Understanding the Affordable Care Act (2024)

FAQs

What are the main points of the Affordable Care Act? ›

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) created insurance affordability programs that can lower eligible consumers' costs when they enroll in health coverage through a Marketplace.

The Affordable Care Act contains comprehensive health insurance reforms and includes tax provisions that affect individuals, families, businesses, insurers, tax-exempt organizations and government entities. These tax provisions contain important changes, including how individuals and families file their taxes.

In 2010, President Barack Obama passed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare to help reduce healthcare costs for families and ensure more people were able to access health insurance. Originally, it required everyone to have qualifying insurance, or they would face a tax penalty.

Some pros of Obamacare include more affordable health insurance and coverage for preexisting health conditions, while some cons include people having to pay higher premiums. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, was signed into law in 2010.

Make affordable health insurance available to more people. The law provides consumers with subsidies (“premium tax credits”) that lower costs for households with incomes between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level (FPL).

Expanding health insurance coverage

The expansion extended coverage to more individuals, including adults without dependent children, who previously did not qualify for Medicaid. This expansion has helped millions of low-income Americans gain access to affordable healthcare.

Despite many votes on whether or not to repeal it, the ACA still exists and is still the law of the land for healthcare coverage. The ACA has gone through some small changes and modifications since its inception.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is responsible for enforcing applicable provisions of title XXVII of the Public Health Service Act (PHS Act), including those added by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the No Surprises Act (NSA) and the ...

The ACA prohibits lifetime monetary caps on insurance coverage, limits the use of annual caps, and establishes state rate reviews for insurance premium increases. It prohibits insurance plans from excluding coverage for children with preexisting conditions and canceling or rescinding coverage.

What is the brief description of ACA? ›

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a comprehensive reform law, enacted in 2010, that increases health insurance coverage for the uninsured and implements reforms to the health insurance market.

The ACA provides tax credits to individuals with limited incomes to make insurance premiums, deductibles, and co-pays more affordable. To obtain the tax credits, individuals must purchase health insurance plans through a Health Benefit Exchange.

Although you've likely heard of Obamacare, you may not know that Obamacare is synonymous with the Affordable Care Act. This healthcare law that passed in 2010 goes by a few different names. You may also see this law referenced as PPACA or ACA (the acronym for Affordable Care Act).

The income range is $30,000 to $120,000 in 2024 for a family of four. (Income limits may be higher in Alaska and Hawaii because the federal poverty level is higher in those states.) The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 also extended subsidy eligibility to some people earning more than 400% of the federal poverty level.

#5: Those Who Say the ACA Has Hurt Them Cite Costs

Smaller shares say it has made it more difficult to access care (22%, 5% of total), or caused someone in their family to lose coverage (11%, 2% of total). The high costs of health care in this country continue to be a major burden for many families.

The Affordable Care Act requires non-grandfathered health plans in the individual and small group markets to cover essential health benefits (EHB), which include items and services in the following ten benefit categories: (1) ambulatory patient services; (2) emergency services; (3) hospitalization; (4) maternity and ...

The law also increased Medicaid payments to primary care providers, provided new options for states to cover in-home and community-based care, increased Medicaid drug rebates, and extended those rebates to Medicaid managed care plans. The ACA also made a number of changes to Medicare.

What is the main objective of the ACA? Increases benefits and lower costs for consumers, bolster our health care and public health workforce and infrastructure, foster innovation and quality in our system.

Employer mandate overview

Employers must offer health insurance that is affordable and provides minimum value to 95% of their full-time employees and their children up to the end of the month in which they turn age 26, or be subject to penalties.