The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Impact on Health Care
Health care in the United States is constantly changing and innovations arise to manage cost and efficiency. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is one of the latest innovations in healthcare industry, which aims to provide better care to the people while managing cost. The PPACA will be describe, the benefits of this new act will be discuss and the impact it will have in quality of life for the patients, spending, and how it will affect the future of health care.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) were signed into a law in March 2010. The PPACA main goal is to decrease the number of Americans uninsured and to reduce the cost of health care. Implementing PPACA is a challenge since every sector of health care is affected. Paul Keckley, Executive Director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solution said there were two significant realities with PPACA, which are the expectation of transparency, and the limited resources (2011 State of the Industry, 2010). Rules and regulations are constantly developed or modified to ensure cost is managed. According to “the National Association of Insurance Commissioners is providing the formula insurers will follow to tally their medical–lost ratios” (2011 State of the Industry, 2010, p. 14). There is no doubt that the economy is not doing well and for that reason, the health care field is feeling the consequences.
The PPACA reduces the amount of uninsured people in the United States, which according to the U.S. Census Bureau it increased from “46.3 million in 2008 to 50.7 million in 2009” (2011 State of the Industry, 2010, p. 15). This increase in uninsured individuals can be attributed to the increased percentage of unemployment. PPACA also reduces health care spending, it reduces costs for consumers, and it