Final answer:
The 340B Drug Pricing Program mandates that drug manufacturers offer outpatient drugs at reduced rates to specified entities serving underserved and uninsured communities. The Medicare system underwent a significant expansion in 2003 due to political pressure, despite insufficient scaled pressure to aid uninsured individuals. The Affordable Care Act provided a solution to this by enforcing that all Americans have health insurance, preventing denial of individuals based on pre-existing conditions.
Step-by-step explanation:
This question pertains to the 340B Drug Pricing Program, which requires drug manufacturers to provide outpatient drugs at special reduced prices to certain covered entities serving underserved and uninsured populations. These entities may contract directly with a pharmacy to dispense drugs, using either a traditional or a contract pharmacy arrangement. It is illegal for pharmacies to sell 340B drugs to anyone other than beneficiaries of the program.
In 2003, the Medicare system underwent a significant expansion under the Congressional act passed and signed into law by President George Bush. This expansion included a prescription drug benefit, which amounted to about $40 billion in federal costs in 2006, projected to rise to $121 billion by 2016. This resulted from substantial political pressure to pass a prescription drug benefit for Medicare, despite a lack of similar pressure to provide assistance to the 40 million uninsured individuals, potentially due to the absence of an organized lobbying presence for that demographic.
The U.S. health insurance market's primary solution to adverse selection is selling insurance through employer groups or government-sponsored health exchange markets under the Affordable Care Act. However, despite government programs providing health insurance for the elderly and poor, about 32 million Americans lacked health insurance in 2015. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act tackled this by mandating that all Americans secure health insurance, prohibiting denial based on pre-existing conditions.
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