Essay on Vulnerable Populations & Healthcare: Uninsured & Underserved

Vulnerable populations in health care refer to patients that are ethnic or racial minorities, the elderly, children, or individuals that are socioeconomically disadvantaged. Vulnerable populations in healthcare also include patients that not insured or underinsured or patients with certain medical conditions (Claxton et al., 2016). Patients in vulnerable populations usually have health conditions that are complex and are characterized by unnecessary, inadequate healthcare.

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Uninsured means that there is increasing health insurance that does not adequately cover healthcare expenditures and individuals are therefore forced to assume more of their healthcare costs. Therefore, the uninsured means people who do not have insurance cover meaning that when they fall sick and visit a hospital, they are forced to cover for their own medical costs. People who do not have health cover insurance are burdened with the responsibility of paying high medical bills when they fall sick while a majority of them die due to a lack of quality health services.

Uninsured patients die due to poor management of chronic conditions such as cancers as well as due to untried lifesaving medical procedures. Being uninsured usually has serious financial and health consequences for patients as well as to their close friends and relatives. For instance, research indicates that the uninsured population lives sicker lives than those with a health insurance cover. Besides, the uninsured populations die younger as compared to those with insurance. Society bears the risk of the uninsured population by helping them pay medical bills (Claxton et al., 2016). Besides, uninsured people lead to low productivity in the economy, as well as increased rates of communicable diseases.

Adults who lack medical insurance covers have poor access to healthcare Research indicates that approximately 26000 Americans die on an annual rate due to lack of a health insurance cover. Failure to have medical insurance makes patients to lack peace of mind and is worried any time they suffer from a health condition.

The patient protection and Affordable Act (PPACA) is also known as Obamacare, and it advocates for protection and rights for patients. PPACA has greatly improved the quality of care by eliminating many bad practices of the health insurance industry. For instance, the Act protects patients from excess charges by hospitals as well as provides harmonization on health insurance premiums. PPACA has enhanced quality healthcare in the United States by lowering the expenditure of the federal state on health.

For instance, in the year 2009, the expenditure of Medicaid and Medicare in the United States was a total of 676 billion US dollars, which translated to approximately 10 percent of the total country's budget (Pollitz et al., 2014). Statistics indicate that Obamacare has helped to eliminate the huge spending on Medicaid and Medicare. For instance, if Obamacare was not implemented, the total costs of Medicaid and Medicare would double the ones recorded in 2009 and would translate to approximately 20 percent of the US budget by the year 2020 (Pollitz, 2014).

Therefore, repealing PPACA would leave over 59 million people uninsured in the United States (Pollitz et al., 2014). Repealing Obamacare would lead to many negative effects on the American population in various ways. For instance, If Obamacare was to be repealed, most people would lack ambulatory patient services for outpatient services as well as lack access to emergency services. Besides, the repealing of APPACA would mean that the majority of American citizens who live in poverty lack hospitalization services, prescription of drugs, as well as lack access to mental health and substance use disorder services.

In addition, repealing the Act would mean that the majority of the American citizens are denied behavioral health treatment services. Over 16 million Americans have been in a position to obtain medical insurance as a result of Obamacare (Pollitz et al., 2014). Therefore, repealing the Act would mean that these people cannot access quality medical care, thus lead to a more sick and unproductive nation. Besides, repealing the Act would make health care less affordable. For instance, the Act requires insurance companies to spend over 80 percent of their premiums on Medicare improvement. Besides, insurance companies are restricted from making unreasonable increment rates on the premiums and therefore focus on care for their clients. Repealing the Act would lead to a return of the old practices by insurance companies where they would unreasonably increase insurance premiums to their client, thus making access to quality health care expenses.

In addition, Obamacare ensures that more screening is done to patients, therefore, repealing the Act would mean that fewer screenings would be done to patients and would only be left to individuals with a lot of money who can afford to pay for the expensive insurance premiums (Brown et al., 2010). PPACA has led to a decrease in the cost of drugs. Changing the Act would, therefore mean that the prices of drugs would increase, thus making it hard for people to afford. The PPACA Act has helped to reduce the number of uninsured people in America since the Act provides for penalties from individuals who refuse to get the insurance.

References

Claxton, G., Rae, M., Long, M., Damico, A., Foster, G., & Whitmore, H. (2016). Kaiser Family Foundation. Health Research & Educational Trust. Retrieved from https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Kaiser+Family+Foundation+on+Health+Insurance&btnG=

Brown, E. R., Ojeda, V. D., Wyn, R., & Levan, R. (2010). Racial and ethnic disparities in access to health insurance and health care. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4sf0p1st

Pollitz, K., Tolbert, J., & Ma, R. (2014). Survey of health insurance marketplace assister programs. Washington, DC: The Kaiser Family Foundation. http://kff. org/health-reform/report/survey-of-health insurance-marketplace-assister-programs. Retrieved from http://www.statecoverage.org/files/KFF_Survey-of-marketplace-assisters1.pdf