HCA 250 Week 1 Assignment Psychology of Health in the Workplace Paper

Manage Discussion Entry

According to Martin (2015), “the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), commonly called Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010” (p. 407).

Part I
Examine three key elements of the act that you believe will be the most positive for the country (in your examination, you must include reasons behind your selection of these three elements).

Lower Costs:
An open marketplace was available for all citizens to choose a healthcare plan, if not under a current insurance policy. The cost assistance benefits families, individuals and businesses. The policy ensures special groups (or families) are able to choose best plan for their direct needs at a much cheaper rate.

More Accessible:
All applicants seeking medical coverage through ACA will not be denied, regardless of preexisting conditions or sex. Minimum standards were established to improve quality of care and reduce cost to patients. The delivery of healthcare with the ideology of quality versus quantity, which is enforced through competition, regulation and incentives (Martin, 2015).

Dependent Coverage:
Young adults can stay on their parents’ insurance policies, until the age of 26. The purpose behind a shift in healthcare coverage was intended to eliminate wasteful spending through preventative measures. These types of costs are generally found in emergency services, maternity and drug prescriptions (hospitals).

Examine three key elements of the act that you believe will be the most negative for the country (in your examination, you must include reasons behind your selection of these three elements).

Mandatory Coverage:
ACA allows consumers to have freedom of choice, related to the insurance policy being affordable to all citizens. Even though the ACA protects against from gender discrimination. There are some policies that could exceed higher in cost than others, based on the genders its more applied towards. The public needs to declare a healthcare coverage, if not a penalty income tax must be paid, yearly.

Business Impacted:
Any small business with over 50 full-time employees must either acquire a group insurance policy or pay a fine. Some of these businesses are trying to find any and every loophole by cutting back hours on employee hours and reducing number of employees being hired on. Big companies are part of the reason for high costs in healthcare; therefore, taxes are allocated to finance healthcare reform.

Shortage Issue:
One of my biggest fears about universal healthcare when the idea was first being tossed around in 2003, the shortage of top-quality physicians and clinicians. Is that gonna cause a shortage of doctors nationwide, just as there is a shortage of nurses in rural areas? The reason is doctors could feel controlled or surveil lanced by the government, related to unnecessary services being ordered and consider it to be wasteful spending.

 

Part II
Examine the future of health care in the United States. Look back to your own definition of the healthcare system posted in Week One.
There is anywhere between 20 to 30 million Americans without insurance coverage. According to Martin, “ACA aims to increase the access, quality and affordability of health insurance, lower the uninsured rate by expanding public and private insurance coverage, and reduce the costs of healthcare for individuals and the government. It provides a number of mechanisms – including mandates, subsidies, and insurance exchanges – to increase coverage and affordability” (p. 407-408). However, I believe the healthcare system

 

How would you define it now after studying health care throughout this course? Post both definitions and examine the differences.
Unfortunately, I was unable to locate a response I had made about the healthcare system from Week 1. The healthcare system is a very capitalistic entity, which is governed by rules and regulations. I can appreciate why there needed to be a healthcare reform.

The ACA was established to improve the current healthcare system, which comprised of Medicare and Medicaid that was founded in the 1960s. In order to make such a radical change, lawmakers needed to make this healthcare reform both cost effective and regulate healthcare availability. It was never intended to be a government-operated program, as its previous counterparts – Medicare (federal) and Medicaid (state). The visionary method of updating the current healthcare system was to cater towards the needs of the consumer (or patient) without the becoming such a large federal monopoly. Medicare and Medicaid are reimbursed with a yearly fee schedule, which is allocated by a specific amount of money for several services being rendered by either participating or non-participating providers. Most non-participating providers will receive an additional percentage in addition to the fee schedule amount. Under ACA, the healthcare reimbursements are given out in several different ways, such as, managed care organizations, Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement schedules, provider payment provision, electronic health record incentives, etc. (Martin, 2015). Health insurance should be available to all citizens, but they should have a chose to also deny coverage, for whatever reason.

 

Examine where you see the U.S. healthcare system in the next 5 or 10 years.
According to Béland, Rocco & Waddan (2016), “by universal coverage, we mean a system that covers all citizens as in the case in countries with welfare states as different as Canada, Denmark, Sweden and UK. By universal healthcare coverage must include everyone, which means it is not a matter of degree. In other words, coverage is universal, or not. Beyond the fact that all citizens should be covered, a certain level of uniformity is necessary for a system to quality as universal, even if this level of uniformity varies from country to country” (p. 430).

Obviously, more advances into technology through diagnostic procedures, robotics or mobile devices. Even healthcare professions are slowly transitioning, such as, nurse practitioners are taking more primary care physician roles. It just shows things are slowing changing to meet the supply and demand of ACA importance of all citizens having healthcare coverage.

Describe any potential reforms, research, suggestions for improvements, etc.
The eligibility of benefits is confusing to why the large companies get penalized more than smaller ones. Its understandable that all Americans are mandated to have insurance coverage with penalties of their own. Maybe the corporations could continue to have employee group policies with private insurance carriers. But, there are plenty of other larger companies not considered, as part of the Nasdaq Stock Market (or a subsidiary of one). The law did consider the incentives to larger companies; however, there could be an option for employees to choose a healthcare plan either through ObamaCare or private insurance carrier. That could be a way to address controlled costs, pre-existing conditions and business penalties. It still does not take away the fact that its employers’ responsibility to offer insurance coverage of some kind that does not disrupt the status quo through seeking out a remedy to the problem (Béland, Rocco, & Waddan 2016).

 

Reference:
Martin, E. J. (2015, March). Healthcare Policy Legislation and Administration: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. Journal of Health & Human Services Administration. 37(4). P. 407-411. Retrieved on August 28, 2018 from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=ec8814ce-2007-461b-8771-511f06b1ea0d%40sessionmgr104
Béland, D., Rocco, P. & Waddan, A. (2016, July). Obamacare and the Politics of Universal Health Insurance Coverage in the United States. Social Policy & Administration. 50(4). 428-451. Retrieved on August 29, 2018 from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=6&sid=563b5f55-b139-4f91-a71b-6428d5563d3d%40sessionmgr101&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLGNwaWQmY3VzdGlkPXM4ODU2ODk3JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=116101867&db=a9h
Wambugu, D. (2014, August). Advantages and Disadvantages of Obamacare Act. Retrieved on August 29, 2018 from https://www.projectguru.in/publications/advantages-disadvantages-obamacare-act/
The Pros and Cons of ObamaCare. Retrieved on August 29, 2018 from https://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-pros-and-cons/
Batnitzky, A., Hayes, D., & Vinall, P.E. (2018). The U.S. Healthcare System: An Introduction [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/. [Links to an external site.]

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

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Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

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Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed