The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was designed to increase health insurance quality and affordability, lower the uninsured rate by expanding insurance coverage, and reduce the costs of healthcare overall. Along with sweeping change came sweeping criticisms and issues. This book explores the pros and cons of the Affordable Care Act, and explains who benefits from the ACA. Readers will learn how the economy is affected by the ACA, and the impact of the ACA rollout.

The Untold Story While most people refer to HealthCare.gov as "just a website," few knew what it took to launch and what went into creating it. So much oversimplification went into a public discussion of the technological aspects of the launch, which perpetuated the notion that technology is at the root of how government can't efficiently get things done. Success or Failure? The Untold Story of HealthCare.gov provides a firsthand account of what it takes to deliver something as complex as HealthCare.gov from contributing factors other than technology, such as policy formulation, government rulemaking, groundbreaking security and privacy policy implementation across multiple agencies, and much more. Henry Chao seeks to unravel the key elements that affected the implementation of a time-bounded, precedent-setting set of public policy objectives--the Insurance Marketplace program under the Affordable Care Act. This book will shed light on: -the scale and complexity involved in creating the HealthCare.gov infrastructure, -nontechnical factors that led to the controversial rollout, -how October 1, 2013 was the starting line, not the finish line, and -the various narratives that did not truthfully explain what really happened. Reaching the October 1, 2013 deadline was nothing short of remarkable, due to the dedication and commitment of so many people from various professional disciplines across the public and private sectors. Now, Henry Chao reflects on the launch of HealthCare.gov and what it takes to implement great change in the health care system.

Health Insurance is a Family Matter is the third of a series of six reports on the problems of uninsurance in the United Sates and addresses the impact on the family of not having health insurance. The book demonstrates that having one or more uninsured members in a family can have adverse consequences for everyone in the household and that the financial, physical, and emotional well-being of all members of a family may be adversely affected if any family member lacks coverage. It concludes with the finding that uninsured children have worse access to and use fewer health care services than children with insurance, including important preventive services that can have beneficial long-term effects.

Explores the Rise of Managed Care An incisive and informative analysis of our rapidly changing health care system--the best of current books on the subject. --Arnold S. Relman, former editor-in-chief, New England Journal of Medicine Walter A. Zelman, a leading expert on health care research and policy, examines the key trAnds that are changing today's health care marketplace. He looks at the growth of managed care; the new and sometimes uneasy partnerships among physicians, hospitals, and health plans; and the trAnd toward integration between sectors. This important resource draws on the latest data and research, including more than fifty interviews with expert analysts and practitioners.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers two programs that provide benefits based on disability: the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. This report analyzes health care utilizations as they relate to impairment severity and SSA's definition of disability. Health Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination identifies types of utilizations that might be good proxies for "listing-level" severity; that is, what represents an impairment, or combination of impairments, that are severe enough to prevent a person from doing any gainful activity, regardless of age, education, or work experience.

In this wide-ranging book, Warren Greenberg surveys the health care industry using the economics of industrial organisations approach. By doing so, he provides the reader with an understanding of the differences between health care and other industries in the economy. As a result, this will be ideal for students in health care economy and policy who need to gain an understanding of this, the single largest sector of the economy.

Many of the elements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) went into effect in 2014, and with the establishment of many new rules and regulations, there will continue to be significant changes to the United States health care system. It is not clear what impact these changes will have on medical and public health preparedness programs around the country. Although there has been tremendous progress since 2005 and Hurricane Katrina, there is still a long way to go to ensure the health security of the Country. There is a commonly held notion that preparedness is separate and distinct from everyday operations, and that it only affects emergency departments. But time and time again, catastrophic events challenge the entire health care system, from acute care and emergency medical services down to the public health and community clinic level, and the lack of preparedness of one part of the system places preventable stress on other components. The implementation of the ACA provides the opportunity to consider how to incorporate preparedness into all aspects of the health care system. The Impacts of the Affordable Care Act on Preparedness Resources and Programs is the summary of a workshop convened by the Institute of Medicine's Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Catastrophic Events in November 2013 to discuss how changes to the health system as a result of the ACA might impact medical and public health preparedness programs across the nation. This report discusses challenges and benefits of the Affordable Care Act to disaster preparedness and response efforts around the country and considers how changes to payment and reimbursement models will present opportunities and challenges to strengthen disaster preparedness and response capacities.