The Affordable Care Act, Medicaid Expansion, And The...

The Affordable Care Act, Medicaid Expansion, and the Effect on Advanced Practice Nursing In 2010, the President of the United States signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) into law (Luther Hart, 2014). As written, the PPACA will be the most extensive change in the financing and provision of healthcare in 50 years (Luther Hart, 2014). The stated purposes of the legislation are to decrease the number of medically uninsured people as well as decrease the cost of insurance and healthcare for those already insured (Shi Singh, 2015). Medicaid expansion is significant element of the PPACA and is designed to provide health insurance to the lower income population (Vincent Reed, 2014). The purpose of this paper†¦show more content†¦The PPACA was structured to accomplish insurance reform through several avenues (Vincent Reed, 2014). Medicaid program expansion and the individual mandate are two of the primary elements of healthcare insurance and finance reform (Vincent Reed, 2014). Additionally preventative health services delivered without cost, removal of health insurance exclusions for preexisting conditions, allowing children under the age of 26 to remain on their parent’s healthcare insurance, and gradually decreasing the out of pocket costs for Medicare Part D participants are mandated by the provisions of the PPACA (Vincent Reed, 2014). Medicaid Expansion Expansion of the Medicaid program is an important part of the PPACA (Vincent Reed, 2014). To decrease the number of Americans without health insurance coverage, the Medicaid expansion is designed to provide coverage for individuals with incomes of up to 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL). Individuals with incomes of 100% to 400% of the FPL, who did not qualify for Medicaid, would be eligible for subsidies in the Insurance Marketplaces mandated by the passage of the PPACA (Sommers, 2015) . In the states that do not expand Medicaid, Sommers (2015) notes that individuals who do not qualify for Medicaid and have incomes below the criteria to receive insurance subsidies in the healthcare marketplace will remain uninsured. The Medicaid program is jointly funded by the federal