ACA and Health-Care Outcomes and Costs Essay
What components of the ACA do you think will have a positive effect on improving health care outcomes and decreasing costs?
Submission Instructions:
-Name of the class: Nursing & Health-Care-Policy
-Class textbook: Mason, D. J., Gardner, B. D., Outlaw, H. F., & O’Grady, T. E. (2016). Policy and Politics: In Nursing and Health Care. (7th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Saunders. ISBN: 978-0-323-24144-1
-Your initial post should be at least 500 words, formatted and cited in current APA style with support from at least 2 academic sources.
-Identify and demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the issues, problems, and concepts.
-Effectively uses the literature and other resources to inform their work. Exceptional use of citations and extended referencing. High level of APA precision and free of grammar and spelling errors.
ACA and Healthcare Outcomes & Costs
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Institutional Affiliate
ACA and Healthcare Outcomes & Costs
The signing into law of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010 by the former President of the United States, Barrack Obama, was a milestone towards realizing the country’s healthcare system’s objective of delivering quality patient care CITATION Mas16 \l 1033 (Mason, 2016). Among the characteristic features of quality patient care is delivering safe and affordable care services to patients or those in need of diverse medical attention. T6he delivery of safe and affordable care to patients leads to better or improved patient outcomes and lower healthcare costs, respectively. In essence, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) functions to reduce the rising costs of healthcare and improve patient outcomes through its diverse provisions or components. Herein are some of its components whose implementation proves vital to improving healthcare outcomes and decreasing healthcare costs in the United States.
The components of the individual mandate and Medicaid expansions characterizing the ACA played a significant role in improving patient outcomes across the United States’ healthcare system CITATION Cou18 \l 1033 (Courtemanche, 2018). The two components account for the widespread increase in health insurance coverage in the country. The provision for individual mandate encouraged individuals without health insurance to enroll in the expansive health coverage options provided by the ACA. The Medicaid expansions further led to increased coverage of individuals across the age divide while also cushioning young adults below the age of 26 years from seeking health insurance covers before being economically stable CITATION Cou18 \l 1033 (Courtemanche, 2018). The increased coverage of medical insurance led to increased access to care facilities across the social divide, leading to improved patient outcomes. Increased access to care facilities allows f...