Article on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA)
The efforts to improve health care begun by Obamacare or the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) were signed into law in early 2010. The purpose of PPACA was to ensure all Americans could access quality and affordable health care while reducing rising health care costs.
For this assignment, imagine you are writing an article for an online journal for health care workers. The point of your article is to explain to medical students the effects PPACA has had on the health care system in the United States.
For this assignment:
Define managed care.
Explain federal assistance programs, and give two examples.
Discuss five major aims of PPACA.
Discus the impact of the PPACA on the overall health care costs the United States.
Explain how the PPACA has influenced the practice of defensive medicine within U.S. health care programs.
Discuss four ways PPACA protects you and your family.
Differentiate between national health coverage and universal health coverage. Which do you feel is better suited for Americans?
Sample Solution
Managed care is a health care delivery system that seeks to improve the quality of services and contain health care costs. It often involves a network of providers, including hospitals, doctors and other medical specialists that are contracted with insurance companies or managed care organizations (MCOs) to provide services at an agreed-upon price (Robinson et al., 2019). Managed care programs generally require members to use their network of providers in order for them to be covered by the plan.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also referred to as Obamacare, was passed in 2010 by President Obama with the intention of making health insurance more accessible for Americans. To achieve this goal, several federal assistance programs were implemented such as Medicaid expansion which provides coverage to low-income individuals; Medicare Advantage which allows seniors and people with disabilities access private plans subsidized by the government; Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) covering uninsured children whose families cannot afford employer-provided plans; and subsidies made available through marketplaces established in each state so individuals can purchase affordable health plans (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS], 2018).
The five main aims of PPACA include increasing access to insurance coverage, improving quality of patient outcomes while containing cost growth, modernizing information technology systems within healthcare organizations, emphasizing prevention efforts such as wellness programs and expanding public health initiatives. Additionally, PPACA sought to increase competition among insurers while setting limits on what they could charge policyholders based on age or preexisting conditions.
Overall impact on United States’ healthcare costs has been twofold: firstly it has increased due largely increased demand from newly insured individuals accessing services previously unavailable because of high costs. Secondly however this effect has been partially offset by savings from lower administrative expenses related hospital readmissions penalties paid out by MCOs due regulations put forth under PPACA which incentivize better coordination between primary care physicians and specialist when treating chronic diseases like diabetes or asthma(Baker et al., 2016).
