The need for affordable health care is a fundamental right for every American, hence, the reason why the federal government is committed to laying down practical measures that would enable the community members to access medical services with ease. To guarantee the citizens that the nation is engaged in catering for their health interests, the United States passed the Affordable Care Act. It is estimated that since its implementation, the number of the Americans without a health insurance cover has significantly declined to 9.1% in the year 2015 from a sixteen percent level in 2010 (Obama, 2016). As a result, the number of people who have not been insured has declined to twenty-nine million from forty million. Obama notes that there have been various regulations that have been put in place to enhance the efficiency of the Affordable Health Act. For instance, the policy has broadened the coverage of the health insurance to include the maternity care as well as catering for the costs of mental disorders, which had been initially left out of the health insurance scheme (Obama 2016). As a result, families can now save a lot of that would have been used in catering for the costs of chronic ailments, which is usually very costly.
One of the significant effects of the Affordable Health Act (ACA) has been the reduction of educational inequalities among the community members. As aforementioned, the costs of accessing medical services before the effective implementation of ACA was relatively high, hence, denoting that some of the children – more so those whose parents were suffering from terminal illnesses – had limited opportunities of learning like their peers. In most cases, the children’s right to education is held at stake in case the respective family is incurring a lot of finances in seeking medical services for one of their members. In such a scenario, the children end up dropping from school, which diminishes their hope for a better future since they cannot get well-paying jobs due to lack of education. However, the situation has dramatically changed since the inception of the affordable health policy. It is important to note that the Act aims at expanding its Medicaid programs to cater for the health costs of all the adults who live below the 138 percent of the poverty line (Blumenthal, Abrams & Nuzum, 2015). Such plan is an effective strategy that can enable the affected families set aside enough resources to cater for the educational costs of their young ones.
Mindo is of the opinion that ACA is one of the most effective strategies adopted by the federal government to curb the increase in inequality levels among the community members. The high rate of income disparities has been a significant force behind the inability of a sect of the community to access education and health services. As a result, some scholars – for instance, Reich – have pointed out that there is a high probability that forty-two percent of the children born in needy families would live from hand to mouth all through their lives (Mindo, 2017). The primary rationale behind this conviction is the fact that children from such backgrounds will not have the required finances to cater for their education services since the available funds would be used to pay for other crucial costs – for example the health bills. Therefore, ACA has been deemed as a favorite technique of exercising equality among the people since it enables them to save a considerable proportion of their funds that would have been used in seeking medical services.
In a nutshell, it is paramount to note that the costs of medical services have been one of the factors behind the inequality in access to education among the community members over the years. In most cases, children – more so the ones from low-income families and whose guardians might have been suffering from chronic ailments – has limited chances to access education since the available finances are used in catering for the costs of the health services. Nevertheless, the implementation of the Affordable Care Act has played a vital role in safeguarding the educational rights of such children. Due to efficient insurance programs like Medicaid, community members can nowadays access medical service easily and without using a lot of funds. Therefore, it would be rational to point out that ACA has led to a decrease in inequalities – in education – among the community members.
References
Blumenthal, D., Abrams, M., & Nuzum, R. (2015). The affordable care act at 5 years. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMhpr1503614
Mindo Jr, P. T. (2016). Obamacare and the Fight Against Income Inequality. Undergraduate Economic Review, 13(1), 19. https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1404&context=uer
Obama, B. (2016). United States health care reform: progress to date and next steps. Jama, 316(5), 525-532. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5069435/
Part 3
Annotated Bibliography
Isakson, D. S. (2011). Who Are America’s Poor Children? Examining Health Disparities Among Children in the United States. National Center for children in poverty.
This paper sought to find out who makes America’s needy children by inspecting health differences amongst the various groups of children in the United States. The author uses the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to give a general view on America’s children health based on the poverty status. The surveys used in the report were taken from the year 2007 to 2009. The author applied a list of annual indicators which were available for public review to examine health disparities between the poor and the affluent children. He used five health areas which include health insurance cover, health outcomes, access to medical care services, environmental health, and behavior. The author found evidence of inequalities between the needy and the fortunate children in all the five areas. The results were in line with the conclusions from the public health field which summed up that the connection between health and socioeconomic aspects forms one of the most significant and greatly researched areas of social science.
