The primary legislative purpose of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is to:
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Answer & full 3-part explanation (select an option above, or peek)
Why A is correct
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was enacted primarily to expand access to affordable health insurance. It achieves this through a combination of mechanisms: guaranteed issue, prohibition of preexisting condition exclusions, premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions on the exchanges, the individual and employer responsibility provisions, expansion of Medicaid, and essential health benefit requirements. It did not replace Medicare with private insurance, eliminate underwriting entirely, or privatize Medicaid; rather, it built a regulated individual and small group market alongside public programs.
Why the other options are wrong
- B) The ACA did not replace Medicare; it changed private insurance markets and expanded public coverage such as Medicaid.
- C) The ACA did not eliminate underwriting; it prohibited health-status underwriting in individual and small group plans while permitting other rating factors.
- D) Medicaid was expanded, not privatized, under the ACA, which increased federal funding for state Medicaid programs.
Memory hook
ACA's mission: more people insured, more affordably. Expansion, not replacement, is the theme.