Reference no: EM133260469

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The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was made available in 2010 to expand access and quality of healthcare (Walker et al., 2022). The main goals of the program include improving healthcare costs, value, and investments (Walker et al., 2022). The ACA also aims to decrease the amount of unnecessary spending on healthcare and places an emphasis on public health investments (Walker et al., 2022). In order to improve spending and quality of care, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) "have shifted from a fee-for-service to value-based reimbursement" (Walker et al., 2022). That said, hospitals, as well as patients, benefit from the expansions under the ACA due to the reduction of uncompensated care (Saygili, 2022).

Low-income and uninsured individuals were greatly affected by the ACA as it included Medicaid expansion to these populations (Walker et al., 2022). With Medicaid benefits extending to more patients, there was about a 50% increase in enrollment after the enactment of the ACA (Walker et al., 2022). In terms of seeking out services, the use of healthcare resources increased as people obtained more coverage (McInerney et al., 2020).

Medicare was also largely impacted by the ACA as it allowed individuals to receive coverage from both (McInerney et al., 2020). While virtually everyone over the age of 65 is eligible for Medicare, they face high out-of-pocket costs, and services they need may not even be covered (McInerney et al., 2020). Through the ACA's expansion of Medicaid, however, eligible people are able to have those bridges gapped (McInerney et al., 2020). Additionally, they gain access to more services including long-term care benefits (McInerney et al., 2020). As policy changes have influenced spending on long-term healthcare resources, incentives have been offered to nursing homes in order to decrease readmission rates (Walker et al., 2022).

While over 35 states have adopted the ACA Medicaid expansion, there are numerous states who haven't, including Texas (Saygili, 2022). I read an article that examined studies to see how the application of these expansions could affect healthcare in those states. The findings suggest that hospitals in these states would see benefits such as fewer uncompensated cases and lower treatment costs (Saygili, 2022). The author then argues that if more individuals were able to benefit from the ACA's expansion, overall health outcomes would improve based on the lower cost of care (Saygili, 2022). Patients would be more likely to seek help when needed without the thought of high costs influencing their decision (Saygili, 2022). In order to influence non-expansion states, the American Rescue Plan of 2021 offers incentives to adopt the policy (Saygili, 2022).