Friday, December 27, 2019

How the Affordable Care Act Changed Health Care - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 1048 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2019/08/08 Category Health Essay Level High school Tags: Affordable Care Act Essay Did you like this example? The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed into law in 2010 by President Barack Obama. Provisions of the health care act were intended to extend coverage to millions of Americans that were uninsured, lower health care costs, improve efficiency of the health care system, and to eliminate denial of coverage to Americans based on pre-existing conditions (Health Insurance.org). This paper will outline the impact the ACA has had on health care organization and finance, explain how the ACA has incorporated social determinants of health into health policy, and outline the proposed changes to the ACA under our current administration. The Affordable Care Act encourages health care providers to form new organizational arrangements. According to Blumenthal, Abrams, Nuzum (2018) these arrangements are called Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) which are intended to promote integration and coordination of ambulatory, inpatient, and postacute care services and to take responsibility for the cost and quality of care for a defined population of Medicare beneficiaries (p. 2451). An incentive for physicians who create these organizations falls under the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) when providers improve or maintain the quality of care, they can share part of the savings they achieve (Blumenthal, Abrams, Nuzum, 2018). Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "How the Affordable Care Act Changed Health Care" essay for you Create order With the expansion of the ACA in 2014, millions of Americans were able to get health insurance through the expansion of Medicaid which increased health care costs to 5.3% from 2.9% (Weiner, Marks, Pauly, 2017). According to Abramowitz O Hara (2015) the ACA sets maximum limits on how much consumers with health insurance coverage can be required to pay out-of-pocket annually for their medical care based on their income beginning in 2014 (p. 197). In 2013, it was estimated that providers uncompensated care costs were between $74.9 billion and $84.9 billion. The amount of uncompensated costs, were offset by government payments designed to cover the costs (Coughlin, Holahan, Caswell, McGrath, 2014). According to Coughlin, Holahan, Caswell, McGrath (2014) Medicaid and Medicare were the largest sources of such government payments, providing $13.5 billion and $8.0 billion, respectively. Anticipating fewer uninsured people and lower levels of uncompensated care, the Affordable Care Act reduces certain Medicare and Medicaid payments. In states that have not adopted the Medicaid expansion, cuts in government funding could pose challenges to some providers (Coughlin, Holahan, Caswell, McGrath, 2014). Social determinants of health (SDH) are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, and age (Leong Roberts, 2013). Leong Roberts (2013) go on to state Racism, poverty, unsafe neighborhoods, and lack of education are some of the many SDH that create health inequity through effects such as elevated stress levels, higher rate of uninsured patients, and less access to healthy foods. The ACA incorporated SDH into health policy with a two-pronged approach. First, it encourages action at an individual level with funding for public information campaigns that educate people in the community on how to make healthier diet choices with the creation of an Internet portal that allows individuals to track their own health. However, Leong Roberts (2013) recognize a downfall stating the ACA fails to recognize that many low-income neighborhoods are food deserts, where fresh fruits and vegetables are scarce and processed and shelf-stable foods are more abundant, which can lead to poor n utritional health. The ACA SDH is addressing the average American as opposed to the especially disadvantaged population (Leong Roberts, 2013). Second, the ACA created The Community Transformation Grants to serve as a tool to improve the holistic well-being of marginalized communities (Coughlin, Holahan, Caswell, McGrath, 2014). The guidelines for this grant call for neighborhood safety as well as an underlying foundation to increase healthy living. However, all cities have populations that are more susceptible to SDH than others and these grants are not created equal for all states (Leong Roberts, 2013). The Community Transformation Grants recognize SDH nationally, however, according to Leong Roberts (2013) these relatively small grants are not standard for all states and their communities; instead, communities with the resources to apply for the grants are not guaranteed to have a winning application. Which then leads one to believe that community responsibility to reduce SDH under the ACA only stretches so far. Prior to President Trump being sworn into office he stated he wanted to repeal and replace the ACA. He has been successful at making changes that will affect millions of Americans. According to Winfield (2018) The ACA created two subsidies to help low-income consumers afford marketplace plans: premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions (CSR) to assist with deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs. In 2017, the Trump administration ended funding of the subsidies. Winfield goes on to state To offset the end of CSR reimbursements, most insurance companies raised premiums on silver plans, the only marketplace plans that offered cost-sharing reductions. According to Jaffe (2017) the ACA also forbids insurers from denying coverage to people with a history of health problems. According to PBS News Hour (2018) Trump signed an executive order aimed at giving people who buy their own insurance easier access to different types of health plans that were limited under the ACA rules (A nalysis: What you need to know about Trumps changes to the health law). According to Winfield (2018) This executive order will attract healthier people seeking to pay less for insurance due to the fact that they offer less benefits but they will have to pay more out-of-pocket while at the same time decreasing the number of Americans sharing the insurance costs of other enrollees making premiums increase (p. 23). Additionally, Trumps executive order will allow insurance companies to deny coverage to Americans with pre-existing conditions (PBS News Hour, 2018). The Trump administration also changed the 2018 annual open enrollment period, cutting it down to six weeks when enrollees previously had twelve and making it harder for people to buy insurance after the six-week open enrollment period closed (Rovner, 2018). It was stated by Rovner (2018) that, under Trumps administration, the new rules would reduce the number of people who game the system by waiting until they need care to sign up for coverage (This ACA timeline illustrates how the health law has been changed since Trump took office). Rovner (2018) also outlines an additional change made under Trumps administration the advertising budget will be cut 90% for the coming enrollment season and programs that provide help to people signing up will be cut by 41%. Officials tell reporters that the programs are ineffective and people are already aware of the health law logistics, something public opinion polls suggests is not the case.

