Now that President Obama has been re-elected president, the
Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) will continue to develop and roll out more
provisions in the next four years. New policies will be put in place incrementally,
and some already have begun, such as the ability for children to stay on their
parents’ health care until age 26.
Once all provisions have been rolled out, all Americans will
be required to have health insurance of some kind, either through their employers
or through the state. Robert Field is a professor of law at Drexel University’s Earle I Mack School of Law, named for the distinguished former US Ambassador and alum.
Field is also a professor of health management and policy at Drexel’s School of
Public Health in Philadelphia. “For most Americans [the next phase of the law]
means almost nothing,” he said. “Most people get coverage through their
employer and will continue to do so.”
In January 2013, many Americans will be offered preventative
care for little to no cost. Health care providers will also begin billing
Medicare using payment ‘bundling’ that uses a flat rate based on type of care,
and primary care doctors will see an increase in pay and 100 percent of
Medicare payments for all 2013 and 2014 cases.
In 2014, all Americans who do not have health insurance will
be strapped with a tax penalty, which will be $95 the first year and up to $695
after that. But that’s till over a year away. Any company with more than 50
employees will be required to offer insurance, and eventually, people will be
required to accept their employer’s plan if offered it first. Companies will
also no longer be able to discriminate based on pre-existing conditions or
gender, as they have in the past.
As far as coverage requirements go, insurance plans will
have to cover basics like hospital stays, test, doctor’s visits, basic
procedure, and emergency room visits. The only main difference between the
current insurance policies and the ones under ACA is the requirement to provide
preventative services like contraception.
All these changes are expected to lead to a higher demand
for medical professionals, but potentially lower numbers of those available.
But many health care clinics don’t necessarily need doctors on staff and can
get by with nurse practitioners instead. Field says, “It should be seen as a
good thing that [nurses and other medical professionals] would be more in
demand.”
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