The Financial and Tax Implications of the Affordable Care Act on Lower and Middle Class U.S. Residents

U.S. residents have historically struggled to obtain affordable, accessible, and high quality health insurance, the ACA has given residents the belief that this situation will change. I examine whether the Affordable Care Act (ACA) fulfills its predicted benefits for United States’ lower and middle class residents, through analysis of both quantitative and qualitative information. The intent of the Affordable Care Act was to make health care more affordable, accessible and of higher quality than previously available (Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs (ASPA), 2014). The ACA set a single person insurance health plan premium limit of 9.66 percent of household income for that individual to meet essential coverage. The insurance companies could adjust premiums for any non-single person insurance plan without a limit. I suggest that there were significant cost increases to lower and middle class residents[1] that had health insurance coverage when the ACA went into effect. I used a survey of 100 people to evaluate the financial impacts of the ACA for the different income classes in the period from 2010 through 2014. The results of my survey showed that there were reported increases in costs for the lower and middle classes. There were no reported increases to the upper class participant in the survey.