Recent orders
US Health Care Services
US Health Care Services:
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
Contents
TOC o “1-3” h z u HYPERLINK l “_Toc379012243” Abstract PAGEREF _Toc379012243 h 1
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379012244” Introduction PAGEREF _Toc379012244 h 2
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379012245” Significance PAGEREF _Toc379012245 h 3
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379012246” Health Services Issues and Consequences PAGEREF _Toc379012246 h 3
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379012247” Health Reform Proposals PAGEREF _Toc379012247 h 5
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379012248” Criticism PAGEREF _Toc379012248 h 6
HYPERLINK l “_Toc379012249” Justifications PAGEREF _Toc379012249 h 7
AbstractWhen thinking about America’s health care system, most feel that it is time for a change. While most other countries provide some sort of limited health care plan for their citizens, America, having a high quality of care, should do the same. President Obama’s administration is pushing for a government run health care system, which has its benefits as well as its consequences. Health insurance companies cause scores of tedious problems for patients, which most times, in part, cause a delay in treatment. Any person regardless of insurance and/or money should always be able to seek and get the medical attention needed. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010, signed into law by President Obama on March 23, sought out to provide better affordable health care for most Americans (Oberlander, 2009). Despite some advantages, like abolishing pre-existing conditions for children under Age 19, there are some major disadvantages. This reform will increase taxes and decrease quality of coverage.
Key Words: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Taxes, Coverage
Quality
IntroductionEnacted into American Law on 23rd March 2010, the Patient Protections and Affordable Act (PPACA) aims at providing affordable healthcare to Americans. Fundamentally, this health care act emphasizes the need for improving access to primary health care for all American citizens irrespective of their economic backgrounds. Additionally, this act also seeks to provide affordable health care insurance at a low cost, so as to, allow easy access by all Americans (Newman, 2011). As researchers and policy makers explain, this healthcare legislation is bound to bring about changes in the US healthcare system for years to come. However, research studies cannot agree on whether or not these changes will be beneficial to America, especially with regards to the American healthcare system. Some believe that the PPACA will impact the health care system by reducing the quality of healthcare provided for Americans. Others believe that this legislation will increase taxes instead of reducing the cost of healthcare as Obama and his administration would like to believe (Hunt, 2010). Accordingly, the PPACA was designed to provide the required healthcare reform that America has been seeking for the last few years. However, in the process of the enactment of this law, other policies and legislations have been integrated into the Act, thus making the influence of this Act widespread. Not only has this act reformed the Federal Family Education Loan program (FFEL), it has also affected the health insurance policy, hence changing how health insurance is provided to companies. This has, in turn, received plenty of criticism and praise, owing to the immediate effects of this Act on the ways in which the different systems are run. In view of that, it is prerequisite that all professionals in the healthcare industry familiarize themselves with the scope, content, and implications of the PPACA, for proper comprehension and application of the Act (Kocher et al., 2010).
This paper presents a review of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Specifically, the paper will examine some of the components of the Act, as well as, the various ways it affects healthcare service and profession.
SignificanceThe Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is a significant topic for discussion because it seeks to ensure that all Americans are granted access to good quality and affordable healthcare. Additionally, the PPACA also seeks to reduce the cost of healthcare in America, which is considered as one of the best improvements that America’s health care system can undergo (Goodson, 2010).
Health Services Issues and ConsequencesLike other pieces of legislation in American federal law, the PPACA addresses various issues that have been a bother in the American healthcare system. Specifically, this legislation addresses various troublesome areas of healthcare in America. At the outset, the legislation seeks to ensure that Americans receive quality and affordable health care, which is believed to have been lacking in the past few years (Cavale, 2011). As Obama’s administration had observed, only the Americans who had a proper source of income could afford good quality healthcare for themselves. Americans without a proper source of income suffered because they could not afford to pay for their medical coverage as required. This act, therefore, pushes for shared responsibility in the insurance market that will assist in reducing these discriminatory practices in America’s healthcare system.
Public programs, such as the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programs, as well as, their respective role in America’s healthcare system are also problems that America’s healthcare system have been forced to face in the last few years. Though these programs were developed for utilization by all Americans, the issue of program eligibility has brought about a problems as most lower income Americans have been deemed illegible for these programs. Specifically, the Children’s Health Insurance Program has been identified as having the biggest issues because children at a certain age have been disqualified from the program, thus putting their lives at risk because of lack to proper medical access (Elmendorf, 2011). In addition to the issue of eligibility, the health programs in America have also been accused of lacking transparency and integrity, which in turn promote unfair and illegal practices in America’s healthcare system.
