The Affordable Care Act - Term Paper Example

The implication of the Affordable Care ACT on delivery of high quality long-term care in U.S Lecturer Introduction The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is a federal statute that was signed by the president in 2010. In combination with the Educational Reconciliation and Health Care Act, ACA represents the most significant regulatory overhaul in the healthcare system. Its main goal is to increase the affordability of health insurance, reducing cost of health care for individuals as well as lowering the rate of insurance by expanding insurance coverage in an effort of enhancing quality patients care delivery across all levels of care opening doors for affordable and quality health (Sofija Rak & Coffin, 2013). As a result, various health policy changes have been enacted. The passage of the Affordable Care Act has initiated the transformation in the United States health care system since it was enacted. The main goal of the act is fostering preventive healthcare model in the health care system emphasizing on promoting quality care, funding community health initiatives and enhancing primary care delivery. The changes are essential in increasing the need for a well-prepared team of healthcare professionals enhancing quality care delivery. The paper discuss on the implications of the act on the cost and effectiveness of the delivery of high-quality long-term care in the United States (Davis, Abrams, & Stremikis, 2011). The Act has established the basic legal protections that until its establishment, have been absent in the health care system. It guarantees access to affordable health insurance coverage from birth through retirement among the citizens. Under full implementation, the Act is expected to cut the number of uninsured Americans by more than a half leading to 95 percent health insurance coverage of the American population thus reducing the cost associated with seeking health care systems. It consists of 10 separate legislative titles with several major objectives. Among them, include attaining health care universal coverage in U.S through shared responsibility among employers, individuals and the government as well as improving the quality, fairness and affordability of health insurance coverage (Meltzer, 2011). The ACA also aims at improving health care value, efficiency, and quality while reducing wasteful spending and making access to health care more accountable to the diverse patient population. Another objective of the act is strengthening the primary health care access while long term changes in the availability of preventive and primary health care systems. Implications of the health insurance coverage reforms The Obamacare Act is essential in fundamentally altering the policy landscape in which health delivery system is practiced in the United States. The legislation of the policy, however, will take years of implementation. Certain aspects of the policy such as the availability of prevention center funding provide important funding opportunities in the health care centers. The opportunities are essential in the community to reduce the cost of health care delivery. As well, public health agency responsiveness in local community coalitions is fundamental. The Act works to expand the coverage of clinical preventive services in private and public insurances. It requires the nonprofit health care centers to be involved in community health planning and will also be required to demonstrate how their investment in the community reflects in the priorities that are contained in their plans (Sofija Rak & Coffin, 2013). The act has made health insurance coverage to be a legal expectation of the citizens, as well as other individuals present in the nation. This is by strengthening the existing health insurance coverage as it builds an affordable health insurance market for families and individuals who lack affordable employer coverage or forms of minimum essential coverage such as Medicare and Medicaid. In an effort of expanding coverage, the Act has restructured Medicaid to cover all U.S individuals under poverty and streamline enrollment to health insurances. However, the act also provides exemptions for individuals whom enrollment is contrary to their religious beliefs (S Rak & Coffin, 2013). Thus, the Affordable Care Act is a representation of an effort of reframing the financial relationship between the healthcare system and Americans citizens to address the health insurance crisis enveloping families, communities, individuals, the national economy and health care system as a whole. It aims at building a strong relationship to the health insurance that is an epicenter of the legal battle on reducing healthcare cost. Moreover, the Act has established federal standards for health insurances offering services in both small group market and individual level including employer-sponsored health benefits plans. The purpose of setting these standards is to ban discrimination against the disadvantaged such as older individuals, children, the disabled and women (Rosenbaum, 2011). It broadness and expands health care services availability by health care expansion for the 32 million uninsured American citizens. The health insurance marketplace is important for allowing individuals to purchase private health insurance plans to make these plans to be affordable as individuals making 400 percent or less of the nation’s Federal Poverty Level will qualify for premium tax credits and cost-sharing subsidies. Business with 50 or more employees will be subjected to fines for lack of offering insurances (Sofija Rak & Coffin, 2013). By year 2016, young adults will be permitted to remain on their parent’s insurance plans until they reach 26 years. The Act encourages employers to undertake wellness activities at the workplace in an effort to promoting actual optimal health outcomes. In spite of subsidizing coverage and regulating insurances, the act creates state health insurance exchanges for individuals and businesses. These exchanges are essential for simplifying and easing health insurance purchasing through creation of a one-stop shopping market for products of insurance qualifying for federal tax subsidies. These exchanges under the Act provide information and enrollment assistance, calculate eligibility to subsidy, over plans as well as provide the government with information regarding subsidy plan performance and eligibility (Meltzer, 2011). It also creates high-risk health insurance pools that are aimed to provide affordable coverage for individuals with pre-existing health conditions such as the disabled and mentally ill individuals. An example is illustrated with the main purpose of ACA is ensuring the provision of comprehensive and clear national mandate for discrimination elimination against people with disabilities to enhance their full