The healthcare law reform, although several have been proposed in the past, only a few were completed. However, there were two federal acts enacted during the year 2010, and these served as major reforms in the field of healthcare. These two included the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as well as the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act. It is worth noting that the latter were amendments to the PPACA, and it was made into a law seven days after the PPACA was enacted. At present, there were more reforms proposed such as a lower cost for the fee-for-service in medical care and a single-payer system. The Center for Medicate and Medicaid Innovation is an agency by the PPACA, and it introduces some projects in conducting research inline with reform concepts.
The PPACA
In Obama’s speech that was given in March 2010, this was directed to the president’s objectives of devising a healthcare reform. This has led to the creation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is also known as the PPACA. However, this Act was eventually amended with the enactment of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act during the same year. There were some controversies involved in the PPACA, and this resulted to efforts to reverse the concepts of the Affordable Care Act. It was on October 1, 2013 when the Government Shutdown was held, and this was directed to reversing the Act, although this attempt was not quite successful initially. A reopening by the government was made on November 2013.
Due to the passing of the law, it is no longer possible for insurance companies to charge their members for fees based on the gender. Thus, men now face the greater responsibility of paying women’s healthcare expenses. There is also a cost difference in the expenses of healthcare between men and women since the former have shorter lifespan. Yet, some changes in the Act were made, and these were relevant to the dependents of members, businesses and medical loss ratios, among a few other aspects included in the changes.