Obama’s administration has also cited the existence of chronic diseases an issue that needs to be addressed effectively. Chronic diseases are issues and problems in America’s healthcare system, not because they increase the rate of mortality in the state, but because America’s healthcare system as failed in providing access to preventative treatment for all Americans (Harrington, 2010). Consequently, the rate of mortality as a result of chronic diseases has increased, hence revealing a problem in America’s healthcare system.
America’s health care workforce has also been identified as an issue and problem to America’s healthcare system. As most researchers in the field would explain, American healthcare practitioners have long been accused of incompetency, and for that reason, American citizens argue that they should not be in practice (Elmendorf, 2011). Additionally, the America medical workforce is lacking, in the sense that it does not provide a sufficient number of healthcare workers to attend to the needs of patients. This has, in turn, decreased the quality of healthcare provided to Americans as the healthcare workforce is overworked.
Health Reform ProposalsAs a response to the issues presented above, the PPACA presents various reforms that are aimed at changing the state of the American healthcare system. Accordingly, the PPACA suggests nine main reform approaches that will assist in giving America’s healthcare system the change it requires. The first reform proposal emphasizes the need for the provision of quality and affordable healthcare for all Americans (Manchikanti & Hirsch, 2009). The implementation of this will be conducted to the assurance of the immediate improvement of healthcare services and increasing the available insurance coverage for patients. The second reform proposal as per the PPACA centers on changing the contents and role of American public healthcare programs. Two main healthcare programs will be affected in the process including MEDICAID and CHIP. The eligibility for these two healthcare programs will be changed through simplifying enrollment into these programs (Newman, 2011). Thirdly, the PPACA proposes a reform that is aimed at improving the quality and efficiency of America’s healthcare provisions. The first step towards the achievement of this will be the linking of payment to quality outcomes of healthcare services, as well as, the reinforcement of the quality of medical infrastructure (Copeland & Carey, 2011). Additionally, for this reform to fully take shape, the government will also need to ensure a proper healthcare sustainability for years to come.
The fourth reform provision of the PPACA focuses on the prevention of the spread of chronic diseases, which will, in turn, improve the overall public health of Americans. For this to be achieved however, the US government is considering the possibility of modernizing the healthcare system, as well as, increasing access to preventative healthcare services. The healthcare workforce reform, as proposed in the PPACA, is the fifth provision of the act, and it aims at ensuring that the healthcare workforce is at its best at all times. The government will be required to increase the supply of medical practitioners in the field. Additionally, the government should ensure that these medical practitioners are well trained and educated regarding their duties and responsibilities (Gray & Sullivan, 2011). The sixth reform proposal in the PPACA is the transparency and program integrity reform, which seeks to put into place a new set of policies aimed at combating issues regarding fraud and malpractice. Another reform that has been proposed in the PPACA revolves around the improvement of access to new medical therapies for all Americans. According to Blendon and Benson (2010), The PPACA also proposes a reform on community assistance services and supports. This reform proposal aims at establishing voluntary insurance programs for the improvement of the health of communities. The last reform proposed in the PPACA entails revenue provisions, which defines how the government will gain funding for the provision of health insurance for Americans (Foster, 2010).
CriticismAs research studies explain, the PPACA presents both benefits and losses to the American healthcare system. Some of the benefits of the PPACA have been identified to include the abolition of pre-existing negative healthcare conditions in the American healthcare system. The PPACA will improve access to medical service for low-income earners, as well as, children under the age of 19, which is seen as the first step towards the improvement of the health of all Americans (Trumbull, 2010). The number of medical practitioners and workers will also be increased, which will, in turn, assure the American population of having access to a large number of competent staff in the field. However, because of the financial implications of the PPACA, critiques believe that this piece of legislation may be detrimental to Americans, as it risks an increase in taxes and a decrease in the quality of healthcare provided to Americans.
