The ACA is a significant step forward. By making health insurance more affordable and accessible, and therefore increasing the number of Americans with coverage, by funding community-based public health and prevention initiatives, and by supporting research and tracking on critical health measures, suika game we can increase the number of Americans with coverage.

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Healthcare reform has multiple objectives that include increasing access to healthcare, reducing wastage in spending and improving the quality of healthcare services. Reforms are applied both in public and private systems. The largest healthcare reform that has ever happened in the US is the Affordable Care Act. Since the reform was introduced, health insurance has become accessible to more than 20 million people. Though the reform has increased insurance premiums and taxation for the high-income earners, it has reduced the cost of healthcare for consumers, broadened health insurance coverage and improved healthcare delivery in the United States.

Benefits

Healthcare reforms reduced the increase in hospital spending. The ACA demonstrated that healthcare spending can be reduced by proper legislation. In the years from 1990 to 2008, health spending increased by 7.2% (Hartman, Martin, Espinosa, Catlin, & National Health Expenditure Accounts Team, 2017). The introduction of exchanges in 2014 resulted to a slower increase in health spending at 5.3% (Hartman et al., 2017). The expansion of Medicaid was partly responsible for this trend. The states that expanded Medicaid reported a 40% increase in the number of prescriptions filled for diabetes drugs (Hartman et al., 2017). The healthcare saved $6394 for each diabetic patient treated.

The reforms in health insurance are attributed to the increase in the number of Americans under health cover. ACA provided a tax credit for insurance to the people who could not previously afford insurance coverage. The reform limited out-of-pocket costs for individual plans to $7150 and $14300 for family plans (Golberstein, Gonzales, & Sommers, 2015). The reform also required states to set up insurance exchanges that enable people shopping for insurance plans to compare prices. The reform also allowed parents to include children up to the age of 26 in their insurance plans.

The main purpose of reforms is to improve healthcare delivery. The reforms introduced by ACA Changed the basis of paying doctors from tests and procedure dependent on how well the patient gets. Thus, the reform forced hospitals, pharmacists and doctors to collaborate in a comprehensive approach. The care provided after the reform is coordinated with hospital visits, tests and specialists.

Negative Aspects

The health reform has caused an increase in premium costs for health plans on the health insurance exchanges. The premiums for the silver and gold plans shot up by double digits three years after the introduction of the reform. The reason for the increase in premiums was an increase in demand for health cover by 20 million people (Golberstein, Gonzales, & Sommers, 2015). An increase in demand for health cover caused an increase in prices of health policies.

Health reforms need financing. The ACA reforms were financed by raising income tax rate for 1 million Americans who earned above $200,000 annually (Saez, 2017). The class of top income earners also paid an additional 3.8% Medicare tax (Saez, 2017). The people financing the reforms did not benefit from their implementation.

The Current Situation of Healthcare Services in the State Of Florida

Florida is significant in the healthcare system because of the size of the population and the size of hospitals in the state. It is the fourth most populous state in the US with a population of 19.5 million (Logan, Catalanotto, Guo, Marks, & Dharamsi, 2015). It hosts 3 of the 10 largest hospitals in the US in terms of beds. However, the state has not expanded Medicaid.

Florida has one of the largest uninsured population in the US. About 19% of residents do not have health coverage. Due to the low rates of health insurance, the average cost of personal health spending in Florida exceeds the national average by $341 (Benk, 2016.). Since Florida has not expanded its Medicaid, 1.3 million residents are qualified for Medicaid but are uninsured.

The quality of service is largely determined by the size of medical staff and facilities. Florida has about 50,031 physicians serving the 19 million populations (Benk, 2016). Thus, Florida has attained the nationwide patient to doctor ratio of 390:1. Florida has 214 non-federal acute care hospitals with 55, 000 staffed beds.

Conclusion

Healthcare reform is necessary for a healthcare system that aims at increasing its efficiency and effectiveness. The ACA has enhanced provision of care, expanded health insurance coverage and tamed increase in healthcare costs. However, it has come with an increase in taxation for the top income earners and higher premiums. The state of Florida scores in physician to patient ratio but it should expand Medicaid. An increase in the number of people with health cover will expand access to healthcare.

References

Benk, R. (2016). Survey: Florida health care system ranks 38 in nation. WJCT News. Retrieved from http://news.wjct.org/post/survey-florida-health-care-system-ranks-38-nation

Golberstein, E., Gonzales, G., & Sommers, B. D. (2015). California’s early ACA expansion increased coverage and reduced out-of-pocket spending for the state’s low-income population. Health Affairs, 34(10).

Hartman, M., Martin, A. B., Espinosa, N., Catlin, A., & National Health Expenditure Accounts Team. (2017). National health care spending in 2016: Spending and enrollment growth slow after initial coverage expansions. Health Affairs, 37(1).

Logan, H. L., Catalanotto, F., Guo, Y., Marks, J., & Dharamsi, S. (2015). Barriers to Medicaid participation among Florida dentists. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 26(1).

Saez, E. (2017). Taxing the rich more: Preliminary evidence from the 2013 Tax Increase. Tax Policy and the Economy, 31(1).