The Affordable Care Act is gradually decreasing costs by means of the restructuring of payments to Medicare Advantage. This has occurred because the government was spending more money per enrollee on Medicare Advantages compared to Original Medicare. Therefore, the financial impact of the ACA implied significant cuts, which were carried out for a prolonged time period due to their complexity. For example, in 2011, the benchmark was frozen at the level of 2010 for the highest amount paid for Medicare plans in each county (Song, Landrum, & Chernew, 2014). In 2012, payment reductions began being phased in the reductions to Medicare Advantage as a means to bring the spending in accordance with the fee-for-service program (Song et al., 2014). As in the case of 2019, 2018, and 2017, the Medicare Advantage plans expect an increase in reimbursement.
Even though the reforms have forced Medicare plans to be efficient and utilize smaller networks while offering more plans with higher out-of-pocket laws, its popularity has grown significantly. For the patients interacting with the US healthcare system, the program’s capacity to cover between 45% and 75% of the costs of care signifies its overall positive contribution (Crowley et al., 2020). In addition, the adoption of new cardiac technologies, in combination with Medicare Advantage, has an important contribution to addressing the challenge of elderly mortality over the ten-year period. Therefore, health care delivery is expected to change exponentially with the help of the financial advantages offered by Medicare. By cutting costs and restructuring payments, it is expected that the ACA will facilitate an increase in free preventive services in the form of annual wellness visits, personalized plans for health prevention, and some screenings.
References
Crowley, R., Daniel, H., Cooney, T., & Engel, L. (2020). Envisioning a better US health care system for all: Coverage and cost of care. Annals of Internal Medicine, 172, S7-S32. Web.
Song, Z., Landrum, M. B., & Chernew, M. E. (2014). Competitive bidding in Medicare Advantage: Effect of benchmark changes on plan bids. Journal of Health Economics, 32(6), 1301-1312. Web.