JustificationsI believe that the PPACA will be more costly than most Americans would like to believe. Although the Act will reduce America’s healthcare deficit by a significant amount, it will, in one way or another, increase the amount of money spend by individuals, as well as, the government as a whole on health care (Klein, 2009). At the outset, the implementation of the PPACA will increase the number of insured Americans, which inherently increases the budget for the number of people to receive insurance (Wolf, 2010). Non-Americans, who consist of a third of America’s population, will not be eligible for insurance, meaning that they will be forced to personally pay for the healthcare they receive. This implies that, in the long run, more money will have to be spent on a program that as initially designed to cut the cost on spending. Another factor that most people have failed to realize with relation to the implementation of the PPACA is that, for the government to raise the funds to support all Americans they need to increase the taxes (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). Government revenue and expenditure is solely dependent on the amount of taxes that people pay to the government. Accordingly, for the American government to offer quality and affordable medical insurance for American, they need to increases the tax amount to be paid for Americans.
References
Blendon, R. J., & Benson, J. M. (2010). Public opinion at the time of the vote on health care
reform. New England Journal of Medicine, 362(55): 344-350.
Cavale, A. R. (2011). Comments on the Affordable Care Act and the Future of Clinical
Medicine. Annals of Internal Medicine January 18(2):154:142.
Clancy, C. & Collins, F. C. (2010). Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute: The
Intersection of Science and Health Care. Sci Transl Med, 2(37): 37.
Copeland, C. W., & Carey, M. P. (2011). Upcoming Rules Pursuant to the Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Darby PA: DIANE Publishing.
Cutler, D. M., Davis K., & Stremikis K. (2009). Why health reform will bend the cost curve.
Issue Brief (Commonwealth Fund), 72:1-16.
Elmendorf, D. W. (2011). CBO’s Analysis of the Major Health Care Legislation Enacted in
March 2010: Congressional Testimony. Darby PA: DIANE Publishing.
Foster, R. S. (2010). Estimated Financial Effects of the ‘Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act,’ as Amended. Darby PA: DIANE Publishing.
Goodson, J. D. (2010). Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Promise and Peril for
Primary Care. Annals of Internal Medicine, 152(11): 742-744.
Gray, B. J., & Sullivan, K. C. (2011). Provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act (PPACA). New York: Nova Science Pub Inc.
Harrington, S. C. (2010). U.S. Health-care Reform: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act. Journal of Risk and Insurance, 77(3): 703–708.
Hunt, D. R. (2010). Support for Health Care Bill Repeal, Lawsuit. Florida Time-Union. March,
25. Retrieved from: jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/davidhunt/2010-03-25/rasmussen-support-health-care-bill-repeal-lawsuit
Klein, E. (2009). Can Congress cut Medicare costs? Washington Post, December 4.
Retrieved from: voices.washingtonpost.com/ezraklein/2009/12/can_congress_cut_medicare_cost.html
Kocher, R., Emanuel, E. J., DeParle, N. M. (2010). The Affordable Care Act and the Future of
Clinical Medicine: The Opportunities and Challenges. Annals of Internal Medicine,
153(8): 536-539.
Manchikanti, L. & Hirsch J. A. (2009). Obama Health Care for All Americans: Practical
Implications. Pain Physician, 12: 289-304.
“New Affordable Care Act rules shed blight on high health insurance rate hikes” (2010). U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. December, 21. Retrieved from: www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/12/20101221a.html.
Newman, D. (2011). Accountable Care Organizations and the Medicare Shared Savings
Program. Darby, PA: DIANE Publishing.
Oberlander, J. (2009). Great expectations: The Obama administration and health care reform.
New England Journal of Medicine, 360:321-323.
“Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (2010). Public Law No: 111-148: H.R. 3590.
March 23.
Trumbull, M. (2010). Obama signs health care bill: Who won’t be covered? Christian Science
Monitor, March 23. Retrieved from: www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0323/Obama-signs-health-care-bill-Who-won-t-be-covered
Wolf, R. (2010). Young A. Health bill spreads the pain, benefits. USA Today, March 22.
Retrieved from: www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-03-22-health-you_N.htm.
