Lights and shadows of Affordable Care Act and its influence on world civilization

Matteo Migheli () and Cinzia Di Novi

International Journal of Social Economics, 2017, vol. 44, issue 1, 132-140

Abstract: Purpose - The Obama’s reform of the US healthcare system has been a major topic of debate in the USA. The USA feels the need to provide 48 million residents with health insurance. The Affordable Care Act has this goal, but the several factors have limited its capacity and implementation. The purpose of this paper is to discuss this reform, paying attention to its potential implications for the human and economic development of both the USA and the rest of the world. The authors show that developed countries also need policies for enhancing human development and also the developing world may benefit from policy changes in the “first world.” Design/methodology/approach - The methodology is based on discursive discussion. The argumentation first presents the reform, and highlights its advantages and its flaws for the citizens of both the USA and of developing countries. Findings - The authors claim that the reform presents some flaws that render it still insufficient to cover all the health needs of the poor in the USA. However, the reform is likely to attract more immigrant workers to the USA, since it is likely to improve the living conditions of immigrants as well as those of their families. Originality/value - The original point of the paper is the link between the reform and the benefits for non-US citizens. The extant literature has widely discussed the impact of the reform on the domestic market and on the US citizens. The authors widen this perspective showing that an important reform in a large country may be beneficial for people living elsewhere as well.

Keywords: Development; Healthcare; Health policy; Welfare policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:ijsepp:ijse-11-2014-0236

DOI: 10.1108/IJSE-11-2014-0236

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Social Economics is currently edited by Professor Terence Garrett

More articles in International Journal of Social Economics from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().