Affordable Care Act continues to draw criticism due to health insurance provisions
The Affordable Care Act has experienced no shortage of opposition in the U.S. The health care law, which was passed in 2010, seeks to revolutionize the health care and health insurance industries of the entire country. The feat is not small in any way, and many have criticized the law’s provisions as either being too aggressive or not expansive enough. Despite criticism, the Obama administration has been adamant on the belief that the Affordable Care Act will expand the coverage available to everyone in the country, with millions of U.S. citizens finding access to the health insurance they need.
Study suggests that coverage may not expand as much as previously thought
While the current administration has high hopes for the Affordable Care Act, the law has experienced major challenges that threaten to derail its progress on a near daily basis. The most recent of these challenges concerns a study from the Congressional Budget Office. The study from the federal agency concerns the number of people that will receive coverage through the new health care law when it is fully enacted. Initially, projections concerning the coverage provided by the Affordable Care Act suggested that nearly 30 million people throughout the country would find health insurance policies by 2017.
8 million people expected to lose health insurance coverage in the near future
The Congressional Budget Office has been monitoring the impact of the Affordable Care Act since its passage in 2010 and has found that the law may not actually expand health insurance coverage to 30 million people. According to the federal agency, this number is closer to 24 million over the course of the next decade. Moreover, the agency’s study claims that as many as 8 million people throughout the country will lose their health insurance coverage because of the federal law’s provisions concerning small businesses.
Health insurance exchanges may help the problem, but several states refuse to comply
The Congressional Budget Office notes that many factors contribute to its lowering expectations of the Affordable Care Act, and that these factors are in a constant state of change. The agency suggests that health insurance exchanges, online marketplaces that are meant to exist in every state, could help offset any of the problems it foresees regarding the federal health care law. The problem, however, is that at least 22 states are refusing to build these exchange systems, which could make finding health insurance for people living in these states somewhat difficult in the future.
