ESSAY: Public Health /Healthcare

In March 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. Will this legislation help decrease or eliminate health disparities? Can it be more effective? Use the Kaiser Family Foundation’s “Focus on Health Reform: Summary of the New Health Reform Law,” assigned as reading for this module, for a reference.

Read the Kaiser Family Foundation’s “Focus on Health Reform: Summary of the New Health Reform Law.”
URL:
http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/8061.pdf

ANSWER

Commonly known as the Obamacare or Affordable Care Act (ACA), The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010 is considered as one the critical health care reforms implemented by President Barack Obama (Shaw et al., 2014). ACA is a landmark legislation in the U.S. healthcare systems meant to revive and expand healthcare affordability and coverage. For several years, the act has stimulated mixed feelings in the country, especially among the medical practitioners. In the past, the healthcare system has been marred by geographic, education, ethnic, religious, racial, sexual orientation, and economic disparities hence hindering some patients from accessing quality and affordable care (Buchmueller, Levinson, Levy & Wolfe, 2016). Kaiser Family Foundation provides a comprehensive analysis of the act and creates …

The legislation helps eliminate health disparities by advocating for health equity and improving the health of all Americans. One of the significant purposes of ACA was to eliminate disparities and promote equal healthcare. The legislation has played an integral part in health promotion by bridging the healthcare access gap. Person aged 26 years and below are covered under their parents (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2013). In addition, pre-existing conditions do not hinder children from access to quality care hence eliminating discrimination in service delivery. Among states that have complied with the expansion of Medicaid, ACA regulations allow individuals with poor financial abilities to enroll in the program with little or no cost. Insurance companies are also banned from raising premiums as they wish. The Act has also regulate healthcare costs to …

ACA gives hope of reduced disparities in healthcare through the promotion of equity and excellent quality medical services. However, several years after the implementation of the law, there are still gaps in medical care outcomes, quality, and access, which calls for improvement. Therefore, ACA can be made more effective by creating proper evaluation techniques to ensure the applied remedies to health disparities…