ACA Reforms Health Insurance Industry with Gusto

Jun 27
08:25

2013

sammy smith

sammy smith

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Some people might be criticizing the ACA and the changes it has set into motion across the landscape of the healthcare industry but some facts cannot be denied and all of them point towards one, single fact—consumers have been exploited for decades by the private healthcare industry.

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This industry is prevalent across the nation and is owned by some of the biggest conglomerates in the world. Some of them have revenues bigger than the GDP of many nations of the world. Further,ACA Reforms Health Insurance Industry with Gusto Articles stakeholders in these firms include some of the biggest decision-makers, including politicians.
As a result, practices of the private health insurance industry have been hard to control and the consumers have suffered, many of them denied insurance because of the clumsiest of issues that the underwriters and insurance analysts dug out. With the massive profitability that these companies have been driving, it is not too hard to understand why these companies, adorned with the latest in healthcare software solutions and medical insurance software technologies have been constantly competing to extract the maximum dollar from the consumers.
This is why one cannot help but applaud the Obama administration for proceeding with the healthcare reforms despite the presence of such a strong lobby that has its roots deep in many of the States. Obama introduced these reforms based upon extensive research that was carried across the nation and with his efforts the reforms were voted as a law in March 2010. The most impressive bit about the reforms has been the idea of universal care where the emphasis has been on bringing the minorities, the poor and those traditionally out of the realm of health insurance under the umbrella of coverage.
To ensure that people can buy health insurance across the nation in an affordable and informed manner, the health Exchanges are being developed. Though the Obama administration has been strict with the creation of Exchanges, it has been flexible about the format in which they are created. For instance, states can choose to create their own, State Exchanges or develop them in collaboration with the federal government, called hybrid Exchanges. The other option is to default to a federal government-controlled Exchange. Beyond this, the online health insurance marketplace in the states can also consist of multiple, smaller Exchanges that are called subsidiary marketplaces.
The effect of the ACA is already being felt in the insurance industry where private players have understood that they can no longer deny insurance based upon pre-existing conditions, age, demographics or family history of illness. Secondly, the annual insurance caps have shrunk and lifetime insurance limitations have been removed. As a result, people have been guaranteed a kind of coverage that actually assists them in times of falling sick rather than challenging them.
Further, many insurers have understood that once the public gets used to the idea of buying health insurance from the Exchange, they would expect a similar buying environment. This is why many of them are recreating their online presence by adopting the latest in insurance company software solutions. The idea is to create a kind of portal that functions and looks similar to a state Exchange and offers similar consumer driven functionalities like an insurance quote engine.