Evolving Practice of Nursing and Patient Care Delivery Models
Evolving Practice of Nursing and Patient Care Delivery Models
Student’s name
Institution
Question one: How the practice of nursing is expected to grow and change
The healthcare sector forms one of the most critical areas requiring total concentration when it comes to growth and implementation of changes. The governments through the ministry of healthcare and nursing professionals have tried to improve the quality of medical care offered in healthcare institutions in by introducing various innovations and changes. The nursing practice requires transformation through educating nurses on various concepts such as effective leadership, proper and timely delivery of care and the practice itself. The most effective concepts that nursing professionals have introduced to help improve the sector are the concepts of continuum care, accountable care organizations, medical homes, and nurse-managed health clinics. Nurses should possess knowledge of the above concepts in order to deliver quality healthcare services and promote growth and change in their organizations and the nation in general.
The role of continuity or continuum of care in promoting growth and change in the practice of nursing
According to Uijen, Schers, Schellevis and Bosch (2011), continuity or continuum of care is the process of involving both the patients and physicians in practice of healthcare management in order to achieve high-quality and cost-effective healthcare services. This practice mostly favors family medicine through assisting home-based patients increase their trust on physicians. The practice also makes family physicians more confident and effective in offering nursing care to their individual clients. Continuity of care acts as the most essential concept when it comes to the provision of quality primary care. Proper implementation of this concept not only accelerates growth in the healthcare sector but also makes patients more confident about their physicians. How can nurses practice continuity of care to encourage growth and promote changes in the practice of nursing?
Presence of accountable-care organizations
Accountability presents the main cause of success in any organization. Each employ in an organization must be accountable for his or her area of work in order to ensure growth and promote changes. The practice of nursing requires professionals to be accountable for their duties and responsibilities in order to offer the needed care and increase the quality of services. Increased and improved services encourage more customers to the organization who end up bringing more revenues that play a role in the growth of the industry. Most studies conducted to investigate the main problems affecting the growth of the practice of nursing reveal professional resistance as one of the main causes.
Medical homes and nurse-managed health clinics
One of the best places that nursing professionals can easily gain trust from patients and improve their services is in the medical homes or nurse-managed health clinics. They are location of medical homes in residential areas help many people who develop emergency medical problems seek quick attention. Nurses can promote growth and implement changes in the healthcare sector through such facilities by ensuring patients receive desired healthcare services. In addition, nurse-managed clinics can promote the practice of nursing through using the present technology such as implementation of home-based care, bedside manner, use of social communication channels to monitor patient’s progress while at home, and using advanced medical tools for diagnosis (Auerbach, Friedberg, Reid, Buerhaus, and Mehrotra, 2013).
Question two: Nurses’ impressions of the anticipated changes to health care delivery and the new role of nurses in hospital settings, communities, clinics and medical homes
A discussion with three nurse colleagues on the type of changes needed in the practice of nursing to promote growth of the sector revealed that they also demanded the above concepts. The nursing sector lags behind because nurses lack the needed skills and knowledge on how to provide quality care to patients and win their confidence. In addition, the world is transforming at a higher rate, and the practice of nursing should also change. Most nurses accepted the fact that the sector needs to implement new technologies in order to increase nursing hospital settings, enlighten the community, and improve home clinic settings.
Question three: the responses shared by three nurse colleagues
From the discussion, the nurses agreed that the practice of nursing requires major changes in terms of service delivery, a new role of nurses in hospital settings, education of modern healthcare service delivery techniques, and use of medical homes. All three nurses nurse colleagues held similar impressions to those researched in question one on how to make the practice of nursing grow and change.
Firstly, the area of the implementing the continuum of care in promoting changes in the nursing sector yielded a lot of debate. Nurses agree that a good patient-physician relationship plays a key role in ensuring quality delivery of healthcare services and increases trust between the two parties. The three nurse collogues agreed that all clinics and nursing homes should introduce new rules that assign each nurse specific patients. Nurses will be required to file weekly reports on the progress of their patients regardless of their geographical location. The program aims at ensuring all nurses take good care of patients and take responsibilities of patient’s wellness even after leaving the healthcare center.
Understanding of nursing care models plays an essential role in ensuring nurse’s practices and totally implements the practice of continuity. One of the best practices that a nurse can utilize involves following the models of continuity. These are chronological, geographical, interdisciplinary, and interpersonal. Implementation of these models occurs through making a proper follow-up of the patient and taking into account all changes, offering needed healthcare services despite the location, treating al diverse illnesses, and understanding the patient’s desires. This model would help nurses earn more trust from patients and promote growth of the practice of nursing (Uijen, Schers, Schellevis and Bosch, 2011).
