The Impact of the ACA and Obamacare on U.S. Citizens' Healthcare Knowledge - Essay Sample

Introduction

In the U.S., every administration has implemented various approaches that are aimed at reforming the country's healthcare system to ensure the needs of all citizens are fulfilled. During Obama's Administration, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was established in 2010. According to Milstead & Short (2017), seven years following the implementation of ACA, over one-third of U.S. citizens were not able to identify that ACA and Obamacare were similar programs. Subsequently, there has been a problem of underinsured and uninsured individuals within the healthcare system even after the establishment of ACA.

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The healthcare system in the U.S. is facing numerous changes that pose new challenges to the delivery of services. Following the enactment of ACA, politicians and policymakers have been making key decisions aimed at healthcare reforms. This poses a challenge to healthcare organizations that are required to strengthen their compliance and advocacy efforts to follow the new reforms. Therefore, this leads to challenges within the healthcare system requiring enhanced focus to comprehend potential policies that will affect projections. Thus, there is a need for healthcare organizations to comprehend the fixed measures by state and federal government in enhancing the healthcare system.

The widening economic inequality in the U.S. is accompanied by increased disparities in health outcomes. The research highlights that care providers, are aware of the inherent problems in offering care needs to underinsured and uninsured individuals. According to Milstead & Short (2017), the disparities experienced in the care are observed mostly on their impact on low-socioeconomic groups and vulnerable population, especially the elderly and children. Also, the problems affect groups of people with certain health concerns such as individuals with diabetes and smokers, which present enormous challenges. I agree with the research on the problem of uninsured and underinsured individuals in the healthcare system. Majority of these individuals earn a low income, which makes them not able to afford the high cost of insurance. Hence, this makes them ineligible for financial assistance for coverage under the ACA.

Another factor that contributes to problems within healthcare systems is the individual mandate that was implemented under ACA. Under the mandate, U.S. residents are required to buying their health insurance failure to which an individual will face a penalty if they are not covered by the employer or a government program such as Medicare or Medicaid. Majority of individuals in the U.S. lack sufficient income, and they do not have employer health insurance. The removal of the individual mandate that was implemented to end in 2019 will result in millions of people been unqualified to stop purchasing their coverage, as they do not have health insurance.

The gaps identified in the research for the root cause of the health care industry problems address the expansion of the historical boundaries in nursing that need behaviors such as diplomacy, assertiveness, expert communication, and leadership. However, other moments, physicians or nurses can be threatened by these behaviors, which takes away their persistence and certainty of purpose in the process followed in the delivery of healthcare services. The regulations that are in place that worsens the problem is the policy requiring nurses to be involved in each aspect of the process. Thus, they are required to be aware of all the issues and components that need to be addressed in every phase.

To reduce the number of uninsured and underinsured individuals, an increase in the labor market that has expanded employed-based coverage to the majority of the population that could have remained uncovered. However, the prevailing economic trends are projected to change from boom to recession, and due to lack of policy interventions, it will result from increases in the uninsured rate. A rising number of uninsured and underinsured individuals will result from increasing in coverage cost and coverage to people with health insurance (Milstead & Short, 2017). A policy that is not in place and might be effective in improving the problem is through support for safety net of the population from all federal policies and programs to the population that is being served to ensure there is effectiveness in meeting the needs of uninsured individuals.

Among the major industrialized countries around the world, the U.S. is the only one without universal health insurance. My position is that underinsured and uninsured individuals are not the root cause of the problems within the U.S. system. In my opinion, the root cause of the problem in the U.S. healthcare system is the lack of universal health care coverage. According to Davis (2007), expansion of the coverage around the country is going to disproportionately assist low-income individuals that represent two-thirds of the uninsured individuals. This is going to raise equity in accessing healthcare and outcomes among U.S. residents. The prevailing U.S. market-based system results in a health coverage gap that contributes to the underutilization of the effective services. It is common for uninsured or underinsured individuals to go without critical, required healthcare needs due to high cost. In most cases, these individuals are mostly charged the entire healthcare cost as they are not able to receive discounts provided under managed care plans. This ensures an increase in barriers to receiving healthcare and more burden to already suffering individuals.

The policies I would create to addressing the problems within the U.S. health care system will involve the stakeholders in the healthcare sector to put in place measures that will expand health insurance coverage. Currently, the U.S. federal budget is a deficit, and funding the universal coverage is going to raise taxes. Therefore, a countrywide health care reform cannot be sustained unless the government makes health care coverage a top priority rather than tax cuts and various spending priorities. Expanded health cover can also be funded through reinvestment of savings that will be achieved through increased efficiency in health care centers.

Conclusion

Subsequently, a mixed strategy can be followed to cover diverse groups of underinsured and uninsured individuals. This can be achieved through expansion to the underlying state and federal programs to offer coverage to low-income individuals, which will create an insurance pool. Such a pool will have a significant impact on self-employed people and small business by offering subsidized premiums that will cover law wage employees. Also, legislation can be put in place to offer cover for employees and ensure contribution to finance coverage for the working-class people. Hence, this promotes the need to recognize the impact of federal financing and effective leadership in the implementation of healthcare efforts aimed to benefit the entire population. This shows the importance of have state and federal innovative programs that assist in providing cover for the uninsured and underinsured individuals in the U.S.

References

Davis, K. (2007). Uninsured in America: problems and possible solutions. Bmj, 334(7589), 346-348.

Milstead, J. A., & Short, N. M. (2017). Health policy and politics: A nurse's guide. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.