Free Affordable Care Act (ACA) & Medical Cost Containment Research Paper Example

The affordable care Act (ACA) has provisions that are geared towards to promoting accessibility to health services. The Act intends to reduce the costs of delivery of health services to the people of the United States of America. The ACA Act has provisions which if implemented will ensure competition in giving of health Plans, impose taxes on individual and family health insurance premiums that are highly priced. The Act has also introduced measures to curb fraud in the health sector with the purpose of reducing wastage (Rosenbaum, 2011). These provisions in the Act were made in response to the high health care costs of the United States. In 2009, the health care costs stood at $ 2.5 trillion. This translated to about $8068 in terms of per capita. The reforms if properly implemented will lead to reduced costs in the provision of health care services to the people.
The Act has introduced exchanges in health insurance. Under these exchanges small-employees number of employees and individuals are allowed to take up health insurance. This kind of arrangement has the potential of reducing, marketing costs. Administration costs of a health plan are greatly reduced if through exchanges thus leading to savings.
The main purpose of the Act is to increase health insurance coverage in the United States. The number of people who are uninsured is expected to reduce by half the number that is currently out of insurance cover. This increase in the number of people under insurance cover will automatically reduce the health care costs incurred by the government in providing health care to its citizens. The intention of the Act is to extend cover to all citizens with incomes that are below 133 percent poverty level at the federal level (Rosenbaum, 2011). Section 1413 has such provisions relating to the citizens who should be under health insurance cover.
This health plan arrangement will also lead to increased between plans. The need to provide quality products at a low costs ensures competitions. The end result would be low costs of health services. The exchanges would also ensure that high risk groups are not eliminated from the health plans.
The Act imposes high taxes on high cost premiums. The Act tags a tax of 40 percent tax on family premiums that go beyond $ 27,500. The same tax is imposed on individual premiums that go beyond $10,200. This mechanism prevents increase in premium. The tax placed on the high cost insurance products discourages employers from providing high insurance benefits to its employees (Zuckerman, & Holahan, 2012).
The Independent Payment Board is established under the Act to control the prices of health care products. The price of health care id tagged on the consumer price index. The board has the mandate of giving recommendations relating to reductions of spending on Medicare
The body established is bestowed with the responsibility of ensuring that increase in medical care costs by policy makers is prevented.
The introduction of reporting requirements will ensure that costs of Medicare are reduced. Section 2717 of the Act provides for reporting requirements relating to coverage, health plans and structures adopted for reimbursement. The matters to be reported must show how the health care has been improved and the reduction in readmissions. Reduced readmissions to health facilities automatically lead to reduced costs in the provision of health care.
The Act in a bid to reduce readmissions into hospitals has come up a system of incentives to hospitals. Hospitals exempted from making certain payments if the number of readmissions are reduced. The readmissions will be assessed against the readmission rates expected from the hospital. This incentive will increase quality service which leads to reduced readmissions hence reduced costs of health care. This strategy is had the potential of inspiring a cost saving of about $ 7 billion in a span of 10 years.
The ACA has several provisions which are intended to bolster the government’s role in monitoring the provision of health care to citizens. The provisions are intended to reduce wastage by preventing fraud in health care plans (Zuckerman, & Holahan, 2012). Reduction in wastage in the health sector will result into reduced spending and increase in the revenue.
An annual review of premiums by the government through the secretary of State is also one of the ways in which the Act intends to increase the uptake of insurance cover. More people under health insurance cover means less Medical care costs.
The payment reductions in medicare also reduce the costs of medical care. Market based updates that are given annually are reduced results in overall reduction in the provision of health care.
The full implementation of the Act will lead to reduce costs and better provision of services to the people. The Act has very ambitious provisions that would curb increase in the costs of health care. The increase in the number of people taking up health care will lead to reduced costs in health care provisions. Though the Act has faced opposition, it implementation would lead to reduced costs in the health sector.

References

Rosenbaum, S (2011).The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Implications for Public Health Policy and Practice. Public Health Rep 126(1): 130–135, Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3001814/
Zuckerman, S & Holahan, J (2012). Despite Criticism, the Affordable Care Act Does Much to Contain Health Care Costs. Retrieved from http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412665-Despite-Criticism-The-Affordable-Care-Act-Does-Much-to-Contain-Health-Care-Cost.pdf