Abstract
The Affordable Care Act has changed the landscape of the U.S. healthcare system greatly. Though being quite a recent addition to the latter, the ACA has been in development for years. The ACA is aimed at improving the provision of healthcare and nursing services through the enhancement of the patient-centered approach and the promotion of health insurance among U.S. citizens. While the current effects of the ACA are humble, it is expected that the Affordable Care Act will help break new ground in the U.S. healthcare system.
History of the Affordable Care Act Creation
Also known as ObamaCare, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or simply PPACA, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) had been a concept for around twenty years until it was finally produced and approved, the first edition having been drafted in 1989 (McDonough, 2012). The issue spawned a major debate in 2008–2010, before the presidential election and during the first years of the Obama administration. The bill was passed on December 29, 2009 (McDonough, 2014).
Affordable Care Act and What It Has to Offer
According to the key tenets of the ACA, the statute is aimed at improving the quality of healthcare service delivery (Thomas, 2003). To be more specific, the ACA is supposed to contribute to an increase in patient safety, facilitate easy access to healthcare services for all patients and promote health insurance to all denizens of the United States (White, Carter, Records & Martin, 2013).
Implications of Affordable Care Act
The ACA has raised the expectation bar for the skills of nursing and healthcare specialists to a new level. Specifically, the fact that patient-centered therapy is promoted actively (Fitzpatrick, Butler, Pitsikoulis, Smith, & Walden 2014) must be brought to people’s attention. As a result, the provision of more timely and efficient services has become a possibility (Manchikanti, Caraway, Parr, Fellows, & Hirsh, 2011).
Apart from the alterations in the realm of healthcare and nursing, ACA has changed the attitudes towards insurance. In 2010, new high-risk insurance pools were created with the help of ACA (Spetz, 2014). While occurring at an admittedly slow pace, the effects of ACA are still quite encouraging.
Reference List
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