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Policy Brief paper

By

Kanale Rodrigues
HSCI 660D
6/13/17
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Executive Summary

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obama Care, Only 8.6 percent of the United States

population remains uninsured in 2016. However, health disparities still remain high among the

low social economic status, minority groups, and families that live in high crime areas. Health

disparities can be improved upon with making improvements to the ACA, instead of having that

number increase with the repel of the ACA that is currently being viewed in the senate after

being passed through the house representatives during the month of May 2017.
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The new health care act named the American Health Care Act (AHCA) would lead to over 52

million United States Citizens to being uninsured in the year 2020.

The AHCA would

allow health care insurances to increase premiums for the senior population up to five times cost

that the ACA blocked. Citizens with pre-existing conditions switch plans might be charged a

higher premium rate if the insurance agency choices too. AHCA would also be cutting planned

parenthood funding, getting rid of the individual mandate that would allow insurance agencies

can increase prices of their coverages, and the minimum standard that health insurance agencies

had to give with their coverage by offering cheap plans that with what ever the health insurance
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company wants to provide (citation).

This bill would have

devastating effects on the low economic status, minority groups, and families that live in high

crime areas. Instead improving the ACA by using bipartisan decision-making amongst other

policymakers on the hill to give everyone in the country to have the resources to keep themselves

and their family strong and healthy. The real question is why I am explaining the impact of the

repel of the ACA to those that wrote the AHCA because as explained above about social status

those policymakers being the 1 percent have never had to take care of their families without

having insurance.

Context and Importance of the Problem

The United States public having access to health care coverage is not enough.

Understanding the specific communities needs and how best deliver resources is using the ACA

to the max potential. Families that are low economic status have higher levels of negative mental

health outcomes with the expansion of the market options of the ACA being dropped even lower
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in price by holding the insurance companies accountable to providing coverage to everyone. As

for minority groups that have health care insurance provide social workers and trained public

health workers to instruct patients how to properly take their medicine as well as develop a plan

to match patients with physicians that can speak the same language.

This would decrease

the likelihood of misunderstanding and decrease health disparities based on application of the

physicians instructions. However, repel of the ACA would remove all the hope of the millions

that have insurance because of the ACA. As policy makers just imagine a day you didnt know

where to take your sick family member because you didnt have health insurance, couldnt

effectively understand the physicians instructions, or didnt know if your children were going to

make it home safe every day. Well that is a day in the lives in which policymakers can influence

the actual health of over millions of Americans.

Critique of the Policy Options

The ACA is not perfect but can be improve to the best quality coverage to eliminating health

care disparities among the lower social status communities. However, repealing the ACA does
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nothing but put more money in the hands of the 1 percent as well as the policy makers for not

doing their job by protecting and serving those who elected them to office. Also, playing the low

social economic status lack of knowledge on health care never explained to the public that ACA

and Obama care were the same thing, which lead to communities not signing up based on

political party differences.

Policy Recommendations

The ACA could be improved by providing more funds to employers that have to provide

health insurance to their employees as well as be fined for having certain amount of part-time

workers so that more workers can be full time to receive benefits. Also, the ACA should

measure the number of household owners there are to family members instead of coverage based

solely on income. This would allow single parents that just make above the federal poverty line

to still receive coverage even though are above the federal poverty line. This would decrease

health disparities among the low economic status because they would have at least have accesses

to healthcare could improve health care to the target community. Provide increased federal funds

to provide trained workers to educate patients on ACA enrollment and as well as how to properly

administer their medication that physicians have instructed the patient to do, in the long run will

cut down on reoccurring visits to the hospital. Lastly, more coverage options can be added to

specific location so that the sole provider in that area cant charge what they want just because

theyre the only provider in the area. Once again improving the ACA would decrease overall

health disparities of communities that lower end of the social status landscape. To conclude

policy makers need to start using more empathy when making decision instead of playing on the
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hate and misunderstanding of the United States public. Health disparities can be much improved

with the improvement of the ACA.

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References:

Butler, D. C., Petterson, S., Phillips, R. L., & Bazemore, A. W. (2012). Measures of Social Deprivation

That Predict Health Care Access and Need within a Rational Area of Primary Care Service

Delivery. Health Services Research,48(2pt1), 539-559. doi:10.1111/j.1475- 6773.2012.01449.x

Improve and Repair: Three Ideas to Strengthen the ACA. (2016, January 01). Retrieved June 14, 2017,

from http://democracyjournal.org/magazine/38/improve-and-repair/

F. (n.d.). ObamaCare Enrollment Numbers. Retrieved June 14, 2017, from

https://obamacarefacts.com/sign-ups/obamacare-enrollment-numbers/

Singer, P. (2017, May 04). What does the Republican Obamacare repeal bill actually do? Retrieved June 14,

2017, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/05/04/what-does- the-republican-

obamacare-repeal-bill-actually-do/101278668/