Insurance coverage is identified as the primary economic factor that affects access to healthcare. According to the report by the National Center for Health Statistics (Cohen et al., 2020), from January through June 2020, 9.4% of the population were uninsured. The Affordable Care Act has improved access to care since 2010, increasing the number of citizens who have health insurance (Cohen et al., 2020). Apart from the identified competing needs in improving access to care, the competition among health providers can be mentioned. According to Barros et al. (2016), more competition improves geographical access to health services by stimulating the entry of new providers. Furthermore, nurses’ contribution is vital in providing high-quality services to all groups of the population.
The existing healthcare policies have a mainly negative influence on improving access to health services. As indicated in the post, nurses strive for increased autonomy, which would allow them to diagnose and treat patients independently (American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 2021). In this regard, the current healthcare policies, which differ from state to state, are perceived as barriers to full practice that interrupt the delivery of care (Broome & Marshall, 2021).
They make nurses spend a lot of time and effort coordinating with physicians to start and manage treatment (Taylor & Gilchrist, 2020). According to Chattopadhyay and Zangaro (2019), eliminating scope-of-practice restrictions should be the focus of care delivery because it will “significantly reduce costs and improve access to health services for all groups of patients” (p. 273). The American Nurses Association acts on behalf of nurses to propose initiatives to protect and advance the current scope of practice and “monitor and advocate for legislative and regulatory changes” (“Scope of practice,” n.d., para. 13). The changes will allow nurses to deliver care to underserved groups of the population and enjoy more professional freedom.
References
American Association of Nurse Practitioners. (2021). State practice environment. Web.
Barros, P. P., Brouwer, W. B. F., Thomson, S., & Varkevisser, M. (2016). Competition among health care providers: Helpful or harmful?The European Journal of Health Economics, 17, 229–233. Web.
Broome, M., & Marshall, E. (2021). Transformational leadership in nursing (3rd ed.). Springer.
Chattopadhyay, S., & Zangaro, G. (2019). The economic cost and impacts of scope of practice restrictions on nurse practitioners. Nursing Economics, 37(6), 273–283.
Cohen, R., Terlizzi, E., Cha, A., & Martinez, M. (2020). Health insurance coverage: Early release of estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, January–June 2020 [PDF file]. Web.
Scope of practice. (n.d.). American Nurses Association. Web.
Taylor, L. N., & Gilchrist, S. (2020). How state scope-of-practice policies impact NP care. American Journal of Nursing, 120(9), 21–22. Web.