HC1:
In September of 2010, under the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the government made eight new changes to its health laws (Carey, 2010). These changes have affected Americans in different ways, depending on the insurance coverage that each individual has (Carey, 2010). The ACA included changes such as raising the age requirement for children on their parent’s insurance plan to twenty-six, prohibiting insurers from denying children coverage due to a pre-existing medical condition,, and prohibiting insurers from canceling an individual’s coverage due to sickness (Carey, 2010). Insurers also cannot charge co-pays for preventative services such as cancer screenings and the individuals get the right to choose their primary physicians and specialists, not the insurer (Carey, 2010). Furthermore, insurers could not increase an individual’s deductible in emergency cases, charge annual coverage limits, or impose lifetime limits (Carey, 2010). This topic is important for individuals to know and understand because these laws greatly affect everyone, both young and old. HC2: Health law’s eight new changes mainly affect the cost and access of care. These changes affect the cost of care by prohibiting lifetime and annual coverage limits (U. S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], 2014). Lifetime limits greatly impact those suffering from serious illnesses. Cancer treatment is extremely expensive and it would be easy for an individual to exceed their lifetime limit in just one year by receiving the basic care that they need. The ACA also banned annual limits, which set an annual dollar limit on the amount an individual could spend on services (HHS, 2014). Also, insurance companies cannot deny coverage or charge an individual more due to a pre-existing condition (The White House, 2015). The ACA health law changes affect a patient’s access of care by providing them with the option to choose any participating physicians as their primary doctor (HHS, 2014). This makes our system much more efficient by reducing the costs and improving the access to health care for millions of insured Americans. HC3: The principle of ethics that my topic mainly focuses on is beneficence. …show more content…
The purpose of these law changes is to achieve the four fundamental goals that shape the American health system (Marco et al., 2012). These goals include high quality care, freedom of choice in care, affordable health care, and health care for all (Marco et al., 2012). All for of these fundamental goals focus on beneficence for American citizens. The first, high quality care, focuses on beneficence by directing the providers to act on the benefits of the patient (Marco, et al., 2012). Secondly, the freedom of choice of care benefits the patient by improving their access to available care and the quality of the care that they receive. Thirdly, affordable health care benefits all because the less money that Americans spend on health care, the more money they can spend on other items. With America’s health care being one of the most expensive health care systems in the world, this is a great benefit to all citizens. Lastly, health care for all is beneficiary to Americans because no individual wants to deny someone care when they are in need (Marco et al., 2012). HC4: My topic affects the uninsured in many ways. Insurance plans now offer individuals with the option