The American Healthcare Problem

Two-thirds of the people in America are happy with “the way the new healthcare program is working for them,” a June Gallup study discovered. That measure has stayed generally consistent since the research firm first began tracking healthcare fulfillment in the middle of March in order to evaluate how the changes brought on by the Affordable Care Act were affecting people in America. “Americans’ advanced level of fulfillment with how the medical care program is treating them indicates that medical care is not in a problem for most people in America,” the report said. “At the same time, that 30% of the adult population, more than 70 million people, [who are] not satisfied with the medical care program emphasizes the need for improvement.”

healthcareWhile it helped that Affordable Care Act enrollments topped the Obama administration’s maximum estimate of 7 million, that figure is not the most important measure of the reform’s achievements. If those exchange policies are considered to be affordable and the protection assessed to be good, then the future achievements of the Affordable Care Act will be more assured. For the Obama-care story to be one of growing achievements, the experiences of those people in America who benefit from the changes to the insurance program, including low and middle-income earners qualifying for financial assistance, and those with preexisting conditions who cannot be turned away by insurance providers, it will have to over-shadow the pressure the change may place on those who find their rates too expensive, want to visit doctors out of their network and consider their insurance deductibles too great.

When analyzing how the Affordable Care Act has changed the American public’s understanding of its healthcare program, health insurance status is the most significant forecaster of fulfillment. The biggest rate of fulfillment, 77%, is found among Americans with military or veteran health coverage. Medical health insurance or State health programs recipients follow, with 76%, while 70% of Americans with partnership or employer-sponsored plans and 66% of self-insured Americans expressed satisfaction. By comparison, those Americans without insurance were more disappointed with the medical care program. Only 36% of those participants said they were content and 60% said they were disappointed.