Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been a significant historical and political step that mandates people’s well-being by enabling citizens to obtain important medical services. Therefore, the policy has been filled with political whispers, which have since made the repealing and replacing of the act an engrossment.

An analysis of the Affordable Care Act shows the policy has benefits and disadvantages. The main goal of the policy is to enhance the quality and insurance coverage by availing of crucial health benefits (Willison & Singer, 2017). However, some proposals tend to raise the costs of medical care while denying patients health insurance based on their health condition, age, and economic capability (AAFP, 2022). Thus, legislators who support the policy risk failure of being reelected due to these negative proposals of the policy. Moreover, reelection or lack thereof of the legislators can thus influence the direction of the repeal and replace efforts for the (ACA) policy. Elections have been deemed to sway policy affiliations to a compromise between the voters and the legislative leaders (Button, 2017). The legislators in the senate and the house of representatives are chosen through an election process. They have to conduct campaigns and sell their policies to the people. Since their main interest is to be reelected, they are inclined to support policies that the voters advocate for. Therefore, their decisions and position concerning policies such as the (ACA) are determined by the voters' views.

The intricacy of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has seen its repeal and replace engrossment at a political level. However, the efforts have been marred by legislative leaders' reelection or lack thereof. Moreover, the voters affect the legislators' decision to implement national policies such as the (ACA) policy due to their interest in reelection.

References

American Academy of Family Physicians [AAFP]. (2022). ACA repeal/replace. Aafp.org.  https://www.aafp.org/news/media-center/kits/aca-repeal-replace.html.

Button, P. (2017). A replication of “do voters affect or elect policies? Evidence from the u.s. House” (quarterly journal of economics, 2004). Public Finance Review, 46(5), 886-893. https://doi.org/10.1177/1091142117721739

Willison, C., & Singer, P. (2017, August). Repealing the affordable care act essential health benefits: threats and obstacles. American Journal Of Public Health, 107(8), 1225-1226. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2017.303888