Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Assignment

In an effort to reform the American Healthcare system, President Barack Obama signed The Affordable Care Act into law in 2010. This bill is supposed to guarantee health insurance to millions of uninsured Americans and lower the cost associated with healthcare. Its constitutionality has been challenged in court in 2012 and 2015, but the Supreme Court ruled in its favor (Auerbach, 2019)

Many families in the United States are debating how it will affect them if they “repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA)”. They are wondering if they will be able to keep or afford their health coverage or their prescribed medications. Deductibles and out-of-pocket costs are so high causing most of the working adults to be underinsured despite being enrolled in the ACA. Repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will have a devastating effect on the families and the elected officials as well as they are no clear alternative to replace it. It is costly but needed. It is estimated that 13 million Americans will lose their healthcare coverage over a decade as a result and States will lose in federal funding and subsidies paid to the marketplace (Thompson et al 2018).

Among the successes of the ACA, one can name: people can’t be denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions, Medicaid is expanded and individuals can get preventative services at no charge.

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In her article Pros and Cons of the Affordable Care Act, Champagne (2014) found many issues with marketplace processing and lot of inconsistencies with what people are being told. She gave an example where families have to get different coverage for different members. A mother was told that her newborn was covered by Medicaid and her other two children have a state insurance plan. It turned out that the baby was not and the other two were dropped by the system because it shows that they have a third party coverage which doesn’t exist.

All this reveal the importance of an established plan to strengthen the health care system. The plan must be highlighted from the start to make the system works for every American Citizen. And the civil society will benefit the most from its best practices.

References

Auerbach, M. P. (2019). Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2019. Retrieved on September 13, 2020 from https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/eds/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=

Champagne, D. M. (2014). Pros and Cons of Affordable Care Act. Daily Record. Retrieved on September 13, 2020 from https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/eds/detail/detail?

Thompson, F. J; Gusmano, M. K; Shinohara; S. Publius: The Journal of Federalism: Summer 2018, Vol.48 Issue 3 p.396-424. Access from https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/eds/results?vid=13&sid=

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Donald Freeman

RE: Discussion – Week 3

COLLAPSE

Week 3 Discussion

Main Post

The cost-benefit for legislators can be a complicated subject. In the case of The Affordable Care act, there are many different sub-categories to consider since the act covers a wide range of issues from financial to medical. It has been said that the “number one job of a legislator is to be re-elected” (Walden University, n.d.). This is not a valid statement and appears to be used to sway the beliefs of the reader to a particular viewpoint that is the same as the author. The responsibilities of a legislator according to Article 1 of the Constitution (Whitehouse.gov, n.d.) is that: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Assignment

The Legislative Branch consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate, which together form the United States Congress. The Constitution grants Congress the sole authority to enact legislation and declare war, the right to confirm or reject many Presidential appointments, and substantial investigative powers.

Legislators have taken up a role that does not necessarily conform to the restraints and confines of the Constitution of the United States. Although it is not a popular view when lobbying a legislator, one must uphold strict adherence to the rule of law and not consider that the legislator needs to be re-elected, and therefore might not listen to the particular petition or agree with it. A nation cannot survive if it goes down the slippery slope that has more than taken over popular views in the legislative process and academics.

As it relates to The Affordable Care Act, many republican legislators ran their campaigns based on “repeal and replace.” In 2017, 43 republicans voted to repeal and replace the bill, while nine Republicans voted no. The procedural vote failed with a 57 to 43 vote in the senate (The New York Times, 2017). The line between politics and healthcare is thin. In 2019, those who lobbied against the unconstitutional provisions in the bill won. Because the legislators that crafted the bill included unconstitutional mandates, the Department of Justice backed the court that ruled the ACA bill as being unconstitutional (Straub, 2019). Although the republican legislators are focused on their voters that might vote for another candidate if they do not carry out legislation that is important to the voters, they can still accomplish constitutional legislation. Nurses, such as the author of this article, expect the legislators to follow the rule of law and would lobby them in that manner requiring legislators to stand against unconstitutional legislation. Some lobbyists demand unconstitutional laws and the legislators feel obligated to put those requests into law for fear of losing their job. For instance, abortion. Many nurses lobby for the killing of infants in the mother’s womb and other legislation that is associated with that practice even though Americans have a right to life. The fourteenth amendment of the Constitution Section 1 states that (Congress.gov, n.d.):

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Legislators make laws as if there is a mandate to kill unborn infants. They know that they will lose their seat if they don’t vote for this injustice. That line of reasoning is a gross breach of the Constitution and the law. Many voters expect that the democrat party will continue to defend the killing of infants. Some would say, “What would be the use of lobbying a democrat legislator about the basic human right to life?” This nurse would explain, “Stand up for the law, human rights and dignity.” As a nurse, we have to pursue ethical standards. These standards would include the protection of life, even the life of infants. Our lobbying will reflect our values. The Affordable Care Act included funding for abortion (Abortion in Obamacare, n.d.). This, among some other unconstitutional provisions are included in the healthcare plan due to the lobbying the health care industry.

References

Abortion in Obamacare. (n.d.). Family Research Council. http://www.obamacareabortion.com/

Clowes, B. (2018, June 28). Isn’t Abortion Protected by the Constitution. https://www.hli.org/resources/abortion-no-constitutional-human-right/

Congress.gov. (n.d.). Constitution of the United States. https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-14/

Straub, S. (2019, March 25). DOJ Determines Obamacare is Unconstitutional and Illegal. https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/doj-determines-obamacare-unconstitutional-illegal

Taylor, D., Olshansky, E. F., Woods, N. F., Johnson-Mallard, V., Safriet, B. J., & Hagan, T. (2017). Corrigendum to position statement: Political interference in sexual and reproductive health research and health professional education [Nursing Outlook 65/2 (2017) 242–245]. Nursing Outlook, 65(3), 346–350.

The Legislative Branch. (n.d.). Whitehouse.gov. https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/the-legislative-branch/

The New York Times. (2017, July 28). How each senator voted on Obamacare repeal proposals. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/25/us/politics/senate-votes-repeal-obamacare.html Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Assignment

Walden University. (n.d.). Discussion: Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. https://class.content.laureate.net/2c51bef1aefbf63b0e5c7e8b705335ad.html