Health Care Policy Reading Reflection
Health Care Policy Reading Reflection
Complete this week’s assigned readings, chapters from 39 to 43 of the textbook:
Mason, D. J., Leavitt, J.K., Chaffee, M.W. (2016). Policy and Politics: In Nursing and Health Care. (7th• Ed) St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier, Saunders. ISBN-13: 9780323299886
1- After completing the readings, post a reflection, approximately 2 paragraph in length, discussing your thoughts and opinions about one or several of the specific topics covered in the textbook readings.
2- Identify which MSN Essential most relates to your selected topic in your discussion.
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“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking
they don’t have any.”
Alice Walker
March 31, 2013 marked an important deadline in the
implementation of landmark legislation, the Affordable Care Act
(ACA) Health Care Policy Reading Reflection
1
, also known as Obamacare. By that date those eligible to
enroll for insurance coverage through the marketplace had to
purchase a plan if they were to avoid a 2015 tax penalty of $95 or
1% of their annual income (whichever was higher). Amid a frenzy
of media attention, an estimated 8 million people signed on for
coverage during open enrollment—the period between October
2012 and the deadline—exceeding the revised target of 6.5 million
(Kennedy, 2014). And the numbers kept increasing, as millions
more enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance
Program (known as CHIP) (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services [CMS], 2014).
Nurses were essential to these enrollments. For example, Adriana
Perez, PhD, ANP, RN, an assistant professor at Arizona State Health Care Policy Reading Reflection
96
University College of Nursing, used her role as president of the
Phoenix Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses to
organize town hall meetings with Spanish-speaking state residents
to explain the ACA and encourage enrollment among those with a
high rate of un- or under-insurance. She also developed a training
model in partnership with AARP-Arizona and used it to empower
Arizona nurses to educate multicultural communities on the basic
provisions of the ACA. Through many such initiatives, the United
States reduced the number of uninsured people by over 10 million
in 2014; the number is projected to be 20 million by 2016
(Congressional Budget Office [CBO], 2014).
However, access to coverage does not necessarily mean access to
care, nor does it ensure a healthy population. Health care access
means having the ability to receive the right type of care when
needed at an affordable price. The U.S. health care system is
grounded in expensive, high-tech acute care that does not produce
the desired outcomes we ought to have and too often damages
instead of heals (National Research Council, 2013). Despite
spending more per person on health care than any other nation, a
comparative report on health indicators by the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (2013) shows that the
United States performs worse than other nations on life expectancy
at birth for both men and women, infant mortality rate, mortality
rates for suicide and cardiovascular disease, the prevalence of
diabetes and obesity in children, and other indicators.
In 1999, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a report, To Err is
Human: Building a Safer Health System, which estimated that health
care errors in hospitals were the fifth leading cause of death in the
U.S. (IOM, 1999). By 2011, preventable health care errors were
estimated to be the third-leading cause of death (Allen, 2013; James,
2013). The ACA includes elements that can begin to create a highperforming health care system, one accountable for the provision of
safe care, as well as improved clinical and financial outcomes. It
aims to move the health care system in the direction of keeping
people out of hospitals, in their own homes and communities, with
an emphasis on wellness, health promotion, and better
management of chronic illnesses. Health Care Policy Reading Reflection
