The Impact Of The Affordable Care Act

Barriers in health care can lead to disparities in meeting health needs and receiving appropriate care, including preventive services and the prevention of unnecessary hospitalizations (HealthyPeople.gov, 2012). In their 2008 annual report, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality lists several disparities’ in health care. They report that racial and ethnic minorities in the United States

With this increased research and effort, Americans would be able to intervene and make positive impacts with the state, tribal, and local levels to best address health disparities and inequalities. In efforts to thwart ethnic and minority disparities, The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) passed the HHS Disparities Action Plan in order to establish “a nation free of disparities in health and health care, (Cooper 97)” and to implement a series of priorities, strategies, actions, and goals to achieve this vision. States, local communities, private organizations, and providers have additionally engaged in efforts to reduce health disparities. With the HHS Disparities Action Plan, the Department continuously assess policies and programs on racial and ethnic health disparities, watching to see which policies make an impact on the level of health care received by minorities. Similarly, The Affordable Care Act (ACA) health coverage expansions significantly increase coverage options for low and moderate income populations and particularly benefit the “vulnerable populations.” The ACA also includes provisions to strengthen the safety-net delivery system, improve

Barriers to healthcare include factors that restrict or hinder people from receiving adequate and quality health care service. Health care disparities are those differences that negatively affects less advantaged group (Mehta, 2014). Health care barriers play a significant role in comprehending causes of disparities. This paper will discuss the obstacles and disparities that exist and affects healthcare.

Patient access to affordable health care is an ongoing issue in the United States. The first portion of the policy process involves three different stages, the formulation stage, legislative stage, and the implementation stage. Three main stages exist in the process to transform a topic into a policy (Morone, J. A., Litman, T. J., & Robins, L.S., 2008). Coupled with the implementation stage is an evaluation of all the stages to determine effectiveness and gather information for use in future public health care policy making. In the formulation stage, the ideas, concepts, and information steam from this process of policy making. The

Although this is a major contributing factor to healthcare disparities, it may also be the most easily correctable! In many cases, something as simple as educating the providers about the healthcare needs of their underserved patients and eliminating misguided and unfounded stereotypes and preconceptions can dramatically reduce the disparities arising from this factor. In this respect, I feel fortunate in the sense that I have had the opportunity to attend a medical school that realizes the importance of this issue and has taken every possible opportunity to educate and train myself and my fellow colleagues about the implications of these disparities in healthcare. As such, I feel confident that, thanks to my knowledge and awareness of the problem, I can prevent this factor from causing disparities in care within my own practice.

The disparities are around us every day and unless we educate ourselves and our communities these disparities will continue to wreak havoc on our neighborhoods and in the future, we will just be putting our kids and their kids in a continuing cycle of ignorance when we could have done more if it’s just educating the community we leave in, that alone could be enough to turn the tides in our people favor. In turn, I would hope this paper enlighten you on what is going on in our neighborhood and what we can do to correct this issue to preserve our autonomy. Racial and ethnic health disparities undermine what a healthcare system should stand for. Although the top three causes and seven of the 10 leading causes of death are the same for African Americans and whites, the risk factors and incidence, morbidity, and mortality rates for these diseases and injuries often are greater among blacks than whites (MMWR, 2005). Health disparities refer to differences in disease risks, incidence, morbidity, and mortality but most of all for the sake of this paper unequal access to quality health insurance amongst African American in the United States, which will also go hand and hand with the social and economic disadvantages. The disadvantages of health disparities usually affect people of African American descent who have systemically experienced a greater social and economic obstacle to health care.

Health disparities among African-Americans is a continuing problem that has been seen over many years. African-Americans have higher poverty rates, have lower rates of insurance coverage, and are more likely to be covered by Medicaid, than the White population (Copeland, 2005). This lack of insurance has led many of these individuals, to not seek treatment for illness, due to problem accessing health care (Kennedy, 2013). This leaves African-Americans with little to no treatment, which causes an increase of medical care that will be needed further on in their life or a sooner than expected death, caused by illness (Copeland, 2005).

