The Affordable Care Act (ACA) Health Policy
For this assignment, you will expand the research that you conducted for your healthcare policy analysis in Week 4’s Case Assignment. You will focus on your selected social determinant of health along with the historical perspective of the selected healthcare policy on selected targeted population. Also, please explain the short, intermediate, and long-term population health outcomes that have resulted from the policy being implemented. Please organize your submission to respond to the following:
1. Introduction- Summarizing findings from Case Assignment.
2. Explore and discuss the various policy statements associated with policy?
3. Explain the selected social determinant of health and the expected short, intermediate, and long-term population health outcomes?
4. Describe the experiences of your selected targeted population when accessing healthcare services before and after the implementation of the policy and the economic feasibility of the policy?
5. Explain how to advocate for your selected healthcare policy.
1. Provide a description of policy advocacy.
2. Describe your advocacy strategies and how it aligns with the anticipated outcomes to improve your population’s health.
6. Explore and describes the potential implications of Affordable Care Act with the selected policy?
1. Provide a description of the Affordable Care Act and note the alignment to your selected healthcare policy or not.
2. Does the Affordable Care Act provide additional support to improve the social determinants of health for your targeted population?
3. Please share the current economic challenges that the Affordable Care Act impose on your targeted population?
7. Explain the value-added considerations of administering your healthcare policy?
8. Explain the economic barriers or opportunities associated with implementation of the selected healthcare policy that impacts your targeted population.
9. Provide a conclusion that summarizes your stance on your selected policy.
Writing Guidelines
Essay must be double-spaced with 1-inch margins and typed in 12-point Times New Roman.
Your paper should have a title page and references page (not included in the 8-10 page total count).
Essays should be proofread for spelling and grammar mistakes.
You must cite all texts used, including page numbers to avoid plagiarism.
Make sure your paper has an introduction (with purpose statement), main points in the body of the paper, and an overall conclusion section.
Build support in your paper with background material including library sources that use the terms we discussed throughout the course/program (Use atleast 4 sources)
The Affordable Care Act
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The Affordable Care Act
Introduction
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a comprehensive public healthcare policy that addresses health-related issues, such as affordable and quality care, fraud, and public health and programs, by providing health insurance to Americans. Implementing the Act will ultimately permit people in the U.S. to obtain medical coverage from sponsored Medicaid programs and private insurance. The ACA significantly benefits individuals with unstable healthcare and health insurance, including those from varying religions, demographics, ethnicity, race, sex, and demographics. This paper discusses the ACA health policy and the related concepts, including the associated health outcomes, the poverty social determinant of health among the uninsured population, and the economic barriers and opportunities linked to the health policy.
Social determinants of health include varying factors in a social environment that influence people’s health or access to health care. These factors include labor market structure, poverty rate, income inequality, ethnicity or racial issues, education opportunities, social-economic deprivation, transportation infrastructure, and affordable housing (Singh et al., 2018). As a result, the ACA targeted uninsured individuals affected by varying social health determinants, such as poor individuals without access to care or with affordability issues to health insurance, low- and middle-income workers, and people with disabilities or preexisting conditions, to enhance their enrolment in the Medicaid program, prevent discriminations based on aspects like race or gender, and foster equal health coverage. The ACA advocates for comparable policies at similar rates to all people by urging insurance companies to avoid variations or exclusions of specific populations, improving good access to healthcare for everyone. Furthermore, the policy urges the government to continue addressing the affordability issues for healthcare coverage to ensure everyone accesses healthcare services regardless of race, gender, income, or religion.
Policy Statements associated with ACA
The ACA has various policy statements (intentions and plans) to expand overall health insurance coverage and target different groups. The individual mandate policy statement necessitates people without employer-sponsored insurance to purchase their insurance coverage or pay a fine but also provides some premium tax credits (French et al., 2016). Conversely, the dependent coverage provision targets young adults below 26 years and allows them to depend on or use their parents’ health insurance plans. On the other hand, the employer mandate requires larger employers to provide comprehensive and affordable health insurance coverage to full-time workers. The various policy statements increase the availability and accessibility of health insurance coverage, improving health outcomes for the beneficiaries.
Social Determinants of Health and the Expected Outcomes
Poverty, a social determinant of health, hinders the uninsured population, particularly the unemployed, people living with preexisting conditions, and low-income individuals, from accessing quality healthcare services. Nevertheless, 31 million individuals benefitted under the ACA policy, dropping the uninsured rate to 8.8% in 2016 (American College of Physicians, n.d.). Furthermore, there are expectations that the previously uninsured population would have better financial health and access to healthcare, expanding health insurance coverage and improving their health outcomes in the short and long term. The ACA established exchanges where low-income people benefit from higher subsidies if their incomes are below 100% to 400% of the federal poverty level (American College of Physicians, n.d.). Furthermore, the various provisions of the ACA, like banning high premiums for preexisting conditions, increase the number of people opting in for health insurance coverage (French et al., 2016). Consequently, the intermediate population health outcome is better due to the higher use of primary and other health services.
Experiences and Economic Feasibility
Initially, the uninsured population hardly accessed healthcare services before the ACA implementation, but the “Medicare for all” provision increased the access rate to varying health services (Ahle, 2019). The uninsured, like low-income people, initially failed to get primary health services and healthcare like medications due to high costs. However, the policy enabled their access, enhancing their health outcomes. The ACA is economically feasible since it is a top priority for Congress to reduce healthcare costs by appropriating healthcare spending besides enhancing the economy (Ahle, 2019). As a result, many uninsured individuals can now afford and access varying healthcare services.
Advocacy for the ACA
Policy advocacy aims to promote a specific interest or action among the public or other targeted audiences. Various strategies are suitable for advocating the Affordable Care Act policy. Campaigns, such as political and social media campaigns, can provide public education to mobilize people toward enrolling in affordable health insurance coverage (Ahle, 2019). Furthermore, news or mass media, including blogs, articles, and magazines, can influence uninsured populations towards joining affordable health insurance plans by highlighting the different ACA provisions, like the individual mandate. Political engagement also enhances health policy advocacy since laws and regulations inform the public about the needed actions regarding healthcare availability and access (Ahle, 2019). Furthermore, health workers can advocate for health policies through medical organizations, websites, and societies and seek members’ support and participation in implementing the policies.
The ACA policy advocacies align with the expected outcomes of improving the uninsured populations’ health because of the gained health insurance coverage. The population will also attain better financial health, afford health services, and access primary health services, preventive care, management, and treatment plans for varying conditions (Ercia, 2021). There...