The Impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - Essay Example

"The Impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" is a perfect example of a paper on the health system.
In the year 2010, Congress enacted The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) in the US, with a vision to empower the poor or low-income group people to obtain healthcare facilities. In the US, healthcare reforms have imposed considerable effects on the people of America, as was also witnessed in the latest example of Obamacare, causing direct influences on the quality aspects of the industry (Ewoldt, 2014). The main objective of this research paper is to identify the ways through which the reform has changed the healthcare quality and its services in the US.

In the US, the healthcare reform has been observed to bring about changes in the deliverance of care services, which was allegedly causing discrimination amid the different income groups on the basis of their affordability of quality assured facilities. Following the reform, citizens in the US have been observed to receive insurance coverage, which is best suited for them at an affordable price. It will also take into consideration the people, categorized under the poverty line, making the entire program a wide-ranging initiative to suffice the growing needs of the community. The reform also intends to make the healthcare and its services more reasonable for small business units, with the intention that a larger proportion of the society gets the facility of quality healthcare.  It will also help in protecting and preserving the Medicare system for the senior citizens, serving them with free preventive services, even for chronic diseases (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2014).

From a generalized perspective, the reform may seem to be a boon for low-income group people, but on the other hand, it has been widely criticized to raise challenges for the service providers in the US healthcare sector. The first and foremost challenge posed by the reform can be witnessed in terms of the rising demand for healthcare services, resulting in work overload for physicians and other healthcare service provider groups. In addition, researches in this regard have revealed that costs to be borne by the service provider institution to serve the increased number of patients will be huge, making them compromise with the quality of services. Contextually, in the current phenomenon, when the number of service providers is already observed to be lesser than required, the existing staff members in the healthcare organizations will have to undergo tremendous pressure to serve the increased number of patients, imposing a negative impact on their service quality (Sharamitaro, 2011).

Conclusion

Contextually, it is worth mentioning in this context that since the Colonial period in America until the 19th century, the country has witnessed many alterations in its healthcare system, giving it the modern shape and style.  Undoubtedly, each reform posed a new challenge to the quality standards of the system, which was dealt with developmental measures as was needful (Sultz & Young, 2010). Therefore, from a positive futuristic perspective, it can be asserted that even though the reform poses certain non-negligible challenges for the society to maintain quality, in the coming years, it is likely to yield better rewards in upraising the healthcare standards in America — nevertheless, subjected to appropriate developmental measures.