participation, equality of opportunity, economic self-sufficiency and independent living. The ACA Act calls for all individuals with a disability to have health insurances unless they have eligibility for health care through other government programs such as Medicare. It calls for health insurance provision among the disabled preventing any exclusion of benefits by prohibiting discrimination that is based on disability under any health program or activity receiving assistance (Sofija Rak & Coffin, 2013). Thus, individuals with a disability have an increased access to accommodation and will be less likely be terminated because of their disabilities. Enhancing health care accountability, efficiency, and quality Apart from insurances, the Act is involved in realigning the health care system for long-term changes in the healthcare quality delivery, the design and organization of the healthcare practice as well as enhancing health information transparency. This is achieved through the introduction of broad changes empowering the department of health and human services as well as the state Medicaid programs to develop and test new models of service delivery and payment. The changes are intended to allow the public players to forcefully and slowly manipulate the health care system into different ways to determine how health professionals will work in a more cohesive fashion, determine quality care delivery, and report their performance in an effort to determining ways of enhancing quality care delivery in the system. The act is also involved in determining payment and delivery reforms systems that attract private payer involvement with an aim of maximizing the potential cross-payer reforms that will exert additional pressures on the health care institutions and providers (Davis et al., 2011). In an effort of enhancing quality care delivery, the act has developed a National Quality Strategy with an aim of generating efficiency and quality measures to enhance greater safety, value purchasing as well as enhancing the extension of health information across the public and private insurers. The Act lays a background for performance reporting on a system basis so that the patients can be able to access information more readily on their own health as well as how the health care providers are performing. Moreover, the Act has established a research program, to enhance research in an effort of identifying the most efficient and appropriate means of healthcare delivery to the diverse population. The act also is involved in collecting information on health care disparities to allow the nation to determine progress in health care delivery for the minority groups such as the disabled and women (Minow, 2012). The act aims at making the primary healthcare more accessible to the medically unserved population. In addition to the provision of insurances, the act rationalizes the healthcare system by enhancing primary health care delivery in the medically unserved communities as well as broadening the coverage of preventive clinical health services. In achieving this, the Act provides for the development of a prevention plan as well as the development of a public health trust fund in an effort of financing community investments to improve preventive care delivery (Moon, 2012). The Act has targeted specific populations for public and health investment to receive special attention aimed at improving performance of health care. Thus, as a result, new investments have been enhanced in preventive activities, and school-based health care centers. Moreover, the Affordable Care Act has enhanced development of new investments in training primary health care professional to improve the quality of care delivery in the hospital setting (S Rak & Coffin, 2013). The Act expands primary and preventive services through Medicare and Medicaid. It has placed new restrictions on the health insurance plans by calling for increased coverage and access of preventive services. It enhances increased funding to the National Health Service Corps in an effort of supporting medical education to increase the number of practitioners providing care in the underserved areas. To ensure equal coverage of health care delivery, the Act provides for funding for additional community health centers. The Affordable Care Act has developed community-based collaborative programs that have been comprised with consortiums of providers who have the responsibility of integrating and coordinating healthcare services for the uninsured low-income populations. Funding will be provided to finance the community prevention and wellness programs (Davis et al., 2011). The primary and preventive services are bound to yield little tangible success without adequate funds. In attaining the outcome, health care practitioners have an educational preparation for them to play an essential role in leading and supporting the healthcare transformation to improve the healthcare outcomes. Conclusion The ACA is making the coverage of health insurance more reliable, secure and affordable to employees, families and business owners. It is committed to sustaining Medicaid, Medicare as well as the health insurance program for children to connecting all Americans with quality access to affordable health insurances options. Millions of individuals are benefiting from the provisions of the Act. According to statistics in 2012 48 million individuals were insured a decline from 50 million uninsured individuals in 2010. The ACA is aimed at improving health care quality and enhancing the safety of the patients. In U.S, health care related errors in the medical care setting harms millions of American patients adding millions of dollars to the health care costs. According to statistics, health care associated infections occur every year, which totals to a cost of approximately $30 billion each year. In helping the citizens to receive the best possible health care services the act tries to protect patients safety, improve care provision, improve the medical devices and products as well as enhancing the education of the practitioners. Moreover, the acts is working to improve communication between patients and health care providers in an effort of supporting informed patient engagement safety and quality of care. References Davis, K., Abrams, M., & Stremikis, K. (2011). How the affordable care act will strengthen the nation’s primary care foundation. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 26, 1201–1203. doi:10.1007/s11606-011-1720-y Meltzer, C. C. (2011). Summary of the affordable care act. AJNR. American Journal of Neuroradiology, 32, 1165–1166. doi:10.3174/ajnr.A2623 Minow, M. (2012). Affordable convergence: “Reasonable interpretation” and the affordable care act. Harvard Law Review, 126, 117–149. Moon, M. (2012). Medicare and the Affordable Care Act. 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