The Affordable Care Act Implications Of Health Care Access, Cost And Quality

Improving our health programs is on the top priority for most people, including our not so much health professionals. Healthcare facilities need to be searching for ways to help educate and improve access to healthcare program, the quality of the care we receive, and our cost of the care we get provided with. Most commonly the biggest barriers to accessing healthcare are the cost and the location of the places. Besides the countless advances in technology popping up all over the place. This could mean there are free-standing clinics, hospitals, urgent cares and more. Majority of people still don’t get the ability to receive quality health care that is needed. This has become a huge concern throughout the world, but especially a concern for residents of the United States in the past few decades. There are many different ways we as residents can help educate and improve on this issue.

The reason under imperfect market conditions, both prices, and quantity of health care are much higher than a highly competitive market for some reason. It is because the United States health care system doesn’t consist of a national health care program, it is not as highly regulated as our single payer systems in other countries (Shi & Singh, 2019). Healthcare delivery in the United States doesn’t have a highly competitive market because of many market imperfections. In an imperfect market, the use of healthcare is driven by need rather than economic demand. The quantity of health services produced and delivered is likely to be much higher than in a competitive market, and the prices charged for health care services are permanently higher than the true economic costs of production (Shi & Singh, 2019).

What are some of the main differences between the broad cost-containment approaches used in the United States and those used in countries with national health insurance? Some of the differences are the national health insurance is currently controlled pricing and supply in some places like the United Kingdom. Western Europe and more (Achieving Health Care Cost Containment Through Provider Payment Reform That Engages Patients And Providers.). The United States system is a combination of our government and market-based control mechanism. The Governments payment has cut to provide the public as well as competition with the public health care providers (Achieving Health Care Cost Containment Through Provider Payment Reform That Engages Patients And Providers.).

The payer driven managed care network has developed along with them utilization controls (Achieving Health Care Cost Containment Through Provider Payment Reform That Engages Patients And Providers.) Overall, there are many differences between the two. The measure of access has different levels. The individual level has two indicators. These indicators are one being measures of medical services utilization, two being the patient’s assessment of the interactions with the provider (Shi & Singh, 2019). These indicators help show the weather or not the patient had a successful experience. The health care plan has three indicators. One being plan characteristics that affect the enrollment, such as the cost, deductibles, copayments and more (Shi & Singh, 2019). The second one being plan practices that affect the access, such as the travel time to the usual source of care for the patient (Shi & Singh, 2019). How long does it take for the patient to get to where they need to get their care? The third indicator being plan quality which is measured by the health care effectiveness data information sheet (Shi & Singh, 2019). Lastly, the health care system level is most focused on the population and the environmental side of the health (Shi & Singh, 2019). The level is more on do the hospitals have enough for the population that is surrounded by them.

The Donabedian model of quality is to help define and measure quality in health care organizations (Shi & Singh, 2019). There are three different domains that this model looks at the structure, process, and the outcomes. The structure is the foundation of the quality of healthcare and resources. Examples of equipment, staffing qualifications, and the delivery system. The process the actual delivery of health care (Shi & Singh, 2019). The process looks at the technical aspects of care. Examples of diagnosis, cost and waiting time, etc. The outcome is the final results overall. There are different kinds of things under outcome. Example health status, disease, mortality and more (Shi & Singh, 2019). The model help trying to keep the quality of care is at a good standard.

The ACA implications of health care access, cost and quality are very known. There are some issues but also some good things that come from it. The issues they have are the results of the effects have been unclear (Effect of the Affordable Care Act on Health Care Access). They are still trying to work it out, so they can have people get the coverage and get it all the outcomes from it. The goals the ACA has towards it is to improve on the enrollment and try to perfect it (Effect of the Affordable Care Act on Health Care Access). They want to make sure they increase in the area of people being uninsured, underinsured or each people without stable healthcare (Improvements in Access and Care Through the Affordable Care Act.). Overall the ACA is trying to improve from there downfalls to help better the organizations and programs.