An undercurrent in all debates about allocation of health care resources to the poor is the matter of access to and coverage of health care for immigrants, particularly low-income and undocumented ones.
The legal definition of a patient and the corresponding duties of the physician have been debated in state courts for over a century, and many aspects of the question are still unresolved.
New Internal Revenue Service rules that ostensibly limit harsh hospital billing practices provide inadequate protection for many patients by excluding for-profit hospitals and allowing hospitals to determine eligibility for financial assistance.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(8):763-769. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.8.hlaw3-1508.
The ACA’s major changes to health insurers’ practices, which include requirements for adequate and affordable health insurance coverage, have resulted in a substantial reduction in the number of uninsured people in the US.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(8):754-759. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.8.hlaw1-1508.
In King v. Burwell, the Supreme Court determined that the phrase “an Exchange established by the State” in the Affordable Care Act includes exchanges created by the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS), thereby rendering users of HHS exchanges eligible to receive subsidies.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(10):938-944. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.10.hlaw1-1510.