Health Care Policy Brief on Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Document Type:Coursework

Subject Area:Health Care

Document 1

Following implementation of these reforms, the of number people with health insurance cover has significantly increased through individual market insurance where people buy their own subsidized health care plans, employment insurance, and expanded Medicaid program. The Affordable Care Act has 10 basic sets of medical services, and in terms of coverage, the insurance exchange and financial subsidies programs of the system are available in all American states, unlike the Medicaid expansion. Moreover, doctors are paid is based on the outcome of patients and quality of services offered, and the same case applies to hospitals quality care offered to patients. The “Obamacare” program has been quite controversial with people protesting against the individual mandate in the act while others argue it is quite expensive and unsustainable.

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This division affects political parties with Republicans criticizing the system the House of Representatives attempting over 50 times to repeal the “Obamacare” without success. Approaches and Results The study has been done through a literature review of information on quantitative and qualitative data collected by various institutions such as Kaiser Family Foundation, Rand Corporation, and Congressional Budget Office. Through analysis and interpretation of the data, the information on the study theme on is availed. The findings from the reviewed literature show that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) covers 10 basic sets of medical services which include trips to the hospital, catastrophes, and prescription drugs as well as mental health care among others. According to the insurance system, there is no limit to one’s annual medical care bill while there are no customer’s pre-existing conditions of health status (Sara, 2011).

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The Affordable Care Act (PPACA) had two broad objectives, to increase the number of people accessing health insurance coverage and to reform the federal government payment system of the physicians. The other aspect of Affordable Care Act is to tie doctors' payments to the outcome of patients such that doctors doing their work better would be motivated by higher payments. Through Accountable Care Organizations, doctors team up in large groups and take lump sum payment in return for services offered to patients. If they offer quality services at lower rates than the lump sum, the difference becomes profit. Again a value-based purchasing program also ties payment to hospitals on whether patients are becoming healthier and all these avoids medical spending on incompetent workforce and unnecessary health care.

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Despite, complaints that “Obamacare” is quite costly and unsustainable, the opposite is the case as recent reports revealed the insurance expansion programs cost cheaper than initial estimates. ” Thus, it would be prudent to audit the entire system and establish the contentious components and either remove or improve them. The audit should include the nine focus areas of the “Obamacare” such as quality, affordable health care for all, Prevention of chronic disease, improving access to innovative medical therapies, Community living assistance services and supports among others. Some components of the insurance cover and especially which avail medical services to the poor are good and deserve to be continued. However, when convening feedback sessions with healthcare consumers to capture their perceptions of the system, it is important to seek the views on possible remedies.

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