INSTRUCTION: BELOW IS A POST DISCUSSION FROM ANOTHER COLLEGUE. I NEED ASSISTANCE WITH THE FOLLOWING: Respond

to at

least two of your colleagues* on two different days by expanding on their explanation and providing an example that supports their explanation or respectfully challenging their explanation and providing an example. AT LEAST TWO REFERENCES ARE NEEDED. THANKS

Politics and Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

There are many ways that the financing of healthcare really works with the many types of health insurance (Knickman, 2015a, p.233). “Some are publicly paid for through taxes, some are paid for by employers, and others are paid for by individuals directly” (Knickman, 2015a, p.233). Medicare and Medicaid are two of the types of insurances paid for by taxes. Medicare was originally sold to the American public as plan that would cover all Americans over the age of 65 and Medicare was to take care of special populations and special needs patients. Today, Medicare has been deemed an entitlement much like welfare and its benefits have dwindled as funds have been stripped to pay for other government expenditures.

The Legislative act of 2010 known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) commonly known as Obamacare ensured that all Americans have access to quality affordable health care. It is “considered the most far-reaching health care reform act since the passage of Medicare, in 1965” (Levy, 2010).  The Affordable Care Act was established to help Americans with cheap health coverage.

While it may be true that ACA has increased health care access to up to 24 million people, this number is only 7% of the total population of the United States (Census Bureau, 2017). The studies fail to separate out the illegal immigrants’ access numbers from the citizen access numbers of those who ACA has benefited. While the dollar figure for supporting the illegals here in the United States is estimated to be around $116,000,000,000.000 annually, how much of this is actually being used to offset the medical financial blow causes by this segment of the population? (ThoughtCo., 2018).

The private share of health care insurance was to be financed by premiums that were to be 18% of the total cost of providing health care services for the average patient, the private insurance company was to pay 35% of the expenditure of the services provided, and 47% was to be paid by copay payments and public payments, for a total of 100% cost coverage of services (Knickman, 2015a, p.238). Workers’ Compensation has been another way for the health care system to not be overburdened by the work-related injuries as well as prevent job-site injuries from adding to the welfare burden if the recovery process became drawn out (Knickman, 2015a, p.238). In 1985, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act was put into place to reduce gaps in insurance coverage for individuals who were/are between jobs (Knickman, 2015a, p.239).

Reflecting on the Feldstein statement on Page 27 When the benefit to legislators (positive political support) exceeds their costs (negative political support) they will support legislation. Politicians are usually expected to represent their constituents’ preferences. I believe that politician make decisions depending on how it may affect their next tenure or re-election. One would have to first establish that the deviation is a form of corruption, meaning that the decision biases the result in favor of some constituents at the expense of overall social welfare.