Proctor, B. D. (2016). Income, poverty, and health insurance coverage in the United States: 2010. Census Bureau.
The paper checks on the available information concerning health insurance cover, income, and poverty in the United States. The author relies on the data collected in the year 2001 and some years before on the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic supplements which were carried out by the United States Census Bureau. The author analyzed the results and found that the rate of poverty increased between the year 2009 and 2010. Further, the total number of people without health insurance covers grew between the year 2009 and 2010 where the amount of the uninsured in the year 2010 did not reflect any statistical difference for the uninsured in 2009. Additionally, the actual median in the household income reduced between the two years, that is, the year 2009 and 2010. The findings also varied across the groups where, for instance, the actual median home income for the blacks and whites reduced whereas the variations for the Hispanics and Asians were insignificant and could not be statistically valued.
Obama, B. (2016). United States health care reform: progress to date and next steps. Jama, 316(5), 525-532. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5069435/
This article investigates on the factors that influence the decision to undertake a health reformation program, analysis of the evidence of the influences of law on the reforms as well as the recommendations that can increase the operation of health care sector. Further, it identifies the lessons from Affordable Care Act as a public policy. The author uses data that is publicly available from government departments and agencies and the published study results from the year 1963 to 2016. The author concludes the Affordable Care Act has contributed significantly to solving persistent challenges that have been facing the United States healthcare sector about access, care quality, and affordability. Additionally, there has been a decrease in the rate of the uninsured by 43% since the Affordable Care Act put in practice and accepted as law. Moreover, an improvement in the access to medical care, financial security, and health has been noted since the Act was passed into law and started operation.
Blumenthal, D., Abrams, M., & Nuzum, R. (2015). The affordable care act at 5 years. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMhpr1503614
The article reviews on the Affordable Care Act performance for the last five years since it was introduced in 2010 by President Obama. To fulfill the objectives, the author takes into account health insurance expansion and the reforms the Act has brought in the United States health care system. The authors dwelt much on the delivery of healthcare rather than the development of the coverage as the latter is the central aspect of the Act and a lot of provisions on health insurance started operations some months after its enactment. To acquire the final analysis, the authors judged the Act on the total of the effects of three selected dimensions of US healthcare sector. The aspects were the access to care, regarding its adequacy, the cost of medical care, and the medical care quality. They concluded that Affordable Care Act was effective in improving the performance of the United States health care system where it has increased health care quality, reduced the cost of care, and have enabled access to care for a majority of people.
Mindo Jr, P. T. (2016). Obamacare and the Fight Against Income Inequality. Undergraduate Economic Review, 13(1), 19. https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1404&context=uer
The article investigates the Affordable Care Act to ascertain the importance and the magnitude of its impacts on the inequality of income in the United States. The author starts by discussing the possible effects of health legislation on the equality if income. Then, the author reviewed the current literature on the issue of income inequality. He achieved the purpose of the research by collecting data from a state level set of data from the year 2007 to 2013 which provided a wide range of control variables for better evaluation. Further, he used Gini coefficient to calculate the extent to which the distribution of individual’s income or those from households varies from an equally distributed data. The author concluded that Affordable Care Act has both positive and negative impacts on income inequality. Further, he found that the Affordable Care Act has contributed much in reducing income inequality and that addition of more health care reforms can significantly improve the health care system of US.
References
Blumenthal, D., Abrams, M., & Nuzum, R. (2015). The affordable care act at 5 years. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMhpr1503614
Isakson, D. S. (2011). Who Are America’s Poor Children? Examining Health Disparities Among Children in the United States. National Center for children in poverty.
Mindo Jr, P. T. (2016). Obamacare and the Fight Against Income Inequality. Undergraduate Economic Review, 13(1), 19. https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1404&context=uer
Obama, B. (2016). United States health care reform: progress to date and next steps. Jama, 316(5), 525-532. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5069435/
Proctor, B. D. (2016). Income, poverty, and health insurance coverage in the United States: 2010. Census Bureau.
