Question

5. Name and discuss 3 separate things the Affordable Care Act has done to increase access. Discuss in some detail and give examples.

look up affordable care act

Answer 1

Ans) The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the comprehensive healthcare reform signed into law by President Barack Obama in March 2010.

- A set of 10 categories of services health insurance plans must cover under the Affordable Care Act. These include doctors' services, inpatient and outpatient hospital care, prescription drug coverage, pregnancy and childbirth, mental health services, and more. Some plans cover more services.

- Despite its goal of universal health coverage, the ACA leaves substantial numbers of Americans without access to insurance. However, an estimated 19 million uninsured Americans will remain ineligible for Medicaid or subsidies, and hence are “left behind” by the ACA.

- With regard to preparedness, the financial pressures on health systems are immense, and incentives and demands are changing, Tofil said.

- For example, health systems wanting to control financial risk are looking to repatriate their patients from out-of-network facilities as quickly as possible so they can control their care, costs, or both. This could have varying effects in a disaster scenario, depending on how hospitals follow up with staffing changes in response to more open beds. There will also be much more data (e.g., data in electronic health records, population-based information on use and costs within the delivery system) that can potentially be converted into usable information. Health care delivery is changing rapidly, and adaptation is a necessity, not an option.