Secondly, we discussed on the issue of accountability in the practice of nursing. The discussion revealed that most nurses never take into account their actions leading to most patients complaining about the services offered. The modern evolving nursing practices such as the use of technology to record nurses’ attendance and activities in clinics formed the best method of ensuring changes in the practice of nursing. On the other hand, through the Accountable Care Act (ACA) the healthcare industry offers new roles for nurses but the compensation offered makes them less productive. The research realized that the government should consider giving more attention to the practice of nursing and release more funds for nurse compensation and other improvement projects that might help the sector grow in the future.
The resistance of nursing professionals and general opposition to undertaking their responsibilities reduces chances of growth in the sector. All practicing nurses should learn to take accountability of their duties and ensure patients receive needed care at all times. Every nurse has a role of keeping the patient safe and interacting with their workplace to help promote patient care (American Nurses Association, 2010). A discussion with nurse colleagues disclosed that major changes in the education curricula for nurses are needed to ensure nurses meet patient needs (The 2013 Health Care Professionals Workforce Survey, 2013). Limited clinical training officers with the modern knowledge such as the use of current medical innovations, and lack of quality leadership management contribute to the slow growth and poor implementation of changes.
The team also discussed on the importance of Patient Care Delivery Models in promoting changes and encouraging in the practice of nursing. Medical homes and nurse-managed healthcare clinics were found out to be the most significance in taking care of the evolving practice of nursing. Nurses require more skills on how to carry out home-based nursing care practices to expand the sector and ensure every person receives the needed care irrespective of location. The use of care-the-patient-centered medical home and nurse-managed health center solve the problem of the shortage of primary care physicians resulting from the increased patient demand (Auerbach, Friedberg, Reid, Buerhaus, and Mehrotra, 2013).
One of the initiatives considered by the team was ensuring that all practicing nurses register with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010. PPACA ensures all nurses acquire the necessary knowledge and resources that promote quality care. The essentials of nursing contained in the act include knowledge of patient-centered care, family and community care, chronic disease management, wellness care, patient education, and management of patient information. Knowledge of these essentials would see the practice of nursing grow. In addition, many changes evolve to the healthcare delivery, medical homes, and the community (ANA Issue Brief, 2010).
On the other hand, the future of practice of nursing depends more on technology implementation. Most people have changed into using technology through the internet in conducting most operations. An effective collaboration between the information technology experts and nursing professionals would see the sector grow tremendously. The colleagues agreed that the practice of nursing needs to come up with restructured teams composed of technologists and nurses to facilitate expansion and use of IT applications. Some of the most significant IT applications suggested by the group are mobile workstations, remote biometric monitoring programs, electronic medical records, and use of computers to make reports and to manage for medical care programs.
References
American Nurses Association. (2010). Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice (2nd Ed.).
Maryland: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
ANA Issue Brief. (2010). New Care Delivery Models in Health System Reform: Opportunities
For Nurses & their Patients. Retrieved from:
http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/Policy-Advocacy/Positions-and-Resolutions/Issue-Briefs/Care-Delivery-Models.pdf
Auerbach, D. I., Chen, P. G., Friedberg, M. W., Reid, R., Lau, C., Buerhaus, P. I. and Mehrotra,
A. Nurse-managed health centers and patient-centered medical homes could mitigate expected primary care physician shortage. Health Aff (Millwood), 32(11),1933-1941
The 2013 Health Care Professionals Workforce Survey. (2013). New York’s health care sector,
A changing, growing workforce. Retrieved from
http://www.hanys.org/workforce/survey/reports/2013_nursing_allied_workforce_survey_report.pdf
Uijen, A., Schers, H. J., Schellevis, F. G. and Bosch, M. (2011). How unique is continuity of
care? A review of continuity and related concepts. Journal of Family Practice. Retrieved from
http://fampra.oxfordjournals.org/citmgr?gca=fampract%3Bcmr104v1
US Health Care Services Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
US Health Care Services: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
(Author’s name)
(Institutional Affiliation)
Abstract
When thinking about America’s health care system, most feel that it is time for a change. While most other countries provide some sort of limited health care plan for their citizens, America, having a high quality of care, should do the same. President Obama’s administration is pushing for a government run health care system, which has its benefits as well as its consequences. Health insurance companies cause scores of tedious problems for patients, which most times, in part, cause a delay in treatment. Any person regardless of insurance and/or money should always be able to seek and get the medical attention needed. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010, signed into law by President Obama on March 23, sought out to provide better affordable health care for most Americans (Oberlander, 2009). Despite some advantages, like abolishing pre-existing conditions for children under Age 19, there are some major disadvantages. This reform will increase taxes and decrease quality of coverage.
