The access to healthcare is one of the valued rights in the American society. In recent times, the exemplification of this right has led to various changes in the social scene and legal scene that has led to significant changes. This paper reviews how recent changes in provision of healthcare has affected the law and vice versa.
Adequate healthcare, being one of the major challenges that the American people faced, became an issue of social concern before 2010. A large number of Americans lacked access to healthcare services due to their status of being under-insured or uninsured. Moreover, the quality of service provided even to qualifying Americans was wanting (Sommers, Gunja, Finegold, & Musco, 2015). As such, the social change sparked the need to improve access to healthcare, reduce health spending by both the patients and the government as well as improve services delivered. This formed the basis for the development of the Affordable Care Act (2010).
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The enactment of the legislation brought about both positive and negative social reactions. On the positives, increased coverage of medical services under the Medicare platform was noted, with coverage available for preventive benefits such as cancer screening, checking for lifestyle diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and improving general insurance coverage for the American population. However, social issues regarding access to healthcare services through the improvement of efficiency in care centers and hospitals, challenges in affordable care funding and limited evidence-based practice are some of the challenges facing the entire implementation of the program (Goodnough & Abelson, 2016).
In conclusion then, the need for improved healthcare led to the development of the law to enact the Affordable Care Act. Nonetheless, the enactment of the law brought about new social considerations that needed to be considered for the continuous smooth implementation of the law for the benefit of the people.
References
Goodnough, A., & Abelson, R. (2016). Health Care Law’s Beneficiaries Reflect Its Strengths, and Its Faults . Retrieved from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/15/us/health-care-insurance-exchange-obamacare.html?_r=0
Sommers, B. D., Gunja, M. Z., Finegold, K., & Musco, T. (2015). Changes in self-reported insurance coverage, access to care, and health under the Affordable Care Act. Jama, 314(4) , 366-374.
