Healthcare Reforms

The Healthcare Industry is dynamic, and reforms are constantly underway. The healthcare system reforms are under constant discussion across the globe to ensure the reforms are on the right path. Reforms can be defined as purposeful and sustained changes involving the who, how, and what of the healthcare system’s actions (Auener et al., 2020). Healthcare reforms can further be classified into global and partial reforms. The global reforms are aimed at reshaping the healthcare system as a whole. Often, global reforms are developed and implemented when several changes have taken place in society, including political, demographic, social, ideological, cultural, technological, and economic changes.

On the other hand, partial reforms are made to change one aspect of the healthcare system to sort out a specific issue. Partial reforms in the majority of the healthcare system elements can result in a global reform. There has been a serious debate over the efficiency of radical and swift reforms compared to the incremental approach. The implementation of reforms is influenced by factors such as political will, the government structure, the degree of stakeholder support, and the economic status (Sparkes et al., 2019). Essentially, radical reforms may not be sustainable technically and politically. However, the incremental approach can result in sustainable policies even in unstable economic and political environments.

In the United States of America, there have been constant discussions regarding healthcare reforms, including healthcare service accessibility, quality, justice, sustainability, affordability, and healthcare funds expenditure. The mixed public and private healthcare systems are the most expensive in the US (Brown, 2019). To overcome the challenges of healthcare affordability, the government has had major discussions of certain reforms to reduce the cost of healthcare services. Among the policies still under discussion is the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was enacted to reform the public and private health insurance systems.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA)

The ACA is the US national reform aimed at making healthcare services affordable to all US citizens regardless of an individual’s economic status. The law was first enacted in 2010, and since then, approximately 20 million US citizens have been insured (Courtemanche et al., 2018). The policy’s main goals were to decrease healthcare costs while increasing benefits, fund and promote health prevention, improve the healthcare workforce, and ensure quality healthcare in the healthcare systems (Mclntyre et al., 2019). However, the policy has received rebellion from particular government stakeholders. Besides, there was a mandate in 2019 to increase the healthcare insurance premium, which would have led to the majority of the US population being uninsured. Fortunately, the current government is expected to support the ACA through the expansion of Medicaid eligibility to also include low-income citizens. Besides, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Medicaid eligibility was further expanded, and a waiver was introduced to help reduce COVID-19-associated deaths (Auener et al., 2020). Given the benefits the law gives US citizens, the law should be maintained, and the reforms should only be made to sustain the law rather than scraping it off.

To begin with, the healthcare system of the United States has long been facing various challenges. These challenges include healthcare inequities, poor healthcare outcomes of the US population, a majority of uninsured citizens, and inadequate healthcare prevention systems. By introducing the ACA, the US healthcare system was observed to have improved, with millions of citizens being insured. The other advantages of the ACA include the decreased cost of healthcare, reduction of healthcare resource expenditure, promotion of health prevention, and reduction of the previously existing health inequities (APHA, 2022). For this reason, the government should aim at maintaining and improving the ACA for a better healthcare system.

References

APHA. (2022). Why Do We Need the Affordable Care Act? Apha.org. Retrieved 21 March 2022, from https://www.apha.org/~/media/files/pdf/topics/aca/why_need_aca

Auener, S., Kroon, D., Wackers, E., Van Dulmen, S., & Jeurissen, P. (2020). COVID-19: a window of opportunity for positive healthcare reforms. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 9(10), 419. https://dx.doi.org/10.34172%2Fijhpm.2020.66

Courtemanche, C., Marton, J., Ukert, B., Yelowitz, A., & Zapata, D. (2018). Effects of the Affordable Care Act on health care access and self-assessed health after 3 years. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, 55, 0046958018796361. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0046958018796361

McIntyre, A., & Song, Z. (2019). The US Affordable Care Act: Reflections and directions at the close of a decade. PLoS medicine, 16(2), e1002752. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002752

Sparkes, S. P., Bump, J. B., Özçelik, E. A., Kutzin, J., & Reich, M. R. (2019). Political economy analysis for health financing reform. Health Systems & Reform, 5(3), 183-194. https://doi.org/10.1080/23288604.2019.1633874

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imary Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions with your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

Healthcare Reforms

For this Discussion Board, please complete the following:

Healthcare reform is a constantly discussed topic in the U.S. healthcare system. Various influences, including political, societal, and real-time events (think COVID-19), all help to shape the discussion surrounding reform as it relates to the U.S. healthcare system. This link contains a tracker of all current pending or introduced reform legislation.

Among the biggest talking points relating to the healthcare reform discussion over the past decade has been the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and whether it should remain as it is, be improved upon, or be dismantled and a new system put in its place. Review the most current attempt at modifications to the ACA in this link.

Do you feel that the ACA should be left alone as it is, be kept in place and improved upon, or be removed completely and a new set of legislation put in its place?
Discuss your reasoning for your conclusion and why or how it can be accomplished.
Responses to Other Students: Respond to at least 2 of your fellow classmates with at least a 100-200 word reply about his or her Primary Task Response regarding items you found to be compelling and enlightening. To help you with your discussion, please consider the following questions:

What did you learn from your classmate’s posting? What additional questions do you have after reading the posting?
What clarification do you need regarding the posting?
What differences or similarities do you see between your posting and other classmates’ postings?