preview

Primary Care And The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act

Best Essays

Primary Care and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Introduction: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a comprehensive health reform bill that was enacted on March 23, 2010. Considering it as a landmark change in health policy, it is anticipated that, “the new law will have an immense impact on the US health care reform and policy”.1 With modern advances in science and technology and their applications, America is expected to be a pioneer and leading country in the world in disease eradication, increasing longevity and providing a better quality of life for her citizens.1Unfortunately, the real picture isn’t the same. According to the commonwealth fund survey 2014, USA ranked the last and worst amongst 11 other developed countries including UK, France, Australia, Germany, Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, Norway, Netherlands, and Switzerland in terms of efficiency, equity and outcomes instead of having the world’s most expensive health care system.2 So, the imperatives for a change in health care system were urgent. The new Affordable Care Act (ACA) contains different policies and almost all of them are pertinent to expanding health care access when needed, shaping insurance and market system, improving quality of care and life, promoting preventive services and extending the health workforce or reducing the financial burden. One important policy component of the ACA under ‘improving quality/health system performance’ is ‘Primary

Get Access