Improving The Affordable Care Act

No one plans to have oneself or a family member diagnosed with a chronic disease or to be involved in a debilitating accident. Unfortunately, these situations are all too familiar and can happen every day. Having health insurance when these life changing events occur can provide a person or family

One area where access to care is a problem is in the rural communities. Healthcare professionals including physicians, nurse practitioners, and nurses all affect the quality and cost of care (Derksen, & Whelan, 2009). Going forward importance needs to be placed on using recourses more efficiently and effectively; these resources include but are not limited to tests, prescriptions,

Many factors can influence a person’s access to health care. Age can influence access to health care because some physicians will treat only children or only the elderly. Income can influence access to health care because specialty driven health care usually involves significant out-of-pocket expense to the patient because some procedures are not covered by health insurance. Location also can be an influence on access to health care. Many patients do not have transportation because of age, dependency on family members, health reasons, or financial reasons. According to the Journal of the National Medical Association, Access to health care can influence the prevalence of chronic disease risks and cancer screening utilization in many ways (Shavers, Shanker, Alberg, 2002, p. 955). If patients are not given

What is the Affordable Care Act and is it going to succeed or fail? The affordable care act is a law passed by the Obama Administration in 2010. This piece of legislation was passed to make health insurance affordable and accessible for all Americans. A lot of people refer to the affordable care act as Obamacare due to the fact that it was passed when President Obama was in office. The affordable care act was a major milestone for the United States in health care reform. It was the first time the United States passed a law that created a form of universal healthcare.

The Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, was passed in March 2010. This over-1000-page Act implements a number of reforms designed to increase the availability of health care for individuals. The Act created a Health Insurance Marketplace, a universal way to sign up for subsidized health care plans (which are cheaper), though you can only get certain plans from certain places, including an expanded Medicaid. It also creates an incentive to purchase health insurance-if you don 't, you 'll have to pay a fine, which is interpreted by many as a tax. Additionally, the Affordable Care Act requires sizable firms to provide a certain level of health care to all of their employees, with certain specifications. Obamacare also attempts to make health care cheaper for many, by trying to even out the cost for everyone.

Questions are constantly circulating around the new Affordable Care Act. Many do not know what it does and the government is trying to make it out to be a big savior to the medical field for doctors and patients alike. The Affordable Care Act has also been given the name Obamacare because of its ties to the President. He believes that increasing the amount of people on insurances of any kind that meets his “standards” will help health care become more available and more profitable. Unfortunately, these claims are not true as Obamacare is clearly going to negatively impact health care in all aspects. The problems start for patients who get on government healthcare programs, such as Medicaid, with the fact that the treatment plans are extremely

The Affordable Care Act passed in 2010 and signed by President Obama on March 23, 2010. The vision was to reform the health-care in America worked and dramatically decreases the number of uninsured individuals. President Barack Obama campaigned aggressively under the phrase’ “Yes We Can”. In the end “Yes he did” get the health-care reform legislation past and set into motion the overall of health insurance decades in the making. Many of the major objectives of the Affordable Care Act were setup to be implemented over time, most of which will be in place by 2016. Until then it is somewhat difficult to determine the true impact of the Affordable Care Act on individuals and their medical care and the financial impact of the costs. As,

The Affordable Care Act was created by President Barack Obama and is commonly referred to as “Obamacare.” President Obama is an active member of the Democratic Party. His party status is significant due to the fact most Democrats are in support of the Affordable Care Act. The act has made Medicaid widely used as a healthcare insurance in the United States, however Republican Governor Rick Perry and other conservatives have argued against the Medicaid expansion. In Texas the Affordable Care Act is not accepted by very many people, because the state is dominated by Republicans. Most Republicans oppose ObamaCare for many reasons, for example they believe that expansion is too expensive, reduces a person 's incentive to work, and increases social dysfunction.

Since 1984, Medicare patients have been serviced under the prospective payment system of the Medicare program. Under this system, primary care providers are reimbursed for their services using a fixed payment for each patient that is determined by the patient’s diagnosis-related group at the time of the admission. Therefore, under the prospective payment system a hospital’s reimbursement is unaffected by the actual expenditures that are required to care for a patient.

Drafted by congress under the recommendation of president Barack Obama, signed into law on March 23, 2010 by President after long legislative debates, the Affordable Care Act 's main purpose is to provide access to affordable and comprehensive health coverage to millions uninsured Americans who do not have coverage or adequate coverage, those who would be denied coverage under the previous insurance practice either base on pre-existing condition, gender or age, while controlling the cost of health care. (New York Time, October 26, 2014) The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the Affordable Care Act, examine the nine titles of the law, their effectiveness as well as their impact on the nursing practice today

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.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law on March 23rd, 2010 by President Barack Obama. This radical health care law was a much-needed step in comprehensive health insurance reform. Three important features of the Affordable Care Act are 1. Improving quality and lowering health care costs 2. New consumer protections and 3. Increased access to healthcare. (Key Features. 2014). Under the umbrella of these three key features additional benefits include free preventive care, drug discounts for senior citizens, increased protection against health care fraud, small business tax credits, increased access to health care through the health insurance marketplace, consumer assistance, and non-discrimination based on pre-existing conditions.

The United States is an incredibly diverse country. This diversity possesses significant strain particularly on the healthcare system. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality access to healthcare is defined as “the timely use of personal health services to achieve the best health outcomes” (Chapter 9 Access). Therefore, access of healthcare begins once an individual enters the system. Entry can be compromised if there are not enough necessary facilities, employees, or an individual is unable to afford care. Secondly, there needs to be sufficient facilities that offer services that are a necessity of the community.

Access to care constitutes of five measurements such as availability, accessibility, accommodation, affordability, and acceptability. This means acceptable and affordable health services should be available to required persons at

Access to health care refers to the individual’s ability to obtain and use needed services (Ellis & Hartley, 2008). Access to health care affects a multitude of people. Uninsured, underinsured, elderly, lower socioeconomic class, minorities, and people that live in remote areas are at the highest risk for lack of access to health care. There are also economical and political roles that complicate access to health care. Access to health care is a multi-faceted concept involving geographic, economics, or sociocultural issues. With my extensive research on access to health care, I hope to provide influences regarding; who is affected by lack of access, geographic, economic, sociocultural access, and