Impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Overview
This article highlights issues concerning the implementation, effects, and unaddressed problems of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The article recognizes that ACA has caused favorable changes in improving access to health care but admits that still many problems are yet to be solved. This review argues that ACA’s impact has not adequately eliminated disparities on vulnerable populations such as homeless Medicaid beneficiaries, substance abuse victims, racial and ethnic minorities, young adults, women, and victims of HIV and AIDS. Disparities still remain due to some states failing to expand Medicaid and the lack of public awareness about the coverage of ACA and eligibility for the coverage subsidies (Atkinson & Giovanis, 2015). The article further highlights issues pertaining smoking cessation and how insurers take advantage of the state-offered smoking cessation services to exploit tobacco users. Finally, the authors commend the positive impact ACA has had on health insurance coverage, especially for low-income individuals and families.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Suggestions for Improvements.
This article submits that whereas ACA has expanded health insurance coverage and enrollment, health insurance affordability issues still exist. The authors specifically point to the lack of meaningful cost containment as a language gap in the ACA. It is argued that there has been an increase in healthcare costs due to the costly technological improvements and the labor intensiveness of the healthcare industry. These factors coupled with the existing fee-for-service system have derailed the objectives of the accountable-care organizations (ACOs) on improving productivity. The article further cites that these gaps are due to lack of awareness on ACA’s provisions on health insurance coverage and subsidies and the failure of states to expand Medicaid programs citing the Supreme Court ruling that declared Medicaid expansions voluntary rather than mandatory as was thought by the designers of ACA (Atkinson & Giovanis, 2015, p. S630). The authors recommend changing the physician payment system so that primary and preventive care is given priority over specialty care. Lastly, the article emphasizes the need for creation of public awareness to address the education shortfalls.
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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: 5 Year Review
This article points to the effectiveness of ACA in expanding the availability of healthcare insurance. As noted, the Act has led to marked reductions of uninsured populations within a 5-year period, especially among minority population groups such as the Hispanic/Latino people and children under the age of 17. ACA has also led to increased use of preventive services, hence better population health outcomes and improved federal economic performance. These achievements have been greater in states that expanded their Medicaid programs compared to those that did not. The authors, however, note there has been an emphasis on numbers at the expense of quality of care. on the other hand, the article highlights the need for health professionals to eliminate female genital mutilation (FGM). Noting FGM as a harmful practice that violates women rights and causes both immediate and long-term health consequences, the article puts health professionals to task as caregivers in ensuring FGM is eliminated rather than acting as perpetrators (The Lancet, 2016).
A Comparison and Contrast in the Issues Raised by the Articles
All the three articles highlight the expansion in health insurance coverage, particularly among the vulnerable populations, as an achievement that ACA has so far had on health care. Also, all the three articles acknowledge that there still exist gaps that need to be addressed and points at the failure of some states to expand Medicaid partly as the reason for the existence of these gaps. Whereas all articles admit that Medicaid has decreased health care disparities, they all agree to the fact that quality of care is still a challenge. They also emphasize the need for public awareness initiatives on the details of ACA and its coverage benefits. The first article that reviews the impacts of ACA focuses on a broad range of issues, while the second one focuses on a single issue on changing the physician payment system as a cost containment intervention as well as the promotion of primary and preventive care. The third article, on the other hand, digresses slightly from the first two by generally praising the achievements of ACA and highlighting on FGM elimination.
References
Atkinson, G., & Giovanis, T. (2015). Impact of the patient protection and affordable care act: Overview. American Journal of Public Health , 105 (S5), S631-S632. doi:10.2105/ajph.2015.302933
Atkinson, J. G., & Giovanis, T. N. (2015). The patient protection and affordable care act: Suggestions for improvements. American Journal of Public Health , 105 (S5), S630-S630. doi:10.2105/ajph.2015.302932
The Lancet. (2016). The patient protection and affordable care act: 5 year review. The Lancet , 387 (10034), 2164. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(16)30659-6
