Impact of ACA and Medicaid Expansion on Healthcare Coverage Gaps

This report delves into the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicaid expansion, analyzing their impact on healthcare coverage and health equity in the United States. It examines the Medicaid expansion's focus on lower-income individuals, outlining eligibility criteria and benefits. The report highlights the coverage gap, identifying factors that contribute to uninsured populations, including states that did not expand Medicaid and individuals ineligible for ACA Medicaid. It explores the ACA's role in closing the coverage gap by expanding eligibility, providing subsidies, and promoting innovative care processes. Furthermore, the report discusses the ACA's contribution to health equity, emphasizing its financial support for low-income individuals and efforts to improve healthcare processes, including eliminating discrimination. The report references key sources such as HealthCare.gov and academic research to support its findings.

HEALTHCARE COVERAGE
GAP: ACA

OBJECTIVE
 To determine the Medicaid expansion and
its effectiveness.
 To identify the role of ACA in the health
care process and reduce the negative
issues regarding health.
 To find the effectiveness of the health
equity development in the country by the
ACA.

MEDICAID EXPANSION
 It focuses on the lower economic status people.
 The people with the income level lower than 133%
federal poverty level can avail the opportunities
(HealthCare.gov, 2020).
 If the state of the person has not expanded
Medicaid then the person cannot avail the
opportunities despite of being poor.
 It has been seen that Wisconsin is one of the state
which has not expanded the Medicaid.

CONTINUED..
 Michigan is one of the states that expanded the Medicaid and
there are several benefits present for the expansion.
Benefits are as follows:
 If the State has expanded Medicaid and the income of a
person is below certain poverty level, the person needs to feel
market place application to avail the opportunities of
Medicaid.
 If the person is pregnant, has children or has a disability then
the person can avail the Medicaid based on the options of
State Medicaid expansion (healthinsurance.org, 2020).
 If the person provide detailed income information then person
has the chance of availing the opportunities.

COVERAGE GAP
 Medicaid coverage gap is the factor which shows the
uninsured people and the people from lower income
group and the factors that leads to the ineligibility of
these people to obtain the opportunities of Medicaid.
 This factor is also states the causes of the
ineligibility of the insurance coverage.
 The causes are the states of the person which did
not expanded the Medicaid, the person is too poor to
qualify for the ACA Medicaid (HealthCare.gov, 2020).

CONTINUED..
 The previous rules of the Medicaid focuses on a
certain economic status of the person to
provide the financial support in terms of the
medical needs. However, the new rules include
a large range of people though there are still
presence of people who are not eligible for the
Medicaid coverage (HealthCare.gov, 2020).
 Thus, the new rule subsidize the people form
lower income groups and it allows middle class
people to buy health insurance.

ROLE OF ACA
 ACA is the health insurance system that focuses
on the subsidized care delivery to a large
number of people and people from the poverty
level.
 It also develop some innovative care processes
which can effectively reduce the cost of care.
 Moreover, the focus of ACA is to help the people
from the lower economic status to reduce the
health burden (HealthCare.gov, 2020).

ACA IN: CLOSING COVERAGE
GAP
 Closing the gap is the process in which ACA
changes the rules of the previous Medicaid
rules.
 It enlarges the range of the economic statuses
of the people of the country and reduces the
lower limit of economic status of people.
 Provides subsidies to the people under 138%
income of federal poverty level
(HealthCare.gov, 2020).

CLOSE THE GAP
 Subsidized care providence to the people
from the lower income group.
 Developing innovative care processes to
reduce the care cost (HealthCare.gov,
2020).
 Changing the previous Medicaid rules.
 Funding process changing.

CONTINUED..
 It has been seen that the 90% funding
done by the federal government and 10%
by the state (HealthCare.gov, 2020).
 It helps the middle class American
population to purchase a health care
policy.
 Hence, the closing gap is focused on
supporting the people financially to
sustain against the cost of health care.

HEALTH EQUITY IN CLOSING GAP
 ACA is focused on the closing the gap.
 It provides subsidized care providence to
people.
 Hence, it reduces the negative factors of
the inequality regarding the economic
structure of the country (Grogan, 2017).

CONTINUED..
 It has been seen there are different programs and
plans developed by the government through the ACA
to improve the health care processes of the country.
 The factor of the health care process improvement
includes the health equity development in the country.
 In this context, it has been seen that the ACA promotes
equity in the health care (Shaw, 2019).
 Hence, health care equity can close the gap effectively.