An Examination of the Perceived Impact of Medicaid Expansion on United States of America’s Economy

Abstract

Health disparities is a major concern to policymakers across the 50 states of USA. At the same time access to affordable healthcare is a major challenge and very political in the country. Despite the health disparity challenge little is known about how lack of access to affordable care has contributed to health disparity. As a result, this particular study has utilized descriptive study, available data, and literature to address the little gap. The analysis of this study has shown that Medicaid together with the ACA have played a major role in the reduction of the number of people without health insurance coverage in the United States. Therefore, further expansion of the ACA and the Medicaid insurance program will go a long way to expand the impact of the ACA in addressing the obvious health disparity that the country is battling with in the midst of this Covid-19 pandemic. It has also been observed in the literature that the passage of the ACA broke the political deadlock that long thwarted the national progress toward equitable, quality, universal, affordable health care. Again, it was further observed that the ACA and the expansion of Medicaid are perceived to extend coverage for the uninsured individuals who are unduly under the low-income category and people of color, edges health insurance mishandlings, and ensures improvements in the quality of care. Given the above narratives and significance of the expansion of the ACA and Medicaid health insurance policy, it is more prudent for all the 50-states across the United States of America to adopt and expand ACA and Medicaid policy in order to reduce health disparity and also ensures economic growth and development.

Keywords: Medicaid, Health-Disparity, Development, Growth, ACA, Policy, Economy

DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/11-1-04

Publication date: January 31^st 2021