Long Beach Family Doctor ACA on Work & Marriage Discussion

Discussion # 9: Essential Benefits under Health LawMust post first.

The new health reform legislation gives 10 categories of “essential” care that plans must provide for customers of the health insurance exchanges that are launching in 2014. But the law leaves details up to regulators, who are now starting to develop the rules.

Question:

Discuss and justify your position by defining why you think the essential benefits under the health law could be proven difficult.

Due Date: – Post your discussion (350-500 word count)

*Support your arguments by citing and referencing all the sources according to APA style. (minimum of 3 references)

Discussion # 10: The Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Work and Marriage

Though the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is most often discussed in terms of its effects on health insurance and medical care costs, the ACA will have numerous effects in various facets of American society. Specifically, its financial and taxing system will create incentives that perhaps the authors of the bill did not foresee, including that the average American worker will be discouraged from marrying and working in a wide range of circumstances, says Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute.

The primary difficulty with this system is that it stipulates an individual’s premium payment toward their health insurance based on household income, failing to account for the circumstances of the family structure.

• This negatively affects incentives to marry because marrying (and the shared household that customarily follows) serves to combine the spouses’ incomes.
• When this combination moves a couple into a higher bracket of income (measured as a percentage of the poverty line) than the two people were in prior to marriage, it reduces the government’s assistance in paying for their health care significantly.
• Thus, the ACA’s premium payment rate structure makes marriage financially costlier.

Additionally, the ACA’s structure furthers this problem by reducing incentives to work — especially in married couples. Upon getting married couples will undoubtedly notice that their health insurance premium will become significantly more expensive. The difficulty with this situation is that many will respond by attempting to make less money, thereby moving the newlywed couple back into a lower bracket.

Question:

How can this drive manifest itself in several ways, whether they be that one of the spouses no longer attempts to get a promotion or leaves the workforce altogether?

Due Date: – Post your discussion (350-500 word count)

*Support your arguments by citing and referencing all the sources according to APA style. (minimum of 3 references)

Discussion # 11: The Family Doctor, Minus the M.D.

Must post first.

To meet rising demands for health care, a new form of clinics has begun to emerge: clinics run by nurse practitioners, says the New York Times.

• About 250 health clinics across America are now completely run by nurse practitioners.
• These nurses require a master’s degree that includes two or three years of advanced training in treating and diagnosing diseases.
• A new proposal endorsed by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing for 2015 would require nurse practitioners to have a doctorate of nursing practice.

Many of these nurse practitioners are limited in what they can and can’t do based on state law. In some states, nurse practitioners are completely free to treat patients and give prescriptions. However, some states won’t allow these clinics without at least one trained physician.

These clinics staffed with nurse practitioners offer an avenue for alleviating some of the strain being put on primary care physicians. Indeed, the Affordable Care Act will bring 32 million uninsured people into the health system and there aren’t enough primary care physicians to cover them. Furthermore, physicians are poorly distributed, many of them opting to work in urban areas rather than rural towns.

Some critics of having nurse practitioners run clinics argue that the quality of care is compromised for patients.

• However, data has shown nurse practitioners provide good quality care.
• One-hundred and eighteen published studies over 18 years found that nurse practitioner-led clinics were at the least equivalent, if not better, when compared to doctor-led clinics.

Moreover, nurse-led clinics are cheaper than traditional doctor-led practices. Furthermore, these clinics are small and don’t need a variety of practitioners to keep the clinic at full capacity. Finally, nurse practitioner-led clinics provide patients with an alternative to the emergency room, which results in large savings.

Question:

Discuss your position and analyse how this problem could become major problem and affect more American in the future.

YOU MUST USE REFERENCES TO SUPPORT YOUR POSITION.

Due Date: 12/2/20 – Post your discussion (350-500 word count)

Due Date: 12/4/20 – Post comments on at least 2 classmates (minimum of 150 word count each)

*Support your arguments by citing and referencing all the sources according to APA style. (minimum of 3 references)

Article to read:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/the-family-doctor-minus-the-m-d/