Reference no: EM133482071

Assignment:

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), colloquially called 'Obama Care' was signed into law in 2010 by the sitting president, President Obama. The primary goals are increasing the number of the insured, improving the quality of care, and reducing the costs of health care. It represents the most significant transformation of the American health care system since Medicare and Medicaid (Laxmaiah, et.al., 2011).

Before then "large disparities in health insurance coverage and access to health services have long persisted in the US Health system" (Buchmueller, et.al., 2019). According the Buchmueller, a general pattern after the ACA was that insurance coverage increased most among groups whose members were most likely to be uninsured before the reforms.

One of the important elements of the ACA in relation to community and public health is that Medicare and new private insurance policies are required to cover proven clinical preventive services at no cost to all and more attention is directed to primary and preventative care. Screening mammograms, preventive vaccines are given at no charge to the individual. Nurses are the largest group of health professionals that serve in the communities.

The role of the nurse in implementing the ACA law is to continue delivering quality care and patient education; take measures to prevent hospitals from acquiring infection to patients. Nurses should take advance to Advance Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) positions so they can prescribe, educate, and treat patients in the rural communities. Nurses should advance and expand their education and take leadership roles and positions so they can be part of health care policy makers.