Reference no: EM132214202

The 2010 federal public law, known as the Affordable Care Act, is an active U.S. health policy that, if ran through the modification phase again, would definitely undergo changes and alterations to help payers and providers make the best of this complex legislation. The ACA has significantly alleviated healthcare disparities among U.S. citizens reducing the uninsured rate to about 8.6%, but the state and federal insurance exchanges have not made payers happy. Prior to the passing of the ACA, payers could refuse coverage of patients with existing medical conditions and complex needs; however, under the ACA, payers are not entitled to charge higher premiums to such patients, leading some companies to incur losses on paying for their care. While this is undoubtedly a positive development for patients, it presents an issue for payers. Healthcare payers should therefore develop alternatives to improve profitability, while ensuring a high quality experience for ACA consumers. A suggestion for such case would be to improve state regulation of network. States could adopt, or amend existing, legislation to ensure that insurer networks are adequate and nondiscriminatory. Having such control over networks is one approach to controlling health care costs and ensuring provider quality.