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Running head: THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT 1 The Affordable Care Act Student’s Name Institution-Affiliated

THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT 2 The Affordable Care Act African Americans record the highest number of uninsured population as compared to the Whites or other minorities such as the Latino, for instance, Black people without health insurance under the age of 65 years’ account for 6.1% of the population. Out of the total population in Brooklyn, New York, 34% of the African Americans do not have health insurance cover. This proportion is high and health intervention measures are needed to curb the number. The cause of this number of uninsured African American members is traced to the racial segregation where medical care was not extended to the members of the community. The Medicaid program which is under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a public medical policy administered by the states and Federal government that aims to improve the health status in the American community. The Affordable Care Act can improve the rates of uninsured African Americans by extending medical covers to all states, strengthening insurance coverage through ACA marketplaces, seeking more resources by the Federal and State officials and forming partnerships with community based groups which conduct outreach to the African Americans. First, the Affordable Care Act should extend medical insurance to the African Americans as their health status is still worse than other races. The African American rate of HIV infections is triple that of Hispanics and a large percentage live with chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart diseases ( Chen et al., 2016). Through the ACA, the number of citizens without insurance have reduced, however, more campaigns can be done to engage the uninsured African Americans. Approximately 18 states have not extended the Medicaid program for health insurance and among their population, the African Americans form the majority. For instance, in Florida, one of the states that Medicaid services have not yet reached, 17.3% of the total population of the African Americans are not insured. In this case, the Medicaid program should

THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT 3 be extended to the African American community with less restrictions. The policy works only with individuals whose income falls under certain brackets, for example those who earn $29,435 per year for a family of three and $17,236 for an individual annually. When providing health cover to African American community, this Medicaid should scrap off the income limits to extend the health cover to all the Blacks especially in Brooklyn. Additionally, the ACA marketplaces, services which help people engage in healthcare insurance enable citizens to enroll for medical covers through websites, call centers and through face to face discussions. As a medical policy, the ACA can be used to reach more African Americans who do not have health insurance covers ( Sommers, 2017). The rate of the uninsured among the community can significantly reduce especially when face-to-face discussions are held. Also, the call centers can have a day out to extend their services to such minorities emphasizing the need to have medical covers. Under the Act, Medicaid program provides health coverage to low-income adults, children, expectant mothers and people with disabilities. The policy has helped reduce the number of African Americans who are uninsured. Provision of health care cover should be extended to the minority groups who have incomes below the poverty level. Furthermore, the Affordable Care Act may seek more resources from the Federal and states to cater for medical covers for the African American individuals. Finances and operational expenses are required to engage more people in discussions on their medical covers. The states ensure that the medical policy is established, therefore, any additional resources that the ACA health care providers need should be availed by the officials ( Griffith,2017) . The medical care providers under the ACA should then use the resources to ease registration of the African Americans into medical cover. By expanding their operations, the ACA officers can reach more African Americans and raise their medical status. The medical policy is funded by the Federal

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THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT 4 governments and the funding increases with demand for health services. Extension of their services to all the states will attract Federal funding to implement health cover programs to citizens including the minority groups. Moreover, the ACA should engage community groups in African American society to instill the importance of having health insurance. Partnerships with organizations such as Brooklyn Neighborhood Services and Black Veterans for Social Justice in Brooklyn, New York will help the Affordable Care Act officials reach to more African Americans. The reasons behind the extension of this medical cover is to cater for health impacts evident among the African Americans ( Uberoi, 2016) . Minority groups are disadvantaged in access to healthcare as the mortality rate is higher than other citizens, they report poor health status and they are more likely to contract diseases such as blood pressure, diabetes and stroke at younger ages. The organizations can easily influence the members in the society to enroll in the medical cover policies. If more African Americans get medical insurance covers, the rate of uninsured Black people will definitely reduce thereby improving their health status. In conclusion, the Affordable Care Act, a public medical policy, can help reduce the rate of uninsured African Americans specifically in Brooklyn. Through the medical policy, the number of African Americans who do not have health insurance covers can be reduced. In Brooklyn, the medical care officers can use health marketplaces to campaign for insurance or request more resources from the Federal governments to implement strategies to enroll more African Americans. Finally, the medical officers under the ACA can engage organizations which may help in enrolling more African Americans into attaining medical covers especially in Brooklyn.

THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT 5 References Chen, J., Vargas-Bustamante, A., Mortensen, K., & Ortega, A. N. (2016). Racial and ethnic disparities in health care access and utilization under the Affordable Care Act. Medical care , 54 (2), 140. Sommers, B. D., Maylone, B., Blendon, R. J., Orav, E. J., & Epstein, A. M. (2017). Three-year impacts of the Affordable Care Act: improved medical care and health among low- income adults. Health Affairs , 36 (6), 1119-1128. Griffith, K., Evans, L., & Bor, J. (2017). The Affordable Care Act reduced socioeconomic disparities in health care access. Health Affairs , 36 (8), 1503-1510. Uberoi, N., Finegold, K., & Gee, E. (2016). Health insurance coverage and the Affordable Care Act, 2010-2016 . Washington (DC): Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.

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