Week 1: The Affordable Care Act

As you may know, South Carolina was one of many states that did not establish marketplace exchange programs under the Affordable Care Act. As the result, the health exchange market is managed through the federal government, which carries many bureaucratic issues. In addition, we have few insurance companies in the state that offers incentives for people to join ACA. Alternatively, nearly one in five of all South Carolinians are in extremely poor health with fifteen percent of nongeriatric South Carolinians not possessing health insurance (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2016). I work in one of the largest hospital systems in the state, which is a public hospital while, simultaneously, is under the control of a non-governmental group. We accept many uninsured patients, who end up being placed on some form of the Affordable Care Program. For the most part, we had mixed emotions on the onset of ACA. We know th