NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE

NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE

Sample Answer for NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE Included After Question

Regardless of political affiliation, individuals often grow concerned when considering perceived competing interests of government and their impact on topics of interest to them. The realm of healthcare is no different. Some people feel that local, state, and federal policies and legislation can be either helped or hindered by interests other than the benefit to society.

Consider for example that the number one job of a legislator is to be reelected. Cost can be measured in votes as well as dollars. Thus, it is important to consider the legislator’s perspective on either promoting or not promoting a certain initiative in the political landscape.

RESOURCES

Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.

WEEKLY RESOURCES

To Prepare:

  • Review the Resources and reflect on efforts to repeal/replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
  • Consider who benefits the most when policy is developed and in the context of policy implementation.

BY DAY 3 OF WEEK 3

Post an explanation for how you think the cost-benefit analysis in terms of legislators being reelected affected efforts to repeal/replace the ACA. Then, explain how analyses of the voters views may affect decisions by legislative leaders in recommending or positioning national policies (e.g., Congress’ decisions impacting Medicare or Medicaid). Remember, the number one job of a legislator is to be re-elected. Please check your discussion grading rubric to ensure your responses meet the criteria.

BY DAY 6 OF WEEK 3

Respond to at least two of your colleagues* on two different days by expanding on their explanation and providing an example that supports their explanation or respectfully challenging their explanation and providing an example.

*Note: Throughout this program, your fellow students are referred to as colleagues.

 

A Sample Answer For the Assignment: NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE

Title: NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE  

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), famously known as Obamacare, sought to enhance universal healthcare access by making health insurance to be inexpensive for all Americans. ACA targeted individual market, employer-provided benefits, and non-Medicare-eligible population to ensure they accessed affordable and comprehensive insurance coverage without any discrimination on the basis of their health status (Nadash, Miller, Jones, Gusmano, & Rosenbaum, 2018). The Republican Party seeks to stop government interference in the insurance market. It has spearheaded efforts to repeal and replace the ACA through the courts terming it as unconstitutional. Additionally, several states have shown open hostility to the law since it expanded the Medicaid coverage. Besides, House and Senate Republicans have sponsored several repeal initiatives such as Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) and Graham-Cassidy bills (Nadash et al., 2018). The constant onslaught of the ACA from President Trump and Republicans has led to an increase in premiums and several insurers withdrawing from selling the insurance plans in the recent past. The early success of the ACA, whereby millions of Americans secured insurance coverage through the individual markets, subsidies for low-income individuals, and Medicaid, have been eroded.

NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE
NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE

The Impact of Cost-Benefit Analysis

Milstead and Short (2019) argue that the supporters and critics of ACA include the members of Congress whose main objective is to be re-elected during the election cycles. The opponent’s debates and efforts to repeal and replacement of ACA in both President Obama and Trump’s administrations are deliberate for political expediency as opposed to promoting public health and well-being. Furthermore, the political elites do not perform a cost-benefit analysis of the effectiveness of the ACA to enable them to compromise on a bipartisan basis about the contentious issues contained in the law, such as the insurance mandates, Medicaid, insurance plans, and tax credits. NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE

Analysis of Votes

Notably, the ACA resulted in a progressive American tax system whereby the wealthy individuals were obligated to pay higher federal taxes, 3.8% more on taxes on unearned income and a 0.9% increase in Medicare payroll taxes. The new tax revenue was earmarked to fund the expansions proposed by the ACA (Grogan, 2017). Additionally, the law delimited the out-of-pocket costs for marketplace insurance coverage, specifically $13,200 and $6,600 for family and individual plans (Grogan, 2017). The subsidies and financing options of ACA ensured equitable access to healthcare and lowered the financial burden of healthcare costs for the majority of low-income Americans. According to Congressional Budget Office, The Joint Committee on Taxation, and The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, repealing and replacing the ACA will increase Medicaid costs by over $370 billion over the next decade, which would be covered by the states (Grogan, 2017). Besides, eliminating tax directives will benefit the wealthiest people since they will be able to save almost $600 billion through 2026 (Grogan, 2017). Despite such cost-benefit analysis being conducted to determine the effect of repealing and replacing ACA, the legislators focus on their re-election prospects while discussing the merits and demerits of Obamacare. The lawmakers’ support for ACA must be consistent with the views of their electorates and donors. For instance, voting against the Act would have been contrary to the desires of most Republicans, and they risked losing their elective seats in the House or Senate.

