NUR512-Reply to this discussion – Edwine

What components of the ACA do you think will have a positive effect on improving health care outcomes and decreasing costs?

Health care reform in the United States is an important issue, but since the 1930s, presidents who have attempted to reform the system have faced significant political obstacles.

Promoting health requires more than a high-performing health care system. First and foremost, health is created where people live, work, and play. Geographic analyses of race and ethnicity, income, and health status repeatedly show that financial, racial, and ethnic disparities persist (Braveman et al.,2010). Individual health and family health are severely compromised in communities where good education, nutritious foods, safe places to exercise, and well-playing jobs are scarce (Halpin, Morales-Suarez-Varela & Martin Moreno,2010).

In 2008, Don Berwick, MD, and his colleagues at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) first described the Triple Aim of a value-based health care system, improving population health and the patient experience of care, and reducing per capita costs. This framework aligns with the aims of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Berwick, Nolan, & Whittington, 2008).

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed in March 2010, designed to address affordability, accessibility, and financing of health care, with focused efforts on meeting vulnerable populations’ needs. The ACA will require substantial changes in public insurance programs, private health insurance market regulations, and other components of the health care system. The ACA will transform the U. S. health care system by expanding health care access and coverage, reforming payments systems, and increasing the quality and coordination of care (McDonough, 2011).

From those components of the ACA, which one will positively affect improving health care outcomes and decreasing costs?

The ACA includes a variety of provisions to improve the performance of the health care system and the health status of the population through care coordinated and prevention through 

• No Copays for Preventive Services: requires most health plans to cover recommended preventive services without copays or cost-sharing.
• Federal Coordinated Health Care: to integrate care and improve coordination for “dual eligibility” by Medicare and Medicaid.  
• Prevention and Public Health Investment Fund: to support community and public health initiatives that aim to prevent injury and disease and eliminates access barriers to community health centers and clinical practice.
• Home Visitation: expands and provides additional funding for evidence-based home visitation programs that foster health promotion and illness prevention.

The ACA provisions aim to increase access to care, change the culture of health care from one of cure to one of health promotion and illness prevention, mitigate barriers to practice for primary care providers of all disciplines, etc. From all its components, in my view, the components of Coordination of Care and Prevention is the one that one will have a positive effect on improving health care outcomes and decreasing costs among the nation.

Reference

Diana J. M.; Deborah B. G.; Freida H. O.; Eileen T. O’G. (2016) Policy & Politics in Nursing and Health Care (7th ed.). St Louis MO, Elsevier

Edelman C., Mandle C. L., Kudzma E. C., (2010) Health Promotion Throughout the Life Span (8th ed.). St Louis MO, Elsevier.