Addressing Health Outcomes : Affordable Care Act

Title X was enacted in the 1970’s to subsidize families and individuals who do not have the financial means to raise a child. The Health and Human Services Department states, “Title X family planning clinics have played a critical role in ensuring access to a broad range of family planning and related preventive health services—” (U.S health, n.d.) Although Title X intends to help the needy through taxpayer money, Title X harms the needy by making them depend on government (who is insufficient to fill their needs causing emotional hurt and instability), and Title X harms taxpayers by using their money for what should be considered luxury items.

Americans have been faced with a new health care reform act known as Affordable Care Act initiated in 2010. Why was it so important for this nation to reform is health care system? How are we sure the ACA is improving our system for the American people? For many years, the health care industry has left many Americans uninsured. With health care costs on the rise and very few able to afford costs, and the quality of care in underserved areas not what it should be has left this nation largely unhealthy. Several landmark reports, including the Center for Disease Control factsheets and the Healthy People 2020 have astounding statistics confirming these alarming rates and clearly identifying the need for reform. The Affordable Care Act is the starting foundation for Americans to start investing in their own promotion of wellness and disease prevention. By choosing healthier lifestyle changes, individuals can make a difference which in turn will improve our nation’s overall health for the better.

The Affordable Care Act might be the best thing in American history for women’s health. The new law gave over 19 million uninsured women health coverage. Women overall are more intact with the health system than men because the majority takes care of their families. Women are usually on the forefront at doctor offices and hospitals with their children, making appointments for their spouse and for those who assist with their parents, they are the one scheduling and doing paperwork for

On January 12 of this year the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation determined that for a single person household, poverty is considered earning $12,140 or less per year (“Poverty Guidelines”). However, the costs of healthcare are at an all-time high. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid found that in the United States, over three-trillion dollars are spent on health care each year, which equates to over ten-thousand dollars per person each year

Despite the improvements made toward health reform, there are still problems that need to be address. There are still cost related access problems among insured adults, particularly among people with lower incomes. According to the Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey of 2014, 33 percent of adults who had been insured all year with incomes under 200 percent of poverty and 25 percent with incomes above that level said they did not get needed care because of costs in the past 12 months (Collins et al., 2015). The high deductibles and cost sharing in both employer and individually purchased private plans lead many adults to delay or avoid needed care (Collins et al., 2015). Also there is still a large share of adults who were insured all year but still struggle to pay their medical bills. People with lower incomes reported these problems at the highest rates. One third (34%) of adults with incomes under 200 percent of poverty who were insured all year

The Title X Family Planning program was enacted in 1970 as Title X of the Public Health Service Act (Public Law 91-572 Population Research and Voluntary Family Planning Programs). Title X is the only federal grant program dedicated solely to providing individuals with comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs (OPA) oversees the Title X program (U.S. Department of Human Services, 2014).

The Affordable Care Act (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act), commonly called "Obamacare," is a federal statute that was signed into law in March of 2010 (PDF, n.d.; Van de Water, 2011). It basically requires the vast majority of people in the United States who do not have insurance coverage to acquire that coverage or face penalties. People who already have insurance through their employers or on their own will not be asked to change companies. Additionally, anyone who is on federally-funded insurance such as Medicaid or Medicare and still qualifies for those programs will not be removed from their insurance. They will still be covered and protected. In order to find out more about the Act and really understand its main points and principles, however, it is very important to be aware of how it became a law and any changes that have taken place to it from its inception all the way through where it is today. Only then can a person have a clear understanding of the Act and form an opinion as to the value it may (or may not) provide to the American public. There is still much speculation and a great deal of misunderstanding about the Act and what it involves.

yourself how this new policy will affect the way you care for your patients, report clinical

There needs to be an urgent reform of the Obama affordable health care act. The Obama health care act perhaps was an attempt to solve the solution of the American health care crisis. Obama care has created another crisis. Even those with health care coverage can not afford the out of pocket expenses. Emergency rooms are not adequately prepared for the increase in the volume of patients. Health care workers are becoming overloaded and elevated stress levels. There must be a cap on all health care cost for medical treatment. The middleman needs to be cut out. Middleman includes county clinics (on government funding who take advantage) , medical referral services, pharmaceutical company 's, and the health insurance company 's.

In 2014, the Affordable Care Act expanded to make Medicaid available to more adults that live under the poverty line. A survey completed in 2010 showed that an estimated eighty-one million adults were underinsured or completely uninsured during that year (Schoen, Doty, Robertson, and Collins, 2011). The Emergency Medical

The concept behind the Affordable Care Law is to provide help with medical assistance for citizens of this nation. When speaking of help, and concept, the Law supports the health of the nation and the health of the patients who need medical assistance. Even more, another huge concept of the plan is to allow the patients to manage their own health needs, this means not allowing corrupt individuals or organization to take advantage of the less fortune. The Affordable Care Act puts consumers back in charge of their health care (Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, 2015). As mentioned before the Law helps with coverage, costs, and care. The approach of each of the previous terms mean a great deal for the nation. The choice to medical coverage created by the Law offers great additions to the idea of equity, efficiency and effectiveness.

In recent years the current President of the United States of America Barak Obama, wrote into law his signature piece of legislation commonly known as Obamacare. The official name of this law in The Affordable Healthcare Act. Since the passing of the affordable healthcare many ordinary citizens and even siting congressman and senators have argued that this is unconstitutional. While there is in fact no guaranteed constitutional right to healthcare (Wheeler, 2013) in the United States, Article 1 section 8 of the US constitution does give government the ability to enact legislation for the welfare which includes the health of citizens, “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide

Since the preventative care policy went into effect, the federal HHS Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) estimates that approximately 137 million people have received no-cost coverage for preventative services. However, there needs to be in an increase in public awareness regarding the policy. In March 2014, a report showed that less than half of the population (47%) knew that the affordable care act eliminated out-of-pocket expenses for preventative care (“Preventative Services Covered by Private Health Insurance Plans”, 2015). Since the implementation of the policy, there has been a drastic improvement in women’s healthcare. Before the ACA, women faced many challenges in the health insurance market. In 2012, a woman could

The role of women in society has taken a drastic change from their predecessors of the 1950’s. Women have found their voice in society through the power of voting as one of the first landmarks, and now more than ever, women are forcefully breaking through the glass ceilings in the workforce arena. The concern at hand is a woman’s ability to access timely and appropriate care as well as preventive services, which enable her to continue balancing the many hats that she is wearing in modern society. With the new health reform law, passed by President Obama in March of 2010, this new law holds the potential to expand women’s access to health insurance coverage and make reforms that may strengthen the health care systems ability to

One of the biggest problems and issues that women currently face in regards to accessing health care in the U.S. is that, unfortunately, health care reform includes many harsh restrictions and limits on insurance coverage for abortion care and access to coverage for immigrant women. For example, Immigrant women must wait five years to be eligible for Medicaid. This is a problem because many women who cannot have access to Health insurance or any coverage can result in not getting the proper care or any care at all, and that can be dangerous for many women who is in need of figuring out what is happening with their bodies. This can lead to many illnesses, and/or death because the woman did not have the opportunity to check themselves.