Conclusion.

It is evident that ACA not only resulted in national Medicaid expansions and subsidized Marketplace coverage, but it also reduced the cost of medical care and improved access to health services for patients in various age groups. These results would be what any leader would like to experience in their country, that is easy access to affordable and quality care for all people. Nevertheless, legislators would be willing to disregard these benefits to the society if all their chances of re-election would not be increased by them

supporting the ACA. It is on the same basis that members of Congress will make decisions on whether to reject or recommend national policies concerning Medicaid/Medicare. Politicians rely on donors and lobbyists for financial support to win their elections. In healthcare, these funders could be medical organizations that are negatively affected by the particular policy under deliberation. As such, to ensure that they continue to receive support from these agencies, legislators have to cater to the interest of their donor and vote to reject a policy that could otherwise, benefit the society. However, this does not mean that they do not believe passing such a proposal into law would be in the best interest of the public. The members of the U.S. Congress usually align with their left- or right-wing political affiliation and support legislations to appease their electorates, lobbyists, and sponsors purposely to ensure they retain their Senate or House seats as opposed to promoting public good in a bipartisan manner.

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References

Grogan, C. M. (2017). How the ACA addressed health equity and what repeal would mean. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 42(5), 985-993.

Milstead, J. A., & Short, N. M. (2019). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (6th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Nadash, P., Miller, E. A., Jones, D. K., Gusmano, M. K., & Rosenbaum, S. (2018). A series of unfortunate events: implications of Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act for older adults. Journal of Aging & Social Policy, 30(3-4), 259-281.

A Sample Answer 2 For the Assignment: NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE

Title: NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE  

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was set in motion to help improve the health equity of persons in the United States. It is argued that the Trump administration has no set goal of improving health equity (Grogan, 2017). Grogan (2017) reports that the ACA proposed replacement will decrease the availability of healthcare coverage; low-income Americans will pay higher insurance premiums and remove the taxation on wealthy Americans, therefore, reducing the number of tax dollars for healthcare expenditures. Changes being proposed by the Trump administration could completely dissolve the efforts made by the ACA.  Grogan (2017) predicts if the repeal goes through, our country will be on the road to more significant health inequities and an increased amount of health disparities.

Politicians have to rely on others for financial support. Campaigns can cost millions of dollars. This money comes mostly from wealthy individuals, large organizations, or specialty groups that support the agenda or that will pay for the politician to promote their agenda. In the 2016 election cycle, I found it interesting that the healthcare sector contributed over 236,000,000 dollars, most of that to Republican parties (Milstead & Short, 2019). Although necessary to need financial contributions, I find that it is appalling that politicians would choose to support an agenda that risks the health of the American people, just for their monetary gain. Haselswerdt (2017) reports that poor health drains resources, time, and money. Americans spent 3.6 Trillion dollars in healthcare in 2018 (“Historical,” n.d.). It would seem that politicians would want to decrease the amount spent on healthcare and move to more preventative health, which would include persons being able to be insured.

Grogan, C. M. (2017). How the ACA Addressed Health Equity and What Repeal Would Mean. Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law, 42(5), 985-993. https://doi-eor.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1215/03616878-3940508

Haselswerdt, J. (2017). Expanding Medicaid, Expanding the Electorate. The Affordable Care Act’s Short-Term Impact on Political Participation. Journal of Health Politics, Policy & Law, 42(4), 668-695. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1215/03616878-3856107

Historical. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2020, from https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/NationalHealthAccountsHistorical

Milstead, J. A., & Short, N. M. (2019). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide(6thed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. 

A Sample Answer 3 For the Assignment: NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE

Title: NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE  

I think your post was very informative. The United States is leading in healthcare spending per capita, however; ranking only 37th in health outcomes as opposed to European counterparts (Nix, 2016). As advanced practice clinicians, the majority of us also agreed with the legislative intent to develop business models. Patient-centered, quality-focused, and cost-effective care is crucial to the survival of the healthcare organization in addition to access to proper health insurance.

