Discuss the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on vulnerable populations
The most notable of this population would be the disabled, mentally ill, and impoverished. In order to continue to provide quality outcomes for patients, especially patients of vulnerable populations, extra focus must be given to ensure access to healthcare, decreasing disparities, and harvesting improvement in areas such as preventative care, education, and maximizing quality of life (Goodrich & Conway, 2017). The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 reflects the dominance of health care over public health. As its name suggests, the statute’s primary goal is to improve access to health care services through insurance system reforms. In contrast, politicians neglected the goal of improving the population’s health in this monumental overhaul of our health system.
Although the ACA does little to mandate health system integration, various opportunities exist within the Act’s implementation for decision makers to improve coordination between health care and public health. Without this revision, the AHCA is highly likely to significantly reduce the number of Americans who can afford health insurance, with a particularly negative effect on people whose incomes are too low, or whose health status is too poor, because the tax credit won’t go far enough to help those individuals (Goodrich & Conway, 2013). With this influx of people entering the healthcare field, the role of nurses and nurse leaders is also expected to change. Nursing scope of practice and education will be expanded to create an elite healthcare provider.
References
Dinardi, M. (2017). Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansions and the Impact on Nurses. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3083464
Goodrich, K., & Conway, P. H. (2017). Affordable care act implementation: Implications for hospital medicine. Journal of Hospital Medicine, 8(3), 159–161. doi: 10.1002/jhm.2015