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the 2010 health reform act that could extend insurance coverage to as many as 32 million Americans, which also included policies that affect the quality of coverage insurers must offer (Knickman & Kovner, 2015). In addition to this, the ACA created a range of programs focused on furthering change in how medical care is organized and delivered, with a goal of reducing costs and improving quality and outcomes (Knickman & Kovner, 2015). However, these goals come at a cost. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact the ACA had on the population it affected in the United States as a nation, but specifically in the state of North Carolina;

The United States is faced with multiple health disparities within the country that encompass many challenges for individuals when it comes to the fairness and access to health care. A health disparity is defined as the inconsistency of treatment between two different groups of individuals. Treatment that could be different could be seen as different care due to age, race, ethnicity, culture, or current socioeconomic status (Koh et al., 2012). Treatment may be different or delivered in different ways between literacy component individuals and illiterate individuals and be viewed as unequal care. Healthcare facilities must be cautious when providing care and be cautious of the health disparities that exist in order to provide equal and

The goal of this policy brief is to support Alabama’s current decision to continue Medicaid Primary Care Parity, as first enacted by congress in 2010 to all states under section 1202 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). However, as Alabama is facing budget cuts to its Medicaid services, supporting the “Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women and Children Act” will extend federally funded Medicaid primary care parity without harming the state budget and negate the consequences of limiting Medicaid enrollee access and benefits. The federal government proposed to pay 100% of Medicaid services mandated under section 1202, from 2013 to 2014, which has since expired in December 2014. This program requires certain primary care services to be reimbursed at higher rates equivalent to those rates paid by Medicare for equivalent primary care services. Limited provider participation, limited Medicaid beneficiary access & decreased enrollment of physicians, physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) into primary care can be improved through this monetary incentive.

Holahan, J., Buettgens, M., Carroll, C., & Dorn, S. (2012). The cost and coverage implications of the ACA Medicaid expansion: National and state-by-state analysis (Publication # 8384). Retrieved from The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation: http://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/8384.pdf

Moreover, Blumenthal, Abrams, and Nuzum also present in their article "Affordable Care Act at Five Years” that insured consumers are pleased with their coverage since there are many plans they can choose. The Commonwealth Fund reveals in the report “How the Law Is Changing Health Coverage in the U.S.” that “more than two-thirds of adults with marketplace coverage said their health insurance was excellent, very good, or good.” (Lorber). It also points out that “sixty percent of adults with new coverage had used their new plans to go to a doctor or hospital or to pay for prescription drugs”

Most of the states in the US have the Vision of growing the health sector to help address issues in health. The Affordable Care Act has seen the development of the Medicaid along with the Accountable Care organizations as one of the strategies to help curb the problems in place. According to the report that was released by the White House IN 2014, it was suggested that most of the states are locked in the politics and have most of their personal constituents uninsured. Taking the instance of North Carolina, the numbers are extremely high and thus terminating the obstruction of Medicaid would benefit the residents economically. It is geared towards creating new opportunities for over 2000 citizens as well as improve the federal fund's

In conclusion, the Affordable Care Act had a positive impact on the American people and health care. It reduced the cost of health care, allowing for more people to be able to afford insurance. The ACA also created more equality in the health insurance system. It required that no one be denied or charged more due to any condition or gender. It also required that screenings and some tests be covered by the insurance. President Barack Obama said in a speech, “Because of the Affordable Care Act, more than 100 million Americans have gotten free preventive care like mammograms and contraceptive care with no copays.” The ACA also allowed for many areas of the healthcare industry to prosper. It created customers for the insurers and it reduced the

The Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010 representing a reform of the United States healthcare system. At the time the law was passed, I was working third shift so I wasn’t too familiar with how the ACA affected our patients. Most of our patients have Medicare coverage and the ACA added lower prescription costs and added prevention services so patients can live independently for longer. Medicare also provides yearly wellness visits allowing seniors to personalize a health plan in order to stay healthy for longer. Medicare Part D is established by private health care companies on behalf of the federal government. Before the law passed, patients were responsible for all the costs of their prescription medication until they spent a certain dollar amount for the year. During this gap many seniors cut their medications in half or stopped taking them altogether putting their health at risk.