To add to your statement, I agree that politicians do rely heavily on financial support. As they enter the race, asking for money requires a campaign organization focused on finding communicating with and cultivating supporters(Vavreck, 2015). Politicians gain supporters through their agendas for financial benefit. It is disturbing to me as well with all the money spent on healthcare, we still rank low in regard to health outcomes. Seems to me the bigger issues are not being proposed because the wealthy do not have the same issues or agendas as lower-class citizens of America. In order for Politicians to get re-elected, they must follow through their campaign with the same itineraries’ as financial lenders. More supporters, more money, more votes. Your post was refreshing to read because it gave an opinion outside of the norm.

References

Nix, T., & Szostek, L. (2016). Evolution of Physician-Centric Business Models Under the

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. ScholarWorks.

Vavreck, L. (2015, September 3). Why fund-raising is important, even if you are Trump. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/upshot/what-fund-raising-would-reveal-about-trumps-campaign.html

A Sample Answer 4 For the Assignment: NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE

Title: NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE  

You are right, it is imperative that heath care professionals, like us, understand the processes and stand informed on health care policies. The Affordable Care Act’s main goal was to “improve the health of Americans by increasing the number covered by health insurance” (Dalen, ect., 2015). It is true that a vast majority of Republicans want to repeal the ACA, however polls continue to show that the ACA is supported by less than 50% Americans (Dalen, ect., 2015). While the ACA has had a positive impact on many Americans, it too has made an impact elsewhere. For example, to assist in the coverage of the ACA spending, Obamacare made cuts to Medicare spending, which ultimately has “impact seniors’ ability to access care and the quality of care” (Senger, 2015). 

  References 

Dalen, J. E., Waterbrook, K., & Alpert, J. S. (2015). Why do so Many Americans Oppose the Affordable Care Act? The American Journal of Medicine, 128(8), 807–810. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2015.01.032  

Senger, A. (2015, January 21). Five reasons to repeal Obamacare. The Heritage Foundation. https://www.heritage.org/health-care-reform/commentary/five-reasons-repeal-obamacare.  

A Sample Answer 5 For the Assignment: NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE

Title: NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE  

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted in 2010, and it considerably changed the U.S. health care landscape. The goals of the ACA were to make insurance coverage more affordable, reduce the number of uninsured, and expand access to care. To attain these goals, the ACA expanded eligibility for Medicaid and established new marketplaces where Americans without employer coverage could purchase policies directly from insurers (Oberlander, 2017). The ACA faced strong opposition from Republicans, who described it as unrealistic because it required every American to have medical insurance (Oberlander, 2017). When the Trump administration took power in 2017, the president and Congress members of the Republican Party vowed to replace the ACA. However, one year after taking office, Republicans could not agree on whether to repeal the ACA immediately, repeal right away and replace it later, or repeal it later after establishing a replacement strategy (Oberlander, 2017).  Although the Republicans repealed parts of the ACA, including the budgetary and fiscal provisions, they did not replace it.

The Senate Republicans’ failure to honor their promise of passing a bill to replace ACA, can be attributed to the unpopularity of this bill to the public. The legislators had to assess the political impact of repealing the ACA with no replacement on their chances of being reelected (McCarthy, 2017). They had to perform a cost-benefit analysis on the cost of repealing the ACA on the future chance of being reelected and the benefits of repealing it. For instance, if the Senate replaced the ACA right away, with no replacement, the number of uninsured Americans would increase drastically, which would be opposed by their voters (McCarthy, 2017). This would negatively affect the public view of the lawmakers on their constituents, and lower their odds of being reelected if they did not have a better plan to replace the ACA.  Besides, the cost-benefit analysis can explain why the Republicans had two canceled votes in March 2017 and had to introduce a new amendment to the American Health Care Act to unite the party behind the bill (McCarthy, 2017). The failure to replace the ACA as promised shows that lawmakers can be unwilling to support bills that are a potential threat to their election results in upcoming elections.

Legislative leaders’ decisions regarding recommending or positioning national policies are often influenced by their voters’ views. Voters are known to influence legislators’ policy choices and are at times forced to compromise their choices including partisan politicians (Pacheco & Maltby, 2017). Lawmakers have to consider their voters’ views before making a policy decision that affects their constituents to maintain a positive public image (Pacheco & Maltby, 2017). In the case the voters’ views contradict a legislator’s decision regarding a policy, the lawmaker is forced to compromise their position on the policy and move to the center.

