DHA 8007 Discussion 1 Week 10
Week 10 DQ
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 was intended to restructure the US healthcare system in order to bring improved care, reduced costs, and accessibility to care. Expansion was thus attained by the establishment of health insurance markets and Medicaid expansion, and other reforms. Through the ACA, quality care will be enhanced due to those necessary health benefits that will be paid by insurers and the pre-existing conditions that will be covered by insurance, as they allow preventive measures, such as free screenings and vaccinations (Neiman et al., 2021). Baker explains that cost-reduction changes in payment were implemented by the ACA, which enacted reduction programs such as the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, the use of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), and value-based purchasing models (Ross, 2023). These plans encourage providers to deliver outcomes and efficiency, as opposed to volume, and provide subsidies to people with low to middle incomes, which will decrease the cost of out-of-pocket care. Expansion of Medicaid saved the pockets of most of the underserved groups.
ACA will be successful when it receives the support of the stakeholders and is accepted by the community. Others would include contacting healthcare providers, insurers, and policymakers with evidence of improvement in health outcomes and costs in the form of evidence-based data. Community education has the potential to make the acceptance level higher by dispelling the myths of the real advantages of the law, such as access to health care and reduced financial barriers (Hill et al., 2021). In the community, the ACA has had mixed but generally positive effects-for example, the number of uninsured has dramatically decreased as Medicaid expansion and increases in enrollment in health exchanges have occurred. Community health institutions reported having access to more primary care services for patients due to the reduction in the number of emergencies from avoidable diseases. There are still challenges related to the persistence of disparities in access to such areas as rural or underserved populations.
To sum up, the ACA has benefited numerous Americans by increasing access, enhancing quality, and decreasing prices. Sustaining success requires sustained involvement of all stakeholders and interventions in communities.
References
Hill, E., Gurbutt, D., Makuloluwa, T., Gordon, M., Georgiou, R., Roddam, H., Seneviratne, S., Byrom, A., Pollard, K., Abhayasinghe, K., & Larsen, K. (2021). Collaborative healthcare education programmes for continuing professional education in low and middle-income countries: A best evidence medical education (BEME) systematic review. BEME Guide No. 65. Medical Teacher, 43(11), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159x.2021.1962832
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
Ross, T. K. (2023). Baker’s health care finance: Basic tools for nonfinancial managers (6th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.