Total health spending by payer in the U.S. with and without ACA 2016
Impacts of the Affordable Health Care Act
The Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) was signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Its primary purpose was to increase both the quality and affordability of health insurance, while reducing overall costs of health care for individuals and the government. Without the ACA, private insurances would spend 1.07 billion U.S. dollars, but under the ACA, private insurers would spend about 1.14 billion U.S. dollars.
Medicaid and other federal and local governments would also likely have to increase their health care spending with the ACA. However, citizens in the United States would expend less from directly out of their pockets. Premiums, however, increased after the ACA was implemented from 74.49 U.S. dollars pre-ACA to 188.72 U.S. dollars post-ACA for a healthy non-smoking 30 year old woman. Increased costs and spending will be due to increased enrollment in government insurance plans. It is estimated that there will be 13 million more individuals covered by Medicaid by 2023 and an overall decrease of 25 million people that are currently uninsured.
From 1980 to 2009, national expenditure on hospital care decreased from 42.7 percent to 32.6 percent. In total, about 94.4 percent of that country’s national health expenditure is dedicated to health services and supplies.