Failing to take the voters’ views can have negative consequences on the law maker’s future elections. Furthermore, to continue supporting and voting for a legislator in future elections constituents must remain convinced that their lawmaker is listening to them and consider their views (Pacheco & Maltby, 2017). For instance, members of congress had to assess the voters’ view on repealing the ACA provisions that would cut funding for Medicaid or change Medicaid to a block grant program. Since many Americans benefited from the expansion of Medicaid, it affected Congress’ decision to pass bills that would hinder their voters’ access to the program and ultimately affect their public image.

References

McCarthy, M. (2017). U.S Republican attempt to repeal and replace Affordable Care Act collapses. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j3508

Oberlander, J. (2017). Repeal, replace, repair, retreat—Republicans’ health care quagmire. New England Journal of Medicine, 377(11), 1001-1003.

Pacheco, J., & Maltby, E. (2017). The role of public opinion—does it influence the diffusion of ACA decisions?. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 42(2), 309-340.https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-3766737

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For assignments that need to be submitted to Lopes Write, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.

Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.

Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?

Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.

Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.

If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.

I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.

As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:

Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.

Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

  • Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
  • There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
  • Include in-text citations in your response
  • Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
  • Follow APA-7th edition
  • Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

  • A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
  • Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
  • Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
  • Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
  • Follow APA 7th edition
  • Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
  • Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
  • Here are some helpful links
  • Student paper example
  • Citing Sources
  • The Writing Center is a great resource

A Sample Answer 6 For the Assignment: NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE

Title: NURS 6050 Discussion Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act SAMPLE  

There is no question that political parties weigh little when it comes to matters that affect the welfare of the populace. The case in point is health care. There is a notion out there that the enactment of a given law is usually influenced by a vote at the polling station. The political climate has been that discussions about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have created division among us and this is seen when individuals elected by the people only act on things that appeal to the voters. History has therefore taught us that voters’ expectations shape the debate and outcome of a given law. Owing to the voters’ expectations, individuals running for political offices must work hard to be elected or re-elected. Voters anticipate that politicians will be sensible when weighing the pros and cons of a given law. In this case, the pros would be the support a politician gets from supporting given legislation and the cons would be the opposition he/she gets as a consequence of his action.

The vast majority of Americans show little interest when it comes to matters concerning the repeal and replacement of ACA. All they care about is whether they will have health care coverage tomorrow and whether prescription drugs will still be affordable. On the other hand, providers want to serve the people without imposing exorbitant prices. The state views the ACA as an opportunity to conserve the existing job numbers and businesses.

Although the ACA has recorded a huge success, it still faces the possibility of being repealed and replaced. Several proposals have been put forth to either repeal or replace the ACA. There is a proposal to leave the ACA the way it is and not repeal or replace it. The effect of this proposal would be that the federal government will have to spend more on the ACA and this in turn will increase the federal debt. Voters who care about the federal debt would not support this proposal.

Some politicians have proposed to repeal and replace ACA with the American Health Security Act. With this proposal, health care cost is expected to increase by 1 trillion, a concern to people who are worried about the government debt. It is also said that endorsing this proposal will cause a decrease in expenditure and an increase in the number of people without health care coverage by 10 million. (Rand Corporation, 2019)

Another proposal is to repeal ACA and not replace it at all. It is anticipated that this proposal will save the government approximately $1 trillion – money that will be channeled to other government programs. The richest 1% support this proposal in that it will reduce their tax burden. However, this proposal would lead to an increase in insurance premiums and an estimated 15% of the population will have no health care coverage. The proposal is supported by voters who would health care coverage get health care coverage elsewhere. This proposal would not win support from the 40 million people who would go without health care coverage because they do not have the financial ability to afford coverage.

The single-payer approach was also proposed to replace ACA. The single-payer approach includes the American Health Care Act (AHCA). The AHCA aimed at abolishing the individual mandate. The single-payer approach established continuous coverage for individuals with or without coverage and changed the income-based rate to a fixed age-based rate. It is anticipated that this proposal would initially increase the deficit by 40 million before bringing it down to 6 million. This proposal would also deny health care coverage to 15 million Americans. Individuals concerned with the federal debt would be in favor of this proposal as opposed to the 15 million people who would go without coverage due to the proposal. The politicians who support the proposal would garner support from voters who are concerned with the government debt and lose the support of the 15 million who do not have health care coverage (Rand Corporation, 2019).

The above analysis speaks to the influence voters have on political decisions.