Affordable Healthcare

Running head: AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE

Affordable Healthcare Act of 2010

Patient's Bill of Rights

Nasim Hawashem

DeVry University

Abstract

This paper will discuss the policy of the Affordable Healthcare Act of 2010 and the impact that it has on society. The Affordable Healthcare Act is a legislation to provide healthcare for all Americans. The Affordable Healthcare Act contains a section of undeniable rights for the individual that are entitled Patient's Bill of Rights. In this policy paper the Patient's Bill of Rights will be discussed in depth and each aspect will be reviewed on an individual basis. The paper will discuss The Affordable Healthcare Act, The Patient's Bill of Rights, and what the two policies combined hope to achieve for the American population. The paper will review the history of the legislation as well as the implementation and what the future will hold for the new laws governing healthcare.

Affordable Healthcare Act 2010

Patient's Bill of Rights

Introduction

This policy is one of great importance that affects every American. The Affordable Healthcare Act allows every individual certain undeniable rights and protects their needs for medical coverage. These rights are outlined in The Patient's Bill of Rights, the main policy to be discussed throughout this paper. The Affordable Healthcare Act of 2010 and the Patient's Bill of Rights are necessary means to providing all Americans with equal healthcare coverage and accessibility. The Affordable Healthcare Act of 2010 is a means to a new way of life for many Americans that suffer from medical conditions and need help receiving or affording health insurance.

Affordable Healthcare Act of 2010

Summary and overview

Definition of the Affordable Healthcare Act of 2010. It's an act to insure immediate improvements in the healthcare of all Americans (Public Law 11-148, 2010). The Affordable Healthcare Act will also perform amendments to the Public Health Service Act (Public Law 11-148, 2010). The Affordable Healthcare Act is the government's means to make the individual accountable for their insurance by insuring that insurance is offered to each individual at a premium the individual can afford. According to Congress the Affordable Healthcare Act places consumers back in charge of their healthcare (HealthCare.Gov, 2010). If the Affordable Healthcare Act of 2010 sustains through all of the courts and appeals that have been attacking it since it was passed it will earn President Obama a place in history as the president who overhauled the American healthcare system (New York Times, 2011). Both Harry Truman and then Bill Clinton attempted to pass acts that would offer healthcare to all Americans and their attempts failed, this would truly be a victory for the Democratic party and many Americans feel a victory for the nation as a whole (New York Times, 2011).

Patient's Bill of Rights

Summary and overview

Definition of the Patient's Bill of Rights. The Patient's Bill of Rights is a section of the Affordable Healthcare Act of 2010 that inures individuals have certain rights that cannot be revoked under the bill. The Patient's Bill of Rights allows the American people the stability and flexibility they need to make informed choices and decisions in regard to their healthcare (HealthCare.Gov, 2010). The Bill of Rights allows the individual to ask questions and become informed about their healthcare and the illnesses they and their families may face in their lifetime. The Patients' Bill of Rights builds on other Affordable Healthcare policies such as reviewing premium increases, keeping young adults covered, and providing affordable coverage to people with pre-existing conditions (PBC.Org, 2011). The Bill of Rights adds several more rights to protect the patient that the Affordable Healthcare Act did not already address.

What makes the Bill of Rights Important?

Protection. The Patient's Bill of Rights protects the individual in areas such as non-coverage for pre-existing conditions or lifetime limits. Under the new policy there is no waiting period for pre-existing conditions of any kind or for any age. There are no lifetime limits for an individual; basically the individual is covered by their insurance no matter the cost or the length of time. This type of protection of coverage would be pertinent in a patient who had a serious condition such as cancer. Annual limits and lifetime limits are easily reached with serious medical conditions and then the individual is left to make ends meet on their own.

Education. The Patient's Bill of Rights allows the individual access to educational information and services regarding healthcare. The bill allows the individual the opportunity to seek second opinions and the ability to see specialists for diseases that their primary care physician is unable to fully educate or treat them for. Under the Bill of Rights preventative care is covered at no out of cost expense to the patient, this care includes counseling of issues such as quitting tobacco use or family planning (HealthCare.Gov, 2010). This form of counseling would be considered educational to the patient and with the new act patients are entitled to this form of education free of charge.

Implementation of the Patient's Bill of Rights

Current implementation. According to HealthReform.GOV six months after the Affordable Healthcare Act was implemented certain sections were enacted for all Americans to include: no pre-existing conditions for children under 19, no arbitrary rescissions of insurance coverage, no lifetime limits on coverage, no restricted annual dollar limit on coverage, protecting the patients' choice of doctors, and the removal of insurance company barriers for emergency department services (2010). These are just six of the ten rights covered by the Patient's Bill of Rights. All of the rights should be enacted by 2014 and will be implemented in phases. The first sections to be implemented were those sections deemed most necessary and pertinent to the average American with medical needs (HealthReform.GOV, 2010). In September of 2011