Affordable Care Act was developed as the important statute to reform and regulate the healthcare system of the United States. The statute was signed in 2010, and its principles provoked many debates and discussions because of the policymakers’ intentions to reform the whole approach to the U.S. health insurance system (Shaffer, 2013, p. 969). To discuss the problem of reforming the healthcare system in detail, it is necessary to formulate the specific research question to address the issue of Affordable Care Act and conduct the literature review on the topic.
Research Questions
The research question associated with the issue of Affordable Care Act is the following one: How can Affordable Care Act contribute to improving the approach to patient protection and to reforming the insurance system in the United States?
The sub-questions are the following ones: What are the documented and potential advantages of Affordable Care Act? Is it possible to overcome the limitations of the policy in short terms?
Literature Review
Affordable Care Act was designed and implemented as the important response to the weaknesses of the U.S. health care system. In spite of the fact that today there are many critics of the accomplishments of Affordable Care Act, it is almost impossible to avoid noticing the obvious advantages of the act to contribute to the patient protection. In his research, Ghosh chooses to focus on positive effects of Affordable Care Act on patients and physicians. Ghosh’s article is the presentation of the final points on the question of Affordable Care Act’s advantages. The strength of Ghosh’s research is in providing the detailed information on such points as the increase in the number of potential patients, increase in the level of the patient satisfaction, the response to the issue of Medicare, and the use of Electronic Health Records (Ghosh, 2013, p. 68-69). Although Ghosh’s conclusions are important because the author also focuses on the role of the act for the market, the article can be discussed as only partially valid because the author does not provide the list of sources for additional references. Ghosh’s future article can discuss the advantages of the act from the timeline perspective.
There are many advantages and limitations in the proposed system. These ideas are discussed in Shaffer’s research of 2013. Shaffer’s research study is based on the review of the available qualitative and quantitative information on the topic. In her article, the author discusses the advantages of Affordable Care Act, limitations of the policy, and the issue of systemic disruption (Shaffer, 2013, p. 969). Shaffer concludes that policymakers should pay more attention to improving Affordable Care Act because there are both positive and negative features, and it is possible to overcome all the challenges. The author actively refers to the credible qualitative and quantitative resources, and the study can be discussed as valid (Neutens & Rubinson, 2010, p. 34; Shaffer, 2013, p. 972). The strengths of Shaffer’s argument are in the fact that the author intends to discuss the real results of Affordable Care Act from many perspectives, while focusing on the advantages and limitations. Furthermore, the author organizes the data in tables to provide the effective visual material. According to Shaffer, Affordable Care Act contributes to protecting patents and creating equal opportunities, but the problem is in the fact that the public does not receive the adequate information on the accomplishments (Shaffer, 2013, p. 972). The perspectives for Shaffer’s future research are in proposing more effective recommendations to change the situation.
Affordable Care Act is discussed as the challenging policy not only by the potential patients but also by the employers who need to change their approaches to providing the insurance coverage for the employees. In his article, Wojcik focuses on the challenges faced by employers in the context of implementing the principles of Affordable Care Act. Wojcik’s research is based on the critical analysis of the situation with references to the employers’ positions (Wojcik, 2013, p. 30). The strengths of Wojcik’s research are in analyzing the employers’ efforts to address the policy and discussing the associated challenges with the help of tables. Wojcik states that Affordable Care Act of 2010 made many employers concentrate on developing the effective strategies to respond to the requirement of the expanded insurance coverage for employees (Wojcik, 2013, p. 31). However, Wojcik does not refer to any credible resources, and it is the main weakness of the article which affects its validity (Jacobsen, 2012, p. 52). The future research should be based on the extensive review of the literature in the field.
Affordable Care Act is the important condition to speak about the protection of the Americans regarding their health. Principles promoted with the new policy work, but there are many problems associated with reforming the insurance system in the country. These ideas are proclaimed by Freymann Fontenot in the article of 2014. The author’s research is based on the analysis of the stages associated with “lifting the curtain on health care costs” (Freymann Fontenot, 2014, p. 78). The research’s strength is in providing the details of the policy’s implementation with the focus on the objective analysis of the situation. The research is valid because the author refers to the credible statistical data on the issue. The future research needs can include the focus on the role of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act in influencing the implementation of Affordable Care Act’s ideas in the United States.
Affordable Care Act is signed to promote the accomplishment of such goals as the reformation of the health insurance system and the increase of competition in the U.S. insurance market. According to Custer, the determined goals can be associated with the successful reformation of the whole healthcare system of the United States. However, the problem is in the fact that there are many risks connected with the implementation strategies (Custer, 2013, p. 25). Custer’s research is organized as the logical response to the question of Affordable Care Act risks. The strengths of the research are in the attempt to answer such an important question in the concise paper based on the extensive research in the field. The study is valid, and Custer provides a lot of ideas for the further research in the article.
Conclusion
Affordable Care Act produced the important effect on the social life of the Americas and their vision of the healthcare system in the country. The policy was designed and implemented as the attempt to reform the health insurance system in the United States in order to provide the equal opportunity for all the citizens. However, the scope of reforms was too wide to speak about the expected positive and negative results. That is why, today it is important to analyze the contribution of Affordable Care Act to patient protection with references to the period of 2010-2014.
References
Custer, W. (2013). Risk adjustment and the Affordable Care Act. Journal of Financial Service Professionals, 67(6), 25-26.
Freymann Fontenot, S. (2014). Affordable Care Act: Lifting the curtain on health care costs. Physician Executive, 40(2), 78-83.
Ghosh, C. (2013). Affordable Care Act: Strategies to tame the future. Physician Executive, 39(6), 68-70.
Jacobsen, K. (2012). Introduction to health research methods: A practical guide. USA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Neutens, J., & Rubinson, L. (2010). Research techniques for the health sciences. USA: Pearson Education.
Shaffer, E. (2013). The Affordable Care Act: The value of systemic disruption. American Journal of Public Health, 103(6), 969-972.
Wojcik, S. (2013). Implementing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: The time is now. Benefits Quarterly, 29(2), 30-33.