DISCUSSION PAPER 1

Discussion

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: KFF Report

Author

Institutional affiliation
DISCUSSION PAPER 2
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) is a leading health insurance entity in the

US that prioritizes quality improvement and cost optimization for the health of US citizens. The

KFF health reforms report of 2019 on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act reveals

several pertinent health issues about public health, health coverage and legislative policies that

might positively or negatively affect the cost and quality of healthcare in the near future based on

the type of state administration in place ("Health Reform", 2019). This paper will discuss the

summaries of specific pieces of the ACA and their effect on the health status in the country.

As an individual, I believe that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act should

remain as a law in the country due to several public health reasons. Firstly, the ACA has

significantly increased healthcare coverage across the country as it focused on the uninsured and

the underinsured population. The increase in coverage has impacted the general community

positively, increasing the life expectancy in the country form 75 years to 78 years since its

inception ("Health Reform," 2019). Secondly, the law provides the consumers with a way of

holding the insurance companies accountable for the health quality they receive, while keeping

the costs down. This piece places pressures on the healthcare provider to give value-based care.

Based on the health reforms report by KFF, several features of the ACA that impact

health are not known. For instance, the act covers preventive healthcare at no cost for

subscribers. This aspect has massive positive implications for public health. This piece of the law

affects me as a citizen in such a way that it protects me as an individual from infectious diseases

through curbing transmission and aiding the eradication of certain illnesses and their causative

microbes (Barker, 2009). Secondly, the act grants consumers the ability to appeal coverage

determinations and paves the way for an external review procedure of health plans. This way, the

consumers take charge of their health management with insurance companies at their service, not

the other way round. This aspect of the act positively affects me as a citizen as coverage is more

liberal, and I can get the maximum out of my health plan as an individual.
DISCUSSION PAPER 3
References

Barker, A. M. (2009). Advanced practice nursing: Essential knowledge for the profession.

Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

Health Reform. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.kff.org/health-reform/