Question

With a new administration, there is bound to be some changes to the Affordable Care Act. What recommendation would you have for adjustments, considering the goal to insure as many as possible for the most cost effective of ways?

Should this Act be disbanded and something completely new put in its place? Explain your thoughts on why it should or should not.

Answer 1

Affordable Care Act should be reformed in order to achieve the goals- improving the experience of care for individuals, improving the health of populations, and lowering per capita costs. The existing payment models and health care delivery system need to be changed.

1. Developing a payment system that rewards quality outcomes and stewardship of healthcare resources is necessary for America to rein in its costs and improve the overall quality of the healthcare system.

2. Reworking the delivery system by creating high-performing organizations of physicians and hospitals that use systems of care and information technology to prevent illness, improve access to care, improve safety, and coordinate services.

3. there is a need for larger, more coordinated and organized healthcare systems that have hospitals, doctors, and sometimes even health plans that all work together.

Affordable Care Act need not be disbanded, but certain changes can be made because it also has some positive outcomes such as wider coverage of population for insurance.

* If well conceived and implemented, ACA can achieve both cost and quality improvements because the coordinated and collaborative nature of the delivery system itself is paid for and rewarded for its outcomes, not for its volume of services.

* The structure of an ACA is important: experts believe that ACA program must be physician-led, primary care-centered, and patient-focused systems of care.

* ACA may be the most promising mechanism to control costs and improve quality and access in the American healthcare system.

* It is an effective model for moving the U.S. health care system toward population-based, accountable care.