Medical Expense✓ Verified · outline & fact-checked · Sep 2026Difficulty 1/5
Which of the following is a primary purpose of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)?
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Answer & full 3-part explanation (select an option above, or peek)
Why A is correct
The ACA was enacted to expand access to affordable health coverage and reduce the number of uninsured Americans. It does this through health insurance exchanges, premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions, the individual and employer mandates, guaranteed issue, and the prohibition of pre-existing condition exclusions, along with Medicaid expansion. It also introduces market reforms such as minimum essential coverage requirements and medical loss ratio rules, all designed to broaden coverage rather than abolish private insurance.
Why the other options are wrong
- B) The ACA preserves and regulates private insurance; it does not create a single-payer government system.
- C) Medicare is a federal program and is not replaced by state-run programs under the ACA; Medicaid expansion supplements, not replaces, it.
- D) The ACA does not shift all employer coverage to self-funding; it strengthens the group and individual markets through reforms.
Memory hook
ACA = more people covered, more fairness in pricing. Private insurance stays, but the rules change.