Health Care Reform - Assignment Example

Health Care Reform Health Care Reform Recent changes in the US health care reform significantly affect not only the general population but also the advanced nursing and managerial roles of the members of the health care team. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 addressed health care issues regarding new consumer protections, improvement of quality and lowering of costs, and increasing access to affordable care (HealthCare.gov, 2011, n.p.). Under this act, insurance companies are prevented from denying coverage to children under the age of 19 due to pre-existing conditions.

A week after the new health care reform was implemented, US insurance companies have been ceasing to offer health insurance policies that cover only children because of the fear that parents will wait until a child is ill before purchasing health insurance, and may drop the insurance after the child recovers (Tanne, 2010, n.p.). The new health care reform act of 2010 does not only extend insurance coverage among children but to all Americans as well. Changes on the new coverage of health care reform act affect both the government and uninsured population.

Making health care affordable to all Americans will increase medical spending up to $ 1,600 or an increased in 70% per uninsured individual and savings in public programs are achieved because of changes in traditional payment changes in Medicare and Medicaid (Cutler, Davis, & Stremikis, 2010, 2). In addition, the new health care reform establishes insurance exchanges that will group individuals and small firms into larger entities, minimize marketing costs, and stronger oversight of industry practices.

On the patient side, improvement in information are made available as well as the incentives and medical provision. Meanwhile, health care reform consequences include the excised of tax on premiums to give affordable health care to all Americans (Cutler, Davis, & Stremikis, 2010, 7), increase incidences of fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid programs, and uneven distribution of health care costs to the patients with chronic conditions such as congestive heart failure, diabetes, and hypertension (Orszag & Emanuel, 2010, 602).

Therefore, it is expected that medical spending will decrease over time because of improvement in health but expenses imposed on additional health care providers needed to provide care to all Americans passes the burden to premium member, open up opportunities for employers to abuse health insurances among workers, and limits monitoring check-ups of certain chronic conditions because of focus in preventive medicine. Advanced nursing and managerial implications of health care reform emphasized conservative approach and reductions in Medicare spending (Oberlander, 2010, 2278).

Propose relevant advanced nursing and managerial implications for some of these changes might include fewer needs for advanced nursing practitioners as care are resolved by maximizing the health insurance; savings due to decline in used of electronic medical records; and, enhanced awareness of health practitioners in terms of law and health care.ReferencesCutler, D.M., Davis, K. & Stremikis, K. (May, 2010). The impact of health reform on health system spending. Issue Brief: The Commonwealth Fund, p. 1-14.Healthcare.gov. (2011).

About the Law: Provisions of the affordable care act, by year. Retrieved on October 14, 2011 from http://www.healthcare.gov/law/timeline/full.htmlOberlander, J. (2010). Beyond repeal - The future of health care reform. The New England Journal of Medicine, 363(24): 2277-2279.Orszag, P.R. & Emanuel, E.J. (2010). Health Care Reform and Cost Control. The New England Journal of Medicine, 363(7): 601-603.Tanne, J.H. (2010). US insurance companies drop child only health policies. British Medical Journal, n.p. Retrieved on October 14, 2011 from http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c5378.full