Benchmark - Population Health Policy Analysis

Benchmark - Population Health Policy Analysis

Diabetes-related mortality and morbidity have continued affecting both racial and ethnic minorities. Diabetes-related mortality morbidity is double higher when compared to the whites who are non-Hispanic. When a comparison is made among those, 12.6% of African American adults have been affected with diabetes than all the non-Hispanic whites, which comprises 7.1% of non-Hispanic whites (Berkowitz et al., 2015). As a result, minorities seek healthcare services due to diabetes-related diseases, mostly diabetes retinopathy, end-stage renal disease, and lower extremity amputations. Nonetheless, for the challenges contributing to various health disparities between minor ethnic and racial groups effectively, the formulation of different interventions should be done using multifactorial approaches, i.e., healthcare policies.  In accordance to most research proves, it is confirmed that interventions which are culturally tailored that include the collaboration of the public, community, and healthcare system for the reduction of health disparities, improvement in disease management, and improvement in health outcome are fit to help in solving the challenge of disease burden to the underserved population such as  African Americans (King, Moreno, Coleman, & Williams, 2018).  It is valid for diabetes since activities that affect diabetes self-management involve the significance of regular physical exercise and maintaining a proper diet, significantly affected by infrastructure and the regional government or the community's help. My paper concentrates on accessible and affordable health care act policy, which is made to boost the quality of healthcare services at a cost that can be afforded by minorities and help manage diabetes among the African American population. 

The formulation of The Affordable Care Act was to offer help in boosting accessibility to healthcare services through the expansion of insurance coverage. Although several aspects regarding the affordable care act applied to individuals from entire socioeconomic strata, significant features of the law concentrated on improving healthcare coverage among individuals earning low income, i.e., African Americans (Buchmueller, Levinson, Levy, & Wolfe, 2016). Federal subsidies, which is a significant feature of the law, aims increasing eligibility for Medic aid to entire Citizens in the United States of America, earning an income of as low as 138% of the federal poverty level. However, to those earning an income of between 100 to 400% of poverty, those who can purchase insurance on the exchange recently created significant premium subsidies that have been put aside.  During the year 2014, the affordable care act leads to a reduction in the number of African American individuals who are not insured as compared to whites (Schmittdiel et al., 2017). In general, the Affordable Healthcare Act has reformed the health care system by improving primary care since those who provide are concentrating more who need more attention ( sickest). Such patients account for most of the national health expenditure, thus making the policy financially sound. Besides, this policy has to lead to a reduction in the cost of healthcare services while boosting the quality of healthcare services since medical experts get paid according to their outcome (quality) rather than their workload (quantity). 

The supreme court supported the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) policy whose main goal was to guide to the state, employers, insurers, and customers on whatever is expected of them during implementation pf the ACA, to forego ethical, legal or disparities in politics (Griffith, Evans, & Bor, 2017). The patient protection and affordable care act policy (PPACA) is made up of reforms, including expanding Medicaid eligibility, stopping insurers' repudiation of coverage for pre-existing health conditions, and providing incentives for enterprises to give healthcare benefits, and subsidization of insurance premiums. During the policy implementation, in the PPACA, a nursing perspective of a client not getting dropped when they fall ill by insurance firms is also included (Islam et al., 2015). Every nurse should ensure that the policy guarantees ethical rights of the patient, for example, an improvement in the quality of health,  patients being given freedom of choice on "who," "when," and "where" they can easily access health care services, and how affordable is the healthcare. 

Due to the introduction of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), under ACA, healthcare centers have been given an incentive for prioritization on population-centered health and co-operate with providers, clients, and other healthcare personnel's in the public health, social service sector, and community, to widen the results of the health system, regulate costs of health, and promote better healthcare services to reduce the problem of chronic diseases such as diabetes and boost healthcare outcome (Myerson, & Laiteerapong, 2016) since there are increasing cases of chronic diseases such as diabetes, mostly among ethnic minors or racial minors, the policy targets at formulating an evidence-based intervention for addressing the management of diabetes between the community and healthcare settings to acquire the aim of curbing disease burden in African Americans who commonly ethnic minorities. 

