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Impact of Economic, Political and Legal/Ethical Issues on the Development of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

            The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a healthcare policy that elicited numerous legal, political, and economic, issues. ACA was designed to slow the rate of increase in healthcare costs and enable people from all walks of life access quality healthcare services (Wallack, 2013). This paper seeks to evaluate the economic, political, legal and ethical issues that came into play during the ACA development.

            Economically, the ACA policy would increase the amount of money deducted from taxpayers to cover the insurance expenses (Wallack, 2013). Besides, the incorporation of the policy would cost people employment as employers considered paying a penalty less costly than purchasing insurance plans for them. In the short term, the coverage increased the costs of healthcare since people would receive testing and preventive care which were not covered previously (Selker, 2013).

            Politically, the ACA faced opposition from the Republicans in the house as an ineffective policy. The policy was used as a campaign tool by President Obama in order to garner votes from the majority low-income earners. As a result, the upper class felt negatively affected which led to a division on the support of the act in the house (Selker, 2013).

            The Act legally reduced the cost of health insurance and not the cost of healthcare. This implies that typical families would pay approximately 2500 dollars lower per year for the premiums but receive service quality when they visited health centers (Wallack, 2013). The plan received ethical criticism in that it was intended to lift the burden off the low-income earners and place it on the companies instead of each individual paying for the healthcare they access.

            In conclusion, the Affordable Care Act was faced with various economic, political, legal and ethical issues during its formation.  However, it had a positive impact on the US health budget which saw its successful implementation.