Key Words: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Taxes, Coverage
Quality
Introduction
Enacted into American Law on 23rd March 2010, the Patient Protections and Affordable Act (PPACA) aims at providing affordable healthcare to Americans. Fundamentally, this health care act emphasizes the need for improving access to primary health care for all American citizens irrespective of their economic backgrounds. Additionally, this act also seeks to provide affordable health care insurance at a low cost, so as to, allow easy access by all Americans (Newman, 2011). As researchers and policy makers explain, this healthcare legislation is bound to bring about changes in the US healthcare system for years to come. However, research studies cannot agree on whether or not these changes will be beneficial to America, especially with regards to the American healthcare system. Some believe that the PPACA will impact the health care system by reducing the quality of healthcare provided for Americans. Others believe that this legislation will increase taxes instead of reducing the cost of healthcare as Obama and his administration would like to believe (Hunt, 2010). Accordingly, the PPACA was designed to provide the required healthcare reform that America has been seeking for the last few years. However, in the process of the enactment of this law, other policies and legislations have been integrated into the Act, thus making the influence of this Act widespread. Not only has this act reformed the Federal Family Education Loan program (FFEL), it has also affected the health insurance policy, hence changing how health insurance is provided to companies. This has, in turn, received plenty of criticism and praise, owing to the immediate effects of this Act on the ways in which the different systems are run. In view of that, it is prerequisite that all professionals in the healthcare industry familiarize themselves with the scope, content, and implications of the PPACA, for proper comprehension and application of the Act (Kocher et al., 2010).
This paper presents a review of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Specifically, the paper will examine some of the components of the Act, as well as, the various ways it affects healthcare service and profession.
Significance
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is a significant topic for discussion because it seeks to ensure that all Americans are granted access to good quality and affordable healthcare. Additionally, the PPACA also seeks to reduce the cost of healthcare in America, which is considered as one of the best improvements that America’s health care system can undergo (Goodson, 2010).
Health Services Issues and Consequences
Like other pieces of legislation in American federal law, the PPACA addresses various issues that have been a bother in the American healthcare system. Specifically, this legislation addresses various troublesome areas of healthcare in America. At the outset, the legislation seeks to ensure that Americans receive quality and affordable health care, which is believed to have been lacking in the past few years (Cavale, 2011). As Obama’s administration had observed, only the Americans who had a proper source of income could afford good quality healthcare for themselves. Americans without a proper source of income suffered because they could not afford to pay for their medical coverage as required. This act, therefore, pushes for shared responsibility in the insurance market that will assist in reducing these discriminatory practices in America’s healthcare system.
Public programs, such as the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programs, as well as, their respective role in America’s healthcare system are also problems that America’s healthcare system have been forced to face in the last few years. Though these programs were developed for utilization by all Americans, the issue of program eligibility has brought about a problems as most lower income Americans have been deemed illegible for these programs. Specifically, the Children’s Health Insurance Program has been identified as having the biggest issues because children at a certain age have been disqualified from the program, thus putting their lives at risk because of lack to proper medical access (Elmendorf, 2011). In addition to the issue of eligibility, the health programs in America have also been accused of lacking transparency and integrity, which in turn promote unfair and illegal practices in America’s healthcare system.
Obama’s administration has also cited the existence of chronic diseases an issue that needs to be addressed effectively. Chronic diseases are issues and problems in America’s healthcare system, not because they increase the rate of mortality in the state, but because America’s healthcare system as failed in providing access to preventative treatment for all Americans (Harrington, 2010). Consequently, the rate of mortality as a result of chronic diseases has increased, hence revealing a problem in America’s healthcare system.
America’s health care workforce has also been identified as an issue and problem to America’s healthcare system. As most researchers in the field would explain, American healthcare practitioners have long been accused of incompetency, and for that reason, American citizens argue that they should not be in practice (Elmendorf, 2011). Additionally, the America medical workforce is lacking, in the sense that it does not provide a sufficient number of healthcare workers to attend to the needs of patients. This has, in turn, decreased the quality of healthcare provided to Americans as the healthcare workforce is overworked.
