U.S. Healthcare Reform: Background
U.S. healthcare has been experiencing significant changes throughout its existence, reforms being the primary driving force behind the improvement of its quality. The shift in the focus of the American healthcare, which the reform known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) brought, implied switching from the system of multi-payer healthcare to the one of single-payer service (Obama, 2016). The identified change allowed reducing the instances of patient profiling based on their race and gender (Watson, 2012). Therefore, a gradual improvement of service quality was expected. However, the ACA framework was also subjected to criticism because of the loss of employment-based insurance. Using the existing healthcare policy aimed at meeting the needs of diverse and vulnerable populations will allow increasing the efficacy of the recent reform and introduce new ones that will encourage a positive change (Watson, 2012).
Health Policy and the U.S. Healthcare Reform
The connection between a healthcare policy and the American healthcare reform, particularly, the ACA, might seem tenuous, yet further analysis shows that the two concepts are closely related. Specifically, a healthcare policy accepted in the realm of the U.S. healthcare system defines future changes in the legal and organizational framework of managing patients’ needs (Mahony & Jones, 2013). As a result, healthcare policies accepted in the U.S. drive the change within the system. However, the influence is mutual; similarly, alterations in the healthcare system define the development of a healthcare policy. For example, the patient-centered approach encouraged by the ACA has led to a shift in the value system of care, giving more opportunities to diverse populations (Clarke, Swider, & Bigley, 2013). Therefore, the two concepts affect each other to a similar degree.
Impact on Nurses and Health
The current healthcare policy must be credited for encouraging nurses and patients alike to educate themselves about health issues and the methods of managing them. Patient education has become one of the key priorities in the contemporary healthcare environment (Dimick & Ryan, 2014). As a result, the premises for increasing the quality of care and reducing the instances of disease development have been provided.
Additionally, the consideration of health policies as the product of changes within a society allows locating important social factors that affect health, alterations in a patient’s health status, and the development of specific attitudes toward maintaining health (Mahony & Jones, 2013). The identified phenomenon also affects nurses, making them recognize the unique needs of diverse populations and, thus, choose the strategies based on a multicultural approach. As a result, the quality of patient-nurse communication improves. Furthermore, nurses learn to encourage patients from multicultural backgrounds to learn essential information about health and its maintenance.
Health Policy and the Success of the Healthcare Reform
As stressed above, a health policy has a direct impact on changes in the healthcare system. Therefore, it also affects the promotion of specific reforms in the identified environment. An assessment conducted based on the principles of a particular health policy delivers the results that may necessitate the enactment of a specific healthcare reform. For instance, health policies aimed at addressing the needs of vulnerable populations may encourage the adoption of a reform that will allow improving the quality of care for the identified demographic (Rajotte, Ross, Ekechi, & Cadet, 2011). Similarly, an established health policy may prevent a specific healthcare reform from being deployed if the change in question has potentially deleterious effects on a specific population.
Conclusion
Health policies, which are defined by a combination of legal, economic, financial, technological, and social factors, affect the development and further acceptance of healthcare reforms in the contemporary American nursing environment. Furthermore, the connection between the two notions is reciprocal since changes in healthcare and the perception thereof and, thus, the design of health policies. Because of the shift toward addressing the needs of diverse patients, current health policies supported by the recent reform allow maintaining the quality of healthcare services high. Furthermore, they encourage the process of patient education. However, the issue of disparity needs to be handled to introduce equality in healthcare.
References
Clarke, P. N., Swider, S., & Bigley, M. B. (2013). Nursing leadership and health policy: A dialogue with nurse leaders. Nursing Science Quarterly, 26(2), 136-142. Web.
Dimick, J. B., & Ryan, A. M. (2014). Methods for evaluating changes in health care policy: The difference-in-differences approach. JAMA, 312(22), 2401-2402. Web.
Mahony, D., & Jones, E. J. (2013). Social determinants of health in nursing education, research, and health policy. Nursing Science Quarterly, 26(3), 280-284. Web.
Obama, B. (2016). United States health care reform: Progress to date and next steps. JAMA, 316(5), 525-532. Web.
Rajotte, B. R., Ross, C. L., Ekechi, C. O., & Cadet, V. N. (2011). Health in all policies: Addressing the legal and policy foundations of health impact assessment. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 39(1), 27-29. Web.
Watson, S. D. (2012). Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act: Civil rights, health reform, race, and equity. Howard Law Journal, 55(3), 855-885.