The ACA or the AHCA: Imperfect Solutions to Increasing Access to Health Care?

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To support your work, use your course and text readings and also use the —————–University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.

This week’s discussion focuses on the federal government’s role in protecting the public’s health using the ACA and current efforts to “repeal and replace” the ACA. Please note that the government’s role in protecting the public’s health did not begin with the ACA. In the late 1800s, Lilian Wald brought health care to the community. And in 1965, Congress passed bills authorizing Medicare and Medicaid. Since 1965, Congress has expanded government-sponsored health care to pregnant women and children.

Answer the following question:

· Compare the current provisions in the ACA with those in the failed first version of the AHCA. Share your opinions about why the AHCA failed in the first attempt at passage.

Continue to read daily from one of the policy briefs that are included in your weekly readings list. POLITICO Pulse is a daily briefing from POLITICO, and the Kaiser Health News Morning Briefing is a daily briefing from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Both focus on health care. Either one will keep you abreast of what is happening in health care policies and politics.

In addition, subscribe to the “HealthCetera” podcast and listen to the podcast weekly. This is a production of WBAI, free speech radio of Pacifica Foundation Radio in New York City. Diana Mason and Barbara Glickstein are founders and codirectors of the Center for Health Media Policy (CHMP). Both are recognized as experts in media, nursing, health, and health policy. They have a longstanding relationship as producers and moderators of HealthCetera (https://www.wbai.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=384&Itemid=42), a live, award-winning radio program on public radio and iTunes. They are bloggers for Disruptive Women in Health Care( http://www.disruptivewomen.net/)and for the American Journal of Nursing (AJN) (https://journals.lww.com/ajnonline/pages/default.aspx). The CHMP is an interdisciplinary initiative for advancing the health of the public and healthy public policies through media, research, education, and public forums. Listen to the podcast throughout the course and think on the topics that are discussed, especially as they relate to how we advocate for issues of importance in this contemporary political environment.

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• How do you judge Palin’s quote? [“And who will suffer the most when they ration care? Effective strategy to oppose Democrats’ plans for health care reform or unethical scaremongering?

Palin’s quote was not only inaccurate, it could be said it was a scare tactic.  For those relying on politicians to define changes, especially as they relate to a lengthy new health care act, I view it as a scare tactic to sway voters against the ACA.  Nowhere in the ACA or AHCA does it enforce a “death panel” (Mason et. al., 2016). This quote from a politician is why it is so important for nurses to understand politics in health care and provide accurate, unbiased, and honest information.

• Reflect on what informs your judgment: commitment to advance care planning, analysis of facts, and/or political party loyalties?

When it comes to my judgement, research and understanding of the facts are key.  Had I simply listened to Palin, I would not have understood the changes in health care the ACA implemented.  Although far from perfect, this act did increase the number of Americans with health coverage to 20 million people and seeks to provide better health promotion, allowing nurses to practice to the full extent of their education and licensure (Collins, 2018).

• Is it right for nurses to endorse health reform legislation even if the legislation is not perfect? Does this apply to the recently failed American Health Care Act?

Few things in life are truly perfect.  As a nurse, I have learned you simply cannot make everyone happy and that applies to healthcare.  Nurses should seek to endorse healthcare policies that allow them to practice as nurses; teaching patients to be as independently healthy as possible.  This certainly applies to the failed AHCA.  Again, the debate is not over universal health coverage, but as to who should pay for it.  Nurses have identified the need for access to health care since the beginning of time.  Advocating and endorsing legislative that is supportive of this idea should be the nurses priority.   

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• How do you judge Palin’s quote? [“And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s death panel so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their level of productivity in society, whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.] Effective strategy to oppose Democrats’ plans for health care reform or unethical scaremongering?

I believe Palin bringing up the ration of care for the sick, disabled and elderly was very important and a very effective way to grab the attention of many Americans. Not every American has a disable family member nor do they have to per say “deal”or worry with all of the medical and financial burdens these families have to take on. I believe Palin bringing this to many americans attention and speak for the people that are unable to speak for themselves was very effective when it comes to making it known they are also worthy of the care that every other “normal” American is able to receive. 

• Reflect on what informs your judgment: commitment to advance care planning, analysis of facts, and/or political party loyalties? 

It is hard to pick one thing that would inform someones judgement, but I would have to say analysis of facts. It is important to always do your own research and not base everything you believe off of what other people are saying. With that being said, I do still agree with Palin and her advocating for the sick, elderly and disabled people of America but doing my own research also taught me more about what Palin was referring to. I came across this statement “The health reform bill being considered in the House of Representatives says that a Comparative Effectiveness Research Center shall “conduct, support, and synthesize research” that looks at “outcomes, effectiveness, and appropriateness of health care services and procedures in order to identify the manner in which diseases, disorders, and other health conditions can most effectively and appropriately be prevented, diagnosed, treated, and managed clinically.” (2009, Politifact).  It was not solely about and nothing to do with evaluating patients for their worthiness.

• Is it right for nurses to endorse health reform legislation even if the legislation is not perfect? Does this apply to the recently failed American Health Care Act?

Yes I believe it is very important for nurses to be involved in politics and endorsement of health reforms even if they are not considered to be perfect. Nurses are huge advocates and we have a voice that could speak out make a huge difference.

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Nurses as Change Agents in the Community

As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.

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In the chapter, “How Community-Based Organizations Are Addressing Nursing’s Role in Transforming Health Care,”(SEE ATTACHED DOCUMENT HAVE THE CHAPTER TO READ))))) the authors describe the community as the focus of advocacy action for change. They list a series of questions that help community teams develop organizing principles to guide their interventions, and the aim is to attack social determinants of health to make community change.

Suppose a community team identifies lack of access to exercise modalities as a public health issue. If the team were to determine that pedestrian walkways need to be constructed, discuss at least two factors that would facilitate the development of the walkways and two that would hinder the development. For the hindrances, discuss ways that the team might work to overcome those hindrances.

Continue to read daily from one of the policy briefs that are included in your weekly readings list. POLITICO Pulse is a daily briefing from POLITICO, and the Kaiser Health News Morning Briefing is a daily briefing from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Both focus on health care. Either one will keep you abreast of what is happening in health care policies and politics.

In addition, subscribe to the “HealthCetera” podcast and listen to the podcast weekly. This is a production of WBAI, free speech radio of Pacifica Foundation Radio in New York City. Diana Mason and Barbara Glickstein are founders and codirectors of the Center for Health Media Policy (CHMP). Both are recognized as experts in media, nursing, health, and health policy. They have a longstanding relationship as producers and moderators of HealthCetera, a live, award-winning radio program on public radio and iTunes. They are bloggers for Disruptive Women in Health Care and for the American Journal of Nursing (AJN). The CHMP is an interdisciplinary initiative for advancing the health of the public and healthy public policies through media, research, education, and public forums. Listen to the podcast throughout the course and think on the topics that are discussed, especially as they relate to how we advocate for issues of importance in this contemporary political environment.

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