Group Identity When I looked over the list of possible interest groups that I could choose from Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA) automatically stood out to me. I chose this interest group because my major is Physical Therapy and I figured it would be interesting to track this semester because of the changes currently happening in health care right now. I had never heard of this interest group before so I had to find their website. When I started searching for it I had some difficulty finding it because another interest group kept coming up called America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). I kept looking at it and found out that HIAA had merged with American Association of Health Plans (AAHP) to form America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). America's Health Insurance Plan's URL is www.ahip.org that they use to post updates. Goals America's Health Insurance Plan helps unite everything in health care. By uniting doctors, patients, pharmacists, and everything else in today's health care America's Health Insurance Plan helps make everything run smoother. Since I began looking through America's Health Insurance Plan's website in places such as their Who We Are and Our Value links I have been very impressed with what they are trying to do. AHIP is making it easier to stay in good health by making health care more affordable and safe. The big political issue with health care right now is the Affordable Care Act or as some call it ObamaCare. AHIP supports coverage to millions of Americans that the Affordable Care Act brings, but they also believe that it raises costs of insurance and causes many problems. The AHIP is a very important interest group that I did not even know about. I do like their goals and the direction they w... ... middle of paper ... ...nd regulators. AHIP is not only heard in Washington either, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and in all fifty states. This interest group is helping politicians make educated decisions because many of its members know the flaws in health care today since they see it everyday when they go to work. Since the group has major pull in Washington D.C., they have influence on the issues in health care that our government has to make a stance on. The big issues that AHIP are involved in right now deal with the Affordable Care Act. Because it has brought many changes, the AHIP are trying to help fix the issues with it even though they do not fully support it. I like this interest group because many different people can join which allows a wide variety of people that care about health care give their opinion on certain issues and have their voice heard.
One of the most controversial topics in the United States in recent years has been the route which should be undertaken in overhauling the healthcare system for the millions of Americans who are currently uninsured. It is important to note that the goal of the Affordable Care Act is to make healthcare affordable; it provides low-cost, government-subsidized insurance options through the State Health Insurance Marketplace (Amadeo 1). Our current president, Barack Obama, made it one of his goals to bring healthcare to all Americans through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. This plan, which has been termed “Obamacare”, has come under scrutiny from many Americans, but has also received a large amount of support in turn for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons include a decrease in insurance discrimination on the basis of health or gender and affordable healthcare coverage for the millions of uninsured. The opposition to this act has cited increased costs and debt accumulation, a reduction in employer healthcare coverage options, as well as a penalization of those already using private healthcare insurance.
Interest groups, lobbyists, large corporations, and PACs try to influence the congressional committees' bills so they can have a say in the legislative process. When an interest group hears about a bill that is being debated on in a committee, they try to influence a members vote and they try to get a part of the bill changed. For example, a lobbyist came to me on a bill I proposed on making health care plans have no minimum requirement on benefits the company gives to its patients. He told me about how he did not get the right treatments and tests done on diseases he has and now is suffering badly from them. It was because the health plan did not have to give him anything extra. He changed my mind on the bill, and I changed the bill to setting a minimum standard on benefits given to patients.
It is enthralling to note that in spite of the advances in healthcare systems, such as our hospital’s ability to provide patients with lower cost, managed One being the Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO), which was first proposed in the 1960s by Dr. Paul Elwood in the "Health Maintenance Strategy”. The HMO concept was created to decrease increasing health care costs and was set in law as the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973, after promotion from the Nixon Administration. HMO would, in exchange for a fee, allow members access to employed physicians and facilities. In return, the HMO received market access and could earn federal development funds.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA is a statute endorsed by the U.S. Congress in 1996. It offers protections for many American workers which improves portability and continuity of health insurance coverage. The seven titles of the final law are Title I - Health care Access , Portability, Title II - Preventing Health Care Fraud and Abuse; administrative simplification; Medical Liability Reform; Title III – Tax-related Health Provisions; Title IV – Application and Enforcement of Group Health Plan Requirements; Title V – Revenue Offsets; Title XI – General Provisions, Peer Review, Administrative Simplification; Title XXVII – Assuring Portability, Availability and Renewability of Health Insurance Coverage. (Krager & Krager, 2008)
Healthcare in the U.S. has recently been affected by implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010. The intent is to create a healthca...
The KKK was set up to build an all white society based on Christian beliefs. They claim that
Health Maintenance Organizations, or HMO’s, are a very important part of the American health care system. Also referred to as managed care programs, HMO's are combinations of doctors and insurance companies that are formed into one organization. This organization provides treatment to its members at fixed costs and decides on what treatment, if any, will be given based on the patient's or doctor's current health plan. Sometimes, no treatment is given at all. HMO's main concerns are to control costs and supposedly provide the best possible treatment to their patients. But it seems to the naked eye that instead their main goal is to get more people enrolled so that they can maintain or raise current premiums paid by consumers using their service. For HMO's, profit comes first- not patients' lives.
In the early years of 2009 to 2010 the political process pushed health care through legislation led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Health care and government, 2013). This process was extraordinarily tiring, as many defenders of the bills passing were present. Many congressional members “dug their heels in”, and wanted to slow down the process even more as confusion about the bill was posed (Health care and government, 2013). Despite opposition by many sides of the American people, a Democrat-dominated House of Representatives passed the bill and the Affordable Care Act was signed into action on March 21, 2010 (Hogberg, 2013). Indeed, all three branches of government were instrumental with the passing the Affordable Care Act into place.
The beginnings of the Affordable Care Act started in 2008 when Barack Obama was running for president. He said “On healthcare reform, the American people are too often offered two extremes - government-run healthcare with higher taxes or letting the insurance companies operate without rules...I believe both of these extremes are wrong”. Obama won the Presidential election that November. In March of 2009 a “health summit” was brought together and Governor Kathleen
In 2009, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) and former ANA President Rebecca M. Patton, MSN, RN, CNOR witnessed this historical moment. American nurses celebrate with satisfaction, because their hard work paid off, enacting historical health care reform legislation that benefits not only nurses but their patient as well. Despite that the health care reform is now a reality, is important to keep working in order to make sure that the reform is implemented effectively (Routson, 2010).The ANA has been in favor of a health care reform that would provide high quality medical services for all. ANA believe that with Patient Protection and the Affordable Care Act, millions of American will be protected against the lost or denied health insurance coverage and improved access to primary and preventive care. (ANA, 2011)
Within the previous four years, the number of uninsured Americans has jumped to forty five million people. Beginning in the 1980’s, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has been trying to fix this problem of health insurance coverage for everyone with a basic reform. The AAFP’s plan imagined every American with insured coverage for necessary improved services that fall between the crucial health benefits and the surprising costs. (Sweeney) They expect by fostering prevention, and early prevention, with early diagnosis with treatment, the program would result in decreased health system costs and increased productivity through healthier lives. The way to achieve health care coverage for all is pretty simple. This country needs the United States congress to act out legislation assuring essential health care coverage for all.
The Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, is a new health policy created by the American federal government. Its purpose is to make healthcare more affordable and friendly for the people. Unfortunately in some way that does not prove to be the case. It is becoming apparent that Obama may have made some misleading statements to help get the ACA put into action. The ACA is sprinkled with many flaws that call for a