To make sure that the entire community within a marginalized population gets maximum benefit from ACA, I will make sure that there is support in patient education and public awareness by several integrated systems and community linkages. There is a need for African Americans with diabetes to be informed of how important is health coverage when managing diabetes. For example, African Americans need to be informed that approximated 18% of the national GDP in the United States on healthcare expenses contributed to the treatment of diabetes. Accordingly, involved care costs the United States approximately $237 billion every year in direct medical costs (Hayes, Riley, Radley, & McCarthy, 2017). And because of delayed detection of the problems among psychological difficulties, there is a likeliness of African Americans to get medical attention when at tertiary stages that might be even more expensive.  Early detection and effective management of the disease will be achieved through insurance coverage. The African American will be given the privilege by insurance cover of taking part in a routine clinic service such as HbA1c testing, comprehensive dilated eye exams, and complete foot exams, that offers support in the reduction of complications of diabetes and mortality rates (Ramírez, Estrada, & Ruiz, 2017). Having the information above, people within the marginalized community will discover the significance of getting an insurance cover and benefit maximumly from the affordable care act. Besides, I will wholeheartedly offer encouragement of developing support groups for patients who have diabetes that will enable them to enjoy educational support exercising a healthy lifestyle, for example, taking a balanced diet and the type of physical exercise to engage in. Lastly, I will make sure that there is an equal distribution of healthcare resources to benefit even the homeless and the low-income earners, as stated in the policy. 

To conclude, the system of health care in the present world is based on the "medical model," in which a significant number of healthcare providers concentrate only on diagnosing and treating both physical and mental conditions. Although we, like most Christians, a registered nurse must support human dignity and give patient-centered care that is designed as per the needs, values, preferences, and choices of the diabetic patient (Balint, & George, 2015). Besides enhancing health and curbing diseases among a diversified population, a nurse should make sure that she has incorporated spiritual dimensions within nursing practices that are not different from nursing science. Through this, spiritual care guarantees that the nurse concentrates on the patient recovering physically and on his or her quality of life, well-being, and general functioning.     

References

Balint, K. A., & George, N. M. (January 01, 2015). Faith community nursing scope of practice: extending access to healthcare. Journal of Christian Nursing: a Quarterly Publication of Nurses Christian Fellowship, 32, 1, 34-40. 

Berkowitz, S. A., Meigs, J. B., DeWalt, D., Seligman, H. K., Barnard, L. S., Bright, O.-J. M., Schow, M., ... Wexler, D. J., (February 01, 2015). Material Need Insecurities, Control of Diabetes Mellitus, and Use of Health Care Resources: Results of the Measuring Economic Insecurity in Diabetes Study. Jama Internal Medicine, 175, 2, 257. 

Buchmueller, T. C., Levinson, Z. M., Levy, H. G., & Wolfe, B. L. (January 01, 2016). Effect of the Affordable Care Act on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Insurance Coverage. American Journal of Public Health, 106, 8, 1416-21. 

Griffith, K., Evans, L., & Bor, J. (August 01, 2017). The Affordable Care Act Reduced Socioeconomic Disparities In Health Care Access. Health Affairs, 36, 8, 1503-1510. 

Hayes, S. L., Riley, P., Radley, D. C., & McCarthy, D. (January 01, 2017). Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Access to Care: Has the Affordable Care Act Made a Difference?. Issue Brief (Commonwealth Fund), 2017, 1-14. 

Islam, N., Nadkarni, S. K., Zahn, D., Skillman, M., Kwon, S. C., & Trinh-Shevrin, C. (January 01, 2015). Integrating Community Health Workers Within Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Implementation. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. 

King, C. J., Moreno, J., Coleman, S. V., & Williams, J. F. (December 01, 2018). Diabetes mortality rates among African Americans: A descriptive analysis pre and post-Medicaid expansion. Preventive Medicine Reports, 12, 20-24. 

Myerson, R., & Laiteerapong, N. (April 01, 2016). The Affordable Care Act and Diabetes Diagnosis and Care: Exploring the Potential Impacts. Current Diabetes Reports, 16, 4, 1-8. 

Ramírez, A. S., Estrada, E., & Ruiz, A. (August 01, 2017). Mapping the Health Information Landscape in a Rural, Culturally Diverse Region: Implications for Interventions to Reduce Information Inequality. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 38, 4, 345-362. 

Schmittdiel, J. A., Gopalan, A., Chau, C. V., Adams, A. S., Lin, M. W., Banerjee, S., & Chau, C. V. (May 01, 2017). Population Health Management for Diabetes: Health Care System-Level Approaches for Improving Quality and Addressing Disparities. Current Diabetes Reports, 17, 5.