The Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act

Since its implementation, the US Affordable Care Act (ACA), also called the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA) or the Obama-care has contributed to the improvement of the health care sector in America tremendously (McIntyre, 2019). The healthcare reform was aimed to improve accessibility, affordability and quality of healthcare services to all Americans regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or socio-economic status. Through its policies of subsidizing health insurance premiums and expanding Medicaid and Medicare eligibility, the reform has achieved a decline in the rate of uninsured persons up to 43% of the US population (Twersky-Kengmana, 2015). According to McIntyre (2019), the policy has achieved one of its set goals of improving the rate of access to medical services to non-older adults ranging from 19-64 years of age. Additionally, the affordable care act has registered a decrease in the number of reported cases concerning poor health (Sorrell, 2012). Conversely, the program has and is still transforming the healthcare system through continued debt reduction by advancing payments to accountable care organizations through Medicare..

Sorrell (2012) argues that despite the drastic attempts to improve access and affordability of healthcare services equitably, the Affordable Care Act is faced by a myriad of ethical dilemmas as well. The reform presents psychiatrists with ethical issues on the innovations formulated to improve quality and reduce costs while paying them on value rather than volume (Twersky-Kengmana, 2015). The goal of the ACA is to incentivize doctors to treat more patients at reduced costs, which makes it unrealistic. The fact of insuring patients does not necessarily guarantee quality care (Sorrell, 2012). Health insurance may also result in professional, ethical issues in cases where more patients are assigned to a limited number of specialists. McIntyre (2019) also notes that the reform has resulted in health injustices where the legislature is struggling up to date to ensure healthcare is not availed to some individuals at the expense of others.

Salmond & Echevarria (2017) argue that community health nurses (CNHs) must contemplate the value of acting as change agents in the Affordable Care Act reform. Implementation of ACA resulted in increased job opportunities for nurses alongside increased workload. To ensure the realization of goals of ACA, nurses should capitalize on these goals (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017), develop more expertise skills in nursing and model empowering behaviour to the community.

References

McIntyre A, Song Z (2019) The US Affordable Care Act: Reflections and directions at the close of a decade. PLoS Med 16(2): e1002752. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002752

Salmond, S. W., & Echevarria, M. (2017). Healthcare transformation and changing roles for nursing. Orthopedic nursing, 36(1), 12.

Sorrell, J., (November 9, 2012) “Ethics: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Ethical Perspectives in 21st Century Health Care” OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 18 No. 1.

Twersky-Kengmana, R. (2015). An Ethical Perspective on the Affordable Care Act. Psych Central. Retrieved on April 15, 2020, from https://pro.psychcentral.com/an-ethical-perspective-on-the-affordable-care-act/