differs by state, most likely enforce these protections and enforce access for young adults as soon as they become available.
2. The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act
The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, often referred to as Obamacare, was approved by the 111th Congress in 2010 and became law on March 23, 2010 with its effects taking effect January 1, 2014.
As soon as it was implemented, this law required all individuals to either have health insurance or pay an annual fine starting at $95 in 2014. Subsequent fines increased each year until 2016.
In addition to health care reform, the Affordable Care Act made several modifications to student financial aid. Notably, this included revising how Stafford and PLUS loans are processed as well as eliminating banks’ guarantor role for federal consolidation loans from banks.
The Affordable Care Act broadened Medicaid’s reach, provided premium subsidies to low-income individuals, and established new standards for insurance companies – such as spending at least 80% to 85% of premiums on healthcare while making the remaining amount available as refunds.
3. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
Three years ago, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). This law established state-based health insurance exchanges, expanded Medicaid coverage for most low-income Americans, and mandated most employers provide health coverage or pay a fee to cover their full-time employees.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) includes provisions that prevent health insurers from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions, waiting periods, or other factors; in addition to introducing more flexible deductibles and copayments and tax credits to help individuals afford coverage; furthermore, more federal support was made available for small business owners offering their employees coverage through exchanges.
In its first year after implementation, the Affordable Care Act provided access to coverage for over 40 million Americans and reduced uninsured rates to their lowest point ever while simultaneously cutting costs. But political and executive opposition emerged which eventually resulted in legislative proposals and executive actions designed to repeal it, such as by reducing minimum benefit requirements or subsidies without totally repealing it.
4. The American Taxpayer Relief Act
The American Taxpayer Relief Act was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on January 2, 2013, providing tax cuts for lower-income individuals that extended many Bush-era tax cuts.
The Act indexes certain tax breaks for inflation. Furthermore, it made permanent certain estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax provisions set to expire.
These laws provided much-needed relief from ever-evolving estate, gift, and transfer taxes which had complicated estate planning processes for many families.
However, this law did include an increase in Medicare payroll tax for high-income individuals who earned over $200,000 individually and $250,000 jointly – this measure was intended to counterbalance other provisions within ACA.
