Healthcare Policy: Benefiting the Community and Those in Need
Module 4 - Case
HEALTHCARE POLICY: BENEFITING THE COMMUNITY AND THOSE IN NEED
Assignment Overview
Health care organizations can be catalysts for change within their communities and can have significant impact on the overall well-being of the people and communities that they serve. This assignment will examine how organizational health care policy contributes to this.
Case Assignment
After reviewing the background materials in this module as well as in previous modules, discuss how organizational health policies, based in federal health care financing policies such as Medicaid, Medicare, and the ACA, can impact the social determinants of health and address health disparities. Be sure to reference specific aspects of these federal policies.
(Hint: the determinants of health were covered in the background readings in Module 1)
Assignment Expectations
Conduct additional research to gather sufficient information to justify/support your analysis.
Limit your response to a maximum of 4 pages (title and reference page is not included in page number count).
Support your paper with peer-reviewed articles, with at least 4 references. Use the following link for additional information on how to recognize peer-reviewed journals:
Healthcare Policy: Benefiting the Community and Those in Need
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Healthcare Policy: Benefiting the Community and Those in Need
Over the years, there has been an increase in the risk of people falling sick. This reason has increased the risk of people seeking healthcare services. This has caused healthcare organizations to be change catalysts in society by improving the people's and community's well-being. For instance, healthcare financing policies such as Medicare, Medicaid, and ACA have affected health social determinants while helping to solve some health disparities. However, despite this huge impact, some people have not yet understood it, thereby causing a need for research on the impact of these policies.
One of the social impacts of healthcare policies is that it has positively impacted individuals’ financial security. For example, research showed that Medicaid helped improve the individual's financial security (Himmelstein, 2019). For example, expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act helped minimize unpaid medical bills since it collected approximately $3.4 billion within its first two years. This move helped to prevent new delinquencies while boosting credit scores. The other indirect benefit of Medicaid is that it helps to reduce out-of-pocket expenditures. This process was highlighted as one way it helped reduce food insecurity and poverty rates in varying states.
On the other hand, Medicare helped to improve the community economy. For example, it had income-related Medicare premiums. For example, President Obama and the House of Republicans have all proposed paying these premiums according to the individuals' income. This program allows wealthy people to pay additional premiums (Neuman & Jacobson, 2018). The following move highlighted that it could help to save more than $10 billion within a decade. The main reason for this move was that the limited income premiums only raised limited revenue. This move will help improve economic welfare since it would take more money from the rich and use it to help the poor.
On the other hand, ACA has also helped to manage the cost that individuals are incurring. For example, had requested health information technology investments. Therefore, This policy addressed various guidelines that could help create payment mechanisms while reducing medical errors. This move will therefore boost the results and efficiency since it would help to boost care coordination among the healthcare providers. Furthermore, this law sought to oversee insurance premiums and other practices that could help minimize uncompensated care and healthcare fraud. This move will boost comparison shopping in insurance exchanges, boosting competition and price transparency.
The health care policies have also helped improve individuals' health and welfare. For example, the ACA established the Prevention and Public Health Fund (Maani & Galea, 2020). This fund aimed to offer grants to the states for varying prevention activities. Some of these activities included immunizations and disease screenings. It also offers Health Promotion, National Prevention, and Public Health Council, which deals with physical inactivity, tobacco use, cancer, and poor nutrition. The ACA also required insurance plans to cover some preventative care. The common care included children's preventative care, immunizations, and screening for some adults for conditions such as diabetes, cancer, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. This move thereby helped to improve society's health even further.
On the other hand, Medicare boosted the beneficiary service quality. For example, in 2001, there was a study conducted by the Go...