The United States government initiated the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to minimize health disparities by lowering costs and improving the accessibility of healthcare. The introduction of ACA highlighted the fact that the healthcare industry is in the need of reforms in order to improve its cost-effectiveness, quality, and accessibility.
Healthcare expenditures in the United States far exceed those in other developed nations. In 2013, the United States spent 17.1% of its GDP on health care, in comparison, France and the United Kingdom spent 11.6% (Squires & Anderson, 2015, par. 4). In spite of this fact, the quality and accessibility of care do not correlate with health care spending (Squires & Anderson, 2015, par. 1). Discrepancies in the quality of health still exist between ethnic minorities (Keppel, 2006). As the United States citizens rely on insurance programs to pay for medical services, the lack of insurance coverage by a large part of the population might be one of the causes of the current situation (Squires & Anderson, 2015, par. 4). ACA provides improved and affordable health insurance programs to all United States citizens to enhance coverage and quality of healthcare services available in health facilities. However, Patel and Rushefsky (2014) argue that the opposition to the Act and the requirement that States should execute the program despite the fact that it is the project of the federal government complicate its implementation. The successful implementation of ACA requires proper planning, the primary attributes of which are goal orientation, flexibility, and iteration of the process.
The goal orientation allows the federal and state governments to establish acceptable and focused commitments that give the program a sense of direction. Each state government has its vision for the wellbeing of its constituents, and this may result in conflicts during the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Moreover, planning enables the federal government to identify the appropriate actions that would hasten the realization of the objectives of the Affordable Care Act.
Another significant attribute of planning is flexibility since the activity aims at peering into the future, evaluating it, and preparing for any uncertainties. It is important to consider progressive forecasting to allow healthcare administrators to develop contingency plans to respond to any unexpected eventualities while implementing the Affordable Care Act. Finally, the flexibility gives healthcare administrators and the United States government the opportunity to revise and update the implementation process under changing circumstances to make the legislation applicable and acceptable to the state governments. The difficulty of controlling shared responsibilities for population health in the United States necessitates well-coordinated plans at the national and state levels to make the implementation of the Affordable Care Act successful.
The iteration of the planning process is its third attribute, and this is important in the successful realization of the goals of the Affordable Care Act. The United States’ diverse population and variations in-laws at the State level complicate the adoption of the Act. Thus, planning should also consider the dynamics of the United States healthcare, and repeated reviews and reassessments might be necessary to keep up with the changing politics around the Act. Continuous negotiations and consultations are vital in increasing the success rates of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in the United States.
The introduction of ACA is a step forward for public health care, and its implementation requires the integration of different agencies at the federal and state levels. The planning process is vital in ensuring the successful implementation of the Affordable Care Act because of the complex structure of the healthcare system.
References
Keppel, K. (2007). Ten Largest Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in the United States based on Healthy People 2010 Objectives. American Journal of Epidemiology, 166(1), 97-103. Web.
Patel, K., & Rushefsky, M. (2014). Healthcare Politics and Policy in America: 2014. London: Routledge.
Squires, D. & Anderson, C. (2015). U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective. Web.