What health policy do you believe has had the greatest impact on health care in the United States? Explain your rationale.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 changed many things about the healthcare is provided. The law had three main goals, making healthcare affordable and accessible to all, expand Medicaid coverage, and help lower the costs of healthcare (Healthcare.gov, n.d.). The ACA changed the way insurance was provided, decreasing the number of uninsured people through new insurance premium assistance programs and Medicaid expansion (Blumenthal, et al., 2020). The program helped to decrease disparity in the provision of insurances, with record low numbers of uninsured among low-income and colored populations while protecting coverage for those with pre-existing conditions (HHS, 2022). Wider access to insurance is credited with increased use of healthcare and decreased out-of-pocket costs.
The ACA changed the way healthcare operates in the United States. It has attempted to make medical insurance and access to healthcare accessible to everyone. It has also been one of the most controversial healthcare policies to be initiated, with conflict causing attempts to roll back key provisions of the law (Blumenthal, 2020). The conflict brought forth by the law has served to keep healthcare change and advancement in front of the public eye.
The ACA has served to change the way healthcare operates by increasing healthcare availability, increasing the use of available healthcare, and decreasing disparities. No other law or policy has had such a widespread effect upon the landscape of healthcare. The barriers to fully implementing the law, created by partisanship and conflict have kept the law from reaching its intended purposes (Blumenthal, 2020). However, the changes made through this law have made a great impact upon the delivery of healthcare in the United States.
Blumenthal, D., Collins, S. R., Fowler, E. (2020). The affordable care act at 10 years — Its coverage and access provisions. New England Journal of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.26099/5d64-x278
Healthcare.gov. (n.d.) Affordable Care Act (ACA). Healthcare.gov. https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/affordable-care-act/
HHS. (2022). Fact sheet: Celebrating the Affordable Care Act. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2022/03/18/fact-sheet-celebrating-affordable-care-act.html
What health policy do you believe has had the greatest impact on health care in the United States? Explain your rationale.
The Affordable Care Act that was introduced in 2010, surely has had the largest impact on health care in the United States. According to (Obama, 2016), the percentage of uninsured Americans fell by 46% to an all-time record low of 9.1% after the ACA was implemented. This fact is impressive. The ACA made significant progress towards solving long-standing challenges in US health care system. Not only did the rate of uninsured Americans improve but, the access to health care improved. As with most policies the ACA has received push back over the years since implementing. The major cause for complaint from opposers of this policy used the individual mandate provision of this law as it’s cornerstone (Lyon, 2018). The mandate required individuals to purchase health insurance or pay a tax penalty. I saw the impact of this mandate on a close friend’s life, she was unable to afford insurance and was facing penalties from the IRS. Overall the ACA is viewed as having the largest and greatest impact on health care in the United States.
Obama B. (2016). United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps. JAMA, 316(5), 525–532. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2016.9797.
Lyon S. M. (2018). Healthcare Reform: An Update. Annals of the American Thoracic Society, 15(4), 417–419. https://doi.org/10.1513/AnnalsATS.201708-684HP.
The development of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has without a doubt been one of the healthcare policies that has had the greatest impact in the United States. The primary aim of the ACA was to expand healthcare by reducing costs and allowing a greater number of individuals to have a chance to obtain quality medical services. The Affordable Care Act sought to expand insurance coverage given by both public and private insurance companies. Another important goal was to elevate the quality of healthcare being given not only by big hospitals, but also by clinics and by outpatient ambulatory centers. The boost in quality of healthcare being delivered was made possible by “linking hospital and physician payments to the quality of care being provided” (Neiman et. al, 2021). This was accomplished by focusing on the perspective of those who were obtaining medical services, the patients. The ACA served to change how providers and hospitals were getting paid, which was through pay for reporting, to a new method which was through the use of patient satisfaction surveys or pay through performance (Chen et. al, 2020). This new initiative helped set the precedent that above all else, the patient is the person in power and the one which providers should be concerned that the have the best medical treatments available.
References
Chen, H., Cates, T., Taylor, M., & Cates, C. (2020). Improving the US hospital reimbursement: How patient satisfaction in HCAHPS reflects lower readmission. [Improving the US hospital reimbursement] International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 33(4), 333-344. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHCQA-03-2019-0066
Neiman, P. U., Tsai, T. C., Bergmark, R. W., Ibrahim, A., Nathan, H., & Scott, J. W. (2021). The Affordable Care Act at 10 years: Evaluating the evidence and navigating an uncertain future. Journal of Surgical Research, 263, 102–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2020.12.056