Health Reform Proposals
As a response to the issues presented above, the PPACA presents various reforms that are aimed at changing the state of the American healthcare system. Accordingly, the PPACA suggests nine main reform approaches that will assist in giving America’s healthcare system the change it requires. The first reform proposal emphasizes the need for the provision of quality and affordable healthcare for all Americans (Manchikanti & Hirsch, 2009). The implementation of this will be conducted to the assurance of the immediate improvement of healthcare services and increasing the available insurance coverage for patients. The second reform proposal as per the PPACA centers on changing the contents and role of American public healthcare programs. Two main healthcare programs will be affected in the process including MEDICAID and CHIP. The eligibility for these two healthcare programs will be changed through simplifying enrollment into these programs (Newman, 2011). Thirdly, the PPACA proposes a reform that is aimed at improving the quality and efficiency of America’s healthcare provisions. The first step towards the achievement of this will be the linking of payment to quality outcomes of healthcare services, as well as, the reinforcement of the quality of medical infrastructure (Copeland & Carey, 2011). Additionally, for this reform to fully take shape, the government will also need to ensure a proper healthcare sustainability for years to come.
The fourth reform provision of the PPACA focuses on the prevention of the spread of chronic diseases, which will, in turn, improve the overall public health of Americans. For this to be achieved however, the US government is considering the possibility of modernizing the healthcare system, as well as, increasing access to preventative healthcare services. The healthcare workforce reform, as proposed in the PPACA, is the fifth provision of the act, and it aims at ensuring that the healthcare workforce is at its best at all times. The government will be required to increase the supply of medical practitioners in the field. Additionally, the government should ensure that these medical practitioners are well trained and educated regarding their duties and responsibilities (Gray & Sullivan, 2011). The sixth reform proposal in the PPACA is the transparency and program integrity reform, which seeks to put into place a new set of policies aimed at combating issues regarding fraud and malpractice. Another reform that has been proposed in the PPACA revolves around the improvement of access to new medical therapies for all Americans. According to Blendon and Benson (2010), The PPACA also proposes a reform on community assistance services and supports. This reform proposal aims at establishing voluntary insurance programs for the improvement of the health of communities. The last reform proposed in the PPACA entails revenue provisions, which defines how the government will gain funding for the provision of health insurance for Americans (Foster, 2010).
Criticism
As research studies explain, the PPACA presents both benefits and losses to the American healthcare system. Some of the benefits of the PPACA have been identified to include the abolition of pre-existing negative healthcare conditions in the American healthcare system. The PPACA will improve access to medical service for low-income earners, as well as, children under the age of 19, which is seen as the first step towards the improvement of the health of all Americans (Trumbull, 2010). The number of medical practitioners and workers will also be increased, which will, in turn, assure the American population of having access to a large number of competent staff in the field. However, because of the financial implications of the PPACA, critiques believe that this piece of legislation may be detrimental to Americans, as it risks an increase in taxes and a decrease in the quality of healthcare provided to Americans.
Justifications
I believe that the PPACA will be more costly than most Americans would like to believe. Although the Act will reduce America’s healthcare deficit by a significant amount, it will, in one way or another, increase the amount of money spend by individuals, as well as, the government as a whole on health care (Klein, 2009). At the outset, the implementation of the PPACA will increase the number of insured Americans, which inherently increases the budget for the number of people to receive insurance (Wolf, 2010). Non-Americans, who consist of a third of America’s population, will not be eligible for insurance, meaning that they will be forced to personally pay for the healthcare they receive. This implies that, in the long run, more money will have to be spent on a program that as initially designed to cut the cost on spending. Another factor that most people have failed to realize with relation to the implementation of the PPACA is that, for the government to raise the funds to support all Americans they need to increase the taxes (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). Government revenue and expenditure is solely dependent on the amount of taxes that people pay to the government. Accordingly, for the American government to offer quality and affordable medical insurance for American, they need to increases the tax amount to be paid for Americans.
References
Blendon, R. J., & Benson, J. M. (2010). Public opinion at the time of the vote on health care
reform. New England Journal of Medicine, 362(55): 344-350.
Cavale, A. R. (2011). Comments on the Affordable Care Act and the Future of Clinical
Medicine. Annals of Internal Medicine January 18(2):154:142.
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