Impact Of The Affordable Care Act (ACA)
Impact of the Affordable Care Act
Donna Proctor
Walden University
NURS-6050N Section 1, Policy & Advocacy for Population Health
October 2, 2014
Impact of the Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law by President Barack Obama early in 2010. The ACA was introduced into law to help provide access to affordable and quality health insurance to more Americans than ever before. The goal was to reduce health care cost for individuals and government. It has allowed more adults to be eligible for Medicaid by increasing income eligibility to 138 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). (Milstead, 2013) However, by ruling of the Supreme Court in June of 2012, states had the option to implement the expansion of Medicaid …show more content…
The Gross Domestic Product in 2013 for North Carolina, based on millions of dollars spent, was $471,365 million, an increase of over $50,000 million since 2010. (Department of Labor and Workforce, 2013) In 2013, North Carolina’s State Auditor Beth Wood indicated that the state’s Medicaid program had gone over budget for the past three years, costing taxpayers about $1.2 billion. (Hoban, 2013) This leaves businesses and the working population to cover health care costs by paying higher taxes. With unemployment soaring over the last decade, and North Carolina having one of the highest unemployment rates in the United States (Hoban, 2013), less is paid into taxes. This leads to less to cover health care costs. The Affordable Care Act was implemented to decrease the costs of health care for all Americans. According to the White House website (2014) “the Congressional Budget Office found that health insurance reform will reduce the deficit by $210 billion in this decade and by more than $1 trillion over the following 10 years. A family of four would save as much as $2,300 on their premiums in 2014 compared to what they would have paid without reform”. Will the decreased costs affect the quality of care being …show more content…
(2009). Health Care Reform: The Cost of Doing Nothing in North Carolina. Democratic Policy Committee. Retrieved from http://www.dpc.senate.gov/docs/states-fs-111-1-87/nc.pdf
Hoban, R. (April, 2013). Cost of Care: How ‘Broken’ is NC Medicaid?. North Carolina Health News. Retrieved from http://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2013/04/15/how-broken-is-nc-medicaid/
How Will the Uninsured in North Carolina Fare Under the Affordable Care Act. (2014). The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved from http://kff.org/health-reform/fact-sheet/state-profiles-uninsured-under-aca-north-carolina/
Kovner, A. R., & Knickman, J. R. (Eds.). (2011). Health care delivery in the United States (10th ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing.
Milstead, J. (2013). Health Policy and Politics: A Nurse’s guide. (pp. 202-204). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC
Sorell, J. (November 9, 2014). Ethics: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Ethical Perspectives in 21st Century Health Care. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing 18(1). doi: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol18No02EthCol01
StateReforum. (2014). Map: Where States Stand on Medicaid Expansion Decisions. Retrieved from
Donna Proctor
Walden University
NURS-6050N Section 1, Policy & Advocacy for Population Health
October 2, 2014
Impact of the Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law by President Barack Obama early in 2010. The ACA was introduced into law to help provide access to affordable and quality health insurance to more Americans than ever before. The goal was to reduce health care cost for individuals and government. It has allowed more adults to be eligible for Medicaid by increasing income eligibility to 138 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). (Milstead, 2013) However, by ruling of the Supreme Court in June of 2012, states had the option to implement the expansion of Medicaid …show more content…
The Gross Domestic Product in 2013 for North Carolina, based on millions of dollars spent, was $471,365 million, an increase of over $50,000 million since 2010. (Department of Labor and Workforce, 2013) In 2013, North Carolina’s State Auditor Beth Wood indicated that the state’s Medicaid program had gone over budget for the past three years, costing taxpayers about $1.2 billion. (Hoban, 2013) This leaves businesses and the working population to cover health care costs by paying higher taxes. With unemployment soaring over the last decade, and North Carolina having one of the highest unemployment rates in the United States (Hoban, 2013), less is paid into taxes. This leads to less to cover health care costs. The Affordable Care Act was implemented to decrease the costs of health care for all Americans. According to the White House website (2014) “the Congressional Budget Office found that health insurance reform will reduce the deficit by $210 billion in this decade and by more than $1 trillion over the following 10 years. A family of four would save as much as $2,300 on their premiums in 2014 compared to what they would have paid without reform”. Will the decreased costs affect the quality of care being …show more content…
(2009). Health Care Reform: The Cost of Doing Nothing in North Carolina. Democratic Policy Committee. Retrieved from http://www.dpc.senate.gov/docs/states-fs-111-1-87/nc.pdf
Hoban, R. (April, 2013). Cost of Care: How ‘Broken’ is NC Medicaid?. North Carolina Health News. Retrieved from http://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2013/04/15/how-broken-is-nc-medicaid/
How Will the Uninsured in North Carolina Fare Under the Affordable Care Act. (2014). The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved from http://kff.org/health-reform/fact-sheet/state-profiles-uninsured-under-aca-north-carolina/
Kovner, A. R., & Knickman, J. R. (Eds.). (2011). Health care delivery in the United States (10th ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing.
Milstead, J. (2013). Health Policy and Politics: A Nurse’s guide. (pp. 202-204). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC
Sorell, J. (November 9, 2014). Ethics: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Ethical Perspectives in 21st Century Health Care. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing 18(1). doi: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol18No02EthCol01
StateReforum. (2014). Map: Where States Stand on Medicaid Expansion Decisions. Retrieved from