Description Gregory Goddard Oct 4 3:31pm| Last reply Oct 7 4:52pm Reply from Gregory Goddard The ...
Description Gregory Goddard Oct 4 3:31pm| Last reply Oct 7 4:52pm Reply from Gregory Goddard The Future of Health Services Delivery Goals of the ACA According to Shi and Singh (2023), the goals of the ACA were to expand Medicaid and increase insurance options for the most vulnerable populations in the United States. The act also created state and federal health insurance exchanges to better regulate private insurance programs and prohibited insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions (Shi & Singh, 2023). While President Clinton attempted to pass healthcare reform, it was not until President Obama took office that healthcare reform took shape as his political party was aligned to be able to pass the necessary legislature to make it law. The ACA was the culmination of these two administrations (Shi & Singh, 2023). Shi and Singh also state that another goal of the ACA was to fund the Community Health Center program to increase access to healthcare services. Meeting the Goals of the ACA According to Shi and Singh (2023), the expansion of Medicaid services to the uninsured has not met expectations as inadequate funding and rising healthcare costs have inhibited the original goals of the ACA. However, the expansion efforts to ensure funding for children whose family meets certain income standards was successful and funded through 2027 but due to these rising costs, funding is not enough to insure those who meet guidelines and as a result, enrollment has declined over the last several years. (Shi & Singh, 2023). The text also states that three major challenges impact the effectiveness of the ACA. The first is that the Supreme Court made it optional for states to comply with the requirement to expand Medicaid eligibility. Secondly, undocumented immigrants are not covered under the ACA and cannot obtain coverage through the marketplace nor are they qualified for Medicaid. Finally, some find themselves in the gap. They do not qualify for state or federal programs, but they do not make enough to be able to afford insurance through the marketplace, and with the lifting of fines by President Trump for not having health insurance, there is still a large number of uninsured in the United States (Shi & Singh, 2023). The Future of Healthcare Reform The future of healthcare reform is not just contingent on the success of the ACA. One of the leading changes in healthcare reimbursement, value-based payments, is creating a paradigm shift in matching quality with payments in an attempt to reduce costs and increase quality in health services. According to Harrill and Melon (2021), the patient, the physician, and the payer, must be aligned within healthcare reform to ensure the outcomes of VBH are met. Harrill and Melon go on to state that healthcare reform must balance the equation of Value = Patient Experience Management (2021). Meaning, all three stakeholders must align to provide what the patient considers "value" in order to increase reimbursement through improved patient outcomes. According to McWilliams (2024), "Policymakers will have to be more deliberate in structuring Medicare to uphold desired protections while controlling spending" (p. 764). Medicare spending will likely have to align with VBH as well to ensure that it can control costs appropriately to meet the rising demands of care with an aging population. 1 Timothy 5:8 tells us that we are to care for family members and Leviticus 19:32 tells us to honor the elderly (English Standard Version, 2001/2016). Healthcare reform that seeks to balance equity in care, especially with ensuring the long-term effectiveness of Medicare, ensures that we are caring for the elderly as Christ has commanded us to do. It even comes with a promise that says by honoring our father and mother it will go well with us in the future (English Standard Version, 2001/2016). References English Standard Version (2016). English Standard Version Online. https://esv.org.Links to an external site. (Original work published 2001). Harrill, W. C., & Melon, D. E. (2021). A field guide to U.S. healthcare reform: The evolution to value?based healthcare. Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology, 6(3), 590-599. https://doi.org/10.1002/lio2.575Links to an external site. McWilliams, J. M. (2024). The future of medicare and the role of traditional medicare as competitor. The New England Journal of Medicine, 391(8), 763-769. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsb2313939Links to an external site. Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2023). Essentials of the U.S. health care system (6th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
