Introduction
President Obama accented to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010. It signifies a major shift in the healthcare system in many aspects since the 1960s. It was legislated to improve the value and accessibility of health insurance. The ACA is aimed at expanding coverage, ensure accountability from insurers, reduction of health costs, avail a variety of choices, and improve the value of care for the entire population. The main objective of the ACA is ensuring accessibility and flexibility of the healthcare system while appreciating the role played by nurses in delivering quality care (Furrow, 2011).
Main Body
The ACA places the public back in charge of their health care. Legally, the new law allows the American population the constancy, accessibility, and suppleness they require to make knowledgeable options regarding their health.
The main objective of ACA is addressing the accessibility and quality of healthcare. It also seeks to control the increase in healthcare expenditure in the US. The objective is achieved through the enactment of various provisions meant to fix most main issues within the country’s health system and the health cover industry. When considering affordability of healthcare, it is imperative to acknowledge that this social aspect has persistently been a personal for-profit sector (Furrow, 2011).
The prices of these services are firmly managed. Actually, the various practices are perceived as unjust and are inequitable. The healthcare industry has previously functioned for the population that is financially endowed to pay for health cover and has the social networks necessary to access healthcare. In the meantime, the disadvantaged could only access healthcare through emergence room appearances (Huffman, 2012).
The ACA sought to ensure the affordability of insurance cover. In addition, it expands coverage to more citizens through the enactment of a variety of provisions. It also enacts various reforms for improving the value of healthcare the insurance covers. Further than the essential issues within the healthcare structure, insurance providers have always required regulation.
The ACA seek to curb unjust and unwarranted hiking of rates, limitation of coverage and denial of services found on prevailing circumstances. It was common practice for insurers to drop consumers from their list when they fell sick. The ACA, therefore, aims to iron out these issues to ensure the public access affordable and flexible quality healthcare.
The preceding health system was clogged with systematic hiccups that promoted discrimination in accessing healthcare. The underprivileged communities could not access quality healthcare due to biased system based on race and social status. Inherently, the disadvantaged individuals such as the African American and Hispanics lacked access to the mainstream healthcare. The Act was hence essential in ensuring equitability, affordability and flexibility to all and sundry across race and social status (Shaw & Rein, 2014).
ACA’s impact on nursing image and nurse’s role in the healthcare system
The implementation of ACA had considerable impact on the image and role of nurses in the healthcare system. In essence, the ACA provides diverse opportunities for Registered Nurses (RNs) and Advance Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) in new plans for healthcare improvements. There are provisions in the Act that guarantee nurses of funding and scholarships for career development and education. RNs and APRNs plays an essential role to the important shift required in care delivery.
Their participation ensures that the transformational goals are achieved, creating a positive image of nursing in the effort to deliver quality care to the American community. The nursing image transforms within the Act to reflect a dedicated workforce towards changing the existing ‘ailing care’ structure to ‘true care’ structure. The Act illuminates the important contributions of nursing practice and nurses (Blumberg & Holahan, 2012).
Under Section 5309 of the Act, the nursing image is overhauled through the amendment of language related to the profession. The section adds two grant plans for retention. One program approves HHS to give grants to certified nursing or health institutions to encourage profession advancement. The other program allows the HHS to give awards to nursing or health institutions.
These institutions must have demonstrated improved cooperation and contact among RNs and other health professionals. To create a positive image for the nursing profession, the Act urges the institution to extend priority of giving grants to nurses and institutions that have not previously received any award.
Section 330 of the Act establishes the Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). The provision ensures support for providing primary care in underprivileged communities. Nursing practitioners, specialized nurse midwives, and visiting nurses are provided for in the section. The provision ensures unity of purpose between the provisions and the actual delivery of quality healthcare for equitability (Cutler, 2014).
Conclusion
The new ACA establishes the novel National Prevention Strategy. It adds significant new financial support for prevention and public health programs. It promotes the utilization of suggested clinical preventive services and other measures. Therefore, it represents a fundamental prospect for deterrence and improvement of public health.
The Act also offers momentum for increased cooperation between the United States care as well as communal health systems. These typically operated independently with miniature contact. The combination of the variety of impacts of the ACA may progress the wellbeing of the population. It positively impacts the nursing image while recognizing and advancing the role of nurses in the healthcare system.
References
Blumberg, L. & Holahan, J. (2012). Implications of the affordable care act for business. The Urban Institute Health Policy Center, 1(1), 1-7.
Cutler, N. (2014). Job lock and the affordable care act. Journal of Financial Service Professionals, 1(1), 19-24.
Furrow, B. (2011). Regulating patient safety: The patient protection and affordable care act. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 159(6), 1727-1775.
Shaw, E. & Rein, A. (2014). The patient protection and affordable care act: Opportunities for prevention and public health. Lancet, 384(9937), 75-82.