Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Respond to two other classmates’ at least with 100 words
Classmate # 1. Post
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has revolutionized the American health care system by making it possible for an additional 20 million Americans to have health insurance and by preventing the loss of thousands of lives. The Affordable Care Act formalized safeguards for those who already had health problems and did away with the requirement that patients pay a portion of the cost for high-quality preventative care (Adamson & et al. (2019).. Most of its components have contributed to better healthcare for the patients. For instance, the expansion of insurance coverage by the ACA has improved the number of insured people in the united states of America, which is a key element to better patient services. And through this expansion, the patient sicknesses that insurers discriminated against can be covered which is a positive in the healthcare sector.
Another component of ACA that will better the healthcare services is the compensation of the healthcare practitioners based on the value they provide rather than the volume of work. Compensating nurses based on their value will improve the quality of the healthcare services they offer to the patients as they will be highly motivated to deliver high-value healthcare services. (Adamson & et al. (2019).
The expansion of Medicaid has resulted in improved access to medical treatment as well as better overall health outcomes for low-income individuals and their families across the country. There is a substantial body of research indicating that expanding Medicaid leads to an increase in the consumption of health services and an increase in the diagnosis and treatment of various health conditions, such as cancer, mental illness, and drug use disorder. The expansion of Medicaid is associated with improvements in health outcomes such as cardiac surgery outcomes, hospital admission rates for patients with acute appendicitis, and improved mortality rates for cardiovascular and end-stage renal disease (Adamson & et al. (2019). These have improved the quality of the healthcare services that patients can access and afford.
References
Adamson, B. J., Cohen, A. B., Estevez, M., Magee, K., Williams, E., Gross, C. P., … & Davidoff, A. J. (2019). Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion impact on racial disparities in time to cancer treatment.
Classmate #2 Post
The high costs of medical care are one of the leading causes of bankruptcy in the United States, directly impacting families. Having health insurance allows families to have the tools to have a longer and healthier life. The creation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) allows Americans to have medical coverage, and the government created the tools to control the high costs of health, but the creation of a high-quality, accessible, and affordable health system is not over; there is a long way to go to achieve those goals. (Obama, 2016)
Before the ACA law, the health system was dominated by fees for services, so some providers benefited more than others regardless of who focused more on providing better quality care. The ACA law also created a more effective way to detect fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid system. At the same time, we see a substantial improvement in the quality of care.
Changes in the law ACA have made progress in the health care system, and there is still much work to be done in this complex system. In the dynamic application, everyone learns day by day about the more inclusive health market beyond pre-existing conditions. Many people were left out of the system since insurers did not want to assume the patient’s risk regarding hospitalizations. Although the law addressed policies for prescription drugs to this day, it continues to be of great concern to all due to the increase in expenses for prescription drugs.
Congress has a vital role in avoiding the law’s regression, always focusing forward and thinking about the possible improvements that added to the law to continue with medical benefits.
In a review of the last ten years of the ACA law, more than 20 million people received medical coverage and multiple medical insurance claims. Based on this review, they intend to fill the existing gaps in the law ACA and equitable care. (Buntin, 2020)
I believe that there are many roads to travel related to the health system in the United States since health coverage is better while individual or family income is low. Still, the lower middle class continues to be affected due to high premiums, deductibles, and copays. It should also be noted that the income tables for verification of eligibility remain almost static, with many factors influencing annual income, which makes it difficult to project the same category a person falls into. We hope that substantial improvements will be established in the ACA law and that politicians will efficiently use the taxes they collect. They consider health essential for the development and growth of the country.
References
Buntin, M. B. (2020). The Affordable Care Act at 10 Years. JAMA Health Forum, 1(7), e200896. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2020.0896
Martinez, C. R. (2019, June 1). NCHS – 404 Error – Resource Not Available. Www.cdc.gov; Published May 24, 2016. Accessed June 14, 2016. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/releases/released201605.htm.
Obama, B. (2016). United States Health Care Reform. JAMA, 316(5), 525. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2016.9797