Nursing sample on Affordable care act
Health care organization and Finance
Introduction
Health care is one of the most important aspects of life and contributes to quality and happiness in life. The Affordable health care act of 2010 or the Obama care brought about significant changes that affected health care provision and financing (Obama, 2016). The act stipulated that there should be universal health care for all the citizens of USA. The ACA was to lower the cost of health care, increase the enrolment in health insurance and make reasonable the charges which are levied for the purpose of health care. It proposed a comprehensive plan that was to see the changes in the health care sector in terms of service delivery as well as health care costs.
Impact of Affordable care act on health care organization and finance
The health care organization improved significantly following provisions of the affordable care act. In 2012, Medicaid programs were expanded and covered people who were not originally covered (Markus et al., 2013). The health care facilities increased in number and efficiency. The federal government became more responsive in health care and monitored the health facilities asunder them closely for effective health care provision. There were also reforms in health care financing that came with the affordable care act of 2010.
There was a shift in measurement and payment. For example, initially, patients were expected to pay for each of the services that were offered in the health care facilities individually. In the new payment system that was brought due to affordable care act, the patient was only to pay for an economically and clinically relevant episode in which the relevant services were grouped together and charged as a bundle. The accountability for payments were distributed over the service providers for a relatively longer period.
There was also a change in the in the health care management capacity. In the new systems, the decisions of the type of service to be offered to a patient was originally with the insurer while in the arrangement brought about by the affordable care act, the service providers are the ones who were given the mandate to prescribe the service which was to be given to the patient. The changes in health care system following the act significantly reduced the costs of health care service but improved the outcome.
The other change in financing is that the insurers are now made to use more of their money for payment of the services. This is because the act specified that even low income earners be enrolled in the in Medicare and Medicaid programs. This means that they had a larger population to take care of with almost the same amount of resources that they had before except for the contribution that was made by the federal government. Allowing the health care providers to decide the type of service to be given to a patient does not give room to te insurers to get more money from the hospital the way they were used to doing things.
The changes in financing of health care service brought a scenario in which the health care providers can only be paid for the service that they have offered to the patient. The insurer can only pay for what is demanded by the patient even when they feel that the patient has gone overboard in spending. In the end, both the insurer and the health care facilities felt that they were strained financially while the patient was relieved from the heavy burden of payment and more included in care provision including those who were left out due to low income.
Social determinants
The quality of life is determined by the genetic constitutions of individual, the living environment and the quality of healthcare. The living environment includes social determinants such as social capital. The affordable care act recognized the fact that there were differences in income among the members of the society and made provisions that took care of both the poor and the rich in the society. For example, all citizens were to be enrolled in Medicaid or Medicare whether they were employed or not. This took care of all the people living in the country. The system also ensured that the services were decentralised to allow all people no matter their social class to afford the health care services.
Proposed Changes
The present administration in USA repealed the affordable care act and came up with provisions that has negated the milestone that had been already passed following the Obamacare (May, 2015). One of the major areas affected by the proposed change is the elimination of the expansion of Medicaid and Medicare programs to cover the low income group of people. The proposal also seeks to disrupt the individual market of insurance and finally to end the protection of individuals with pre-existing conditions who were covered by Obamacare.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the affordable care act of 2010 made health care provision affordable and effective for the common man. It is like this provision caused a lot of strain on the health care givers and the insurers making them to wage war with the policy and now are bringing in a change that will directly affect the welfare of the common man. This change will increase income of the insurer and the health care givers but will negate the achievement made by Obamacare.
References
Markus, A. R., Andres, E., West, K. D., Garro, N., & Pellegrini, C. (2013). Medicaid covered births, 2008 through 2010, in the context of the implementation of health reform. Women’s Health Issues, 23(5), e273-e280.
May, P. J. (2015). Implementation failures revisited: Policy regime perspectives. Public Policy and Administration, 30(3-4), 277-299.
Obama, B. (2016). United States health care reform: progress to date and next steps. Jama, 316(5), 525-532.
