Abstract

MARINER, Wendy K.. Allocating responsibility for health care decisions under the United States Affordable Care Act. Rev. Port. Sau. Pub. [online]. 2014, vol.32, n.2, pp.144-150. ISSN 0870-9025.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpsp.2014.09.001.

This article summarizes the major elements of the ACA's insurance reforms and how they affect responsibility for making decisions about the health care that people receive. A key example of the difficulty of allocating decision making responsibility is the effort to define a minimum benefit package for insurance plans, called essential health benefits. While the ACA should achieve its goal of near-universal access to care, it leaves in place a multiplicity of processes and decision-makers for determining individual treatment. As a result, decisions about what care is provided are likely to remain, much as they are today, divided among government agencies, private insurers, private employers, and the courts.

Keywords : Health insurance; Health reform; United States; Obamacare; Affordable Care Act.

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