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Software and Neworking Technologies Commonly Employed in...

Task 1 (a) There are many things to consider when implementing an e-commerce system for the reliable transfer of money and goods online, as each part of the chain has to be analysed to make sure that it is not the weak link that will be the downfall of the entire system. In this document, I will be outlining some of the more common forms of e-commerce hardware, software and networking technologies that are commonly employed in the world of e-commerce. Software When choosing software to implement, one must think if it fulfils a number of criteria, some of these criteria would be things such as: †¢ Easy for the buyer to use, such as a â€Å"shopping basket† style interface †¢ Secure, for both the buyer’s details and the seller’s systems†¦show more content†¦From a more technical standpoint, the browsers and servers communicate by using a protocol known as TCP/IP, and it is vital that both the computers that are trying to communicate (in this case to make a sale, or purchase) are using the same protocol, otherwise communication between the systems is not possible. An IP address is a number used to identify systems from other systems on a network, his is also applied to the Internet, the world’s largest network, in the case of e-commerce an IP address is used much in the same way that an address is used in the real word, information is sent to the address in the real world (this would be in the form of a letter) and information is sent back to the IP that sent the data. An IP address can be used to view web pages in a browser, by being typed in the address bar, however due to them being long strings of numbers that are not easy for humans to remember, it is much more practical and commonplace to use a ‘domain name’ which takes the place of an IP address as a much more memorable and marketable name to do business under. A domain name is a string of characters such as letters or numbers that can generally be marketed as the business name, it can be paired with one or many IP addresses that belong to the same person, meaning that should someone wish to run their website on multiple servers with the same domain name, this is possible. The basic architectural design of an e-commerce system The

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Speech Analysis free essay sample

In David McCullough’s June 2012 Commencement Speech You Are Not Special, he argues that no one is really special. In this speech he is saying that everyone is alike somewhere and somehow. Even though he is seems to be bashing the graduating class, he still adds encouraging words. Throughout the whole speech he continuously states that you are not special, but then ending the speech with saying, â€Å"You are not special because everyone is. † I argue that both McCullough and Sierra use the strategies of adding comparison, list, and emotion to make their speech and article convincing. An article in response to McCullough’s speech, Open Letter from a millennial: Quit Telling Us We Are Not Special written by a woman named Sierra on June 25, 1012. Her response argues that this speech is not appropriate for the graduating class who are ready to take on the world. McCullough’s speech should be aimed towards the parent’s generation. We will write a custom essay sample on Speech Analysis or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Sierra states that the parents are responsible for the problems their children face. In the real world the high school diploma is worthless. Comparisons are used in both McCullough’s and Sierras work. Sierra uses the comparisons to compare what we know now to our childhood memories, such as the tooth fairy. â€Å"We stopped believing in our own specialness around the same time we stopped believing in the tooth fairy. † She is saying that at a young age, we realized that we are not as special as everyone said we were. McCullough uses comparisons as well. In the beginning of his speech he compares the high school diploma to marriage. Unlike marriages, we cannot separate, divorce, from our diplomas, like we could our spouses. Both McCullough and Sierra use lists to persuade their audience. In Sierras article she uses list to show how as children and teenagers we depend on our parents. Stating that they do work for you, and then call you lazy or telling and teacher that an â€Å"A† is not good enough and the list continues. She uses list to get her point across. Rather than just stating one fact, she gives them all. In McCullough’s speech, he uses lists as well. He states that children have been pampered, fed, catered to, and so on. He uses this to get across that we have been babied our entire lives, so will we be prepared for the real world? He also uses list with statistics stating that somewhere someone is just like you. McCullough uses â€Å"There are 3. 2 million seniors from 37,000 high schools. † He continues on with the numbers of class presidents, swagger jackers, and pairs of Uggs. This is to get across that no one is different and there is always another person with the exact same thing as you. McCullough uses more humor. This makes the speech less offensive to the audience. While reading this speech you don’t notice the humor much, but when actually viewing the speech it is more humorous to the crowd. What some might think is humorous others might not. In conclusion, even though both use similar strategies in their work McCullough’s article is more persuasive. He makes you actually think that you are not special by adding comparisons, lists and emotions.

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Theater Essays (265 words) - , Term Papers

Theater Chapter 7 The musical is a biography of Alexander Hamilton, based on Ron Chernow's non-fiction biography. The musical retains most of the main events of Hamilton's life but dramatizes parts of it for theatrical purpose. Hamilton was an immigrant to New York from the Caribbean, a Revolutionary War veteran and George Washington's helper of camp who eventually grow into the first Treasury secretary. Through his writings like "The Federalist Papers," which he co-authored with James Madison and John Jay, he's in charge for a lot of American political concept, specifically the U.S. economic and banking organization. Because he was illegal and came from poverty, he's considered a representation of the "self-made man" in America. He was also self-destructive and self-defeating in numerous ways, talents that made Lin-Manuel Miranda see his story as more fascinating. Hamilton lived a very miserable life as a kid, he was born by French mother and Scottish dad. He escaped poverty by educating himself and writing a letter that earned him a scholarship to kings college, which is now Columbia university. Fast-forward to seventeen seventy-six, Hamilton graduates and he is trying to get his idol attention, Aaron Burr. Then john lurens, hecules mulligan and de marqui de lafayatte walk in, that's when they started talking about starting a revolution and George Washington needed someone in charge. Burr wanted to get picked but George Washington picked Hamilton. Hamilton becomes a lawyer, proposes a new form of government and starts to defend a new US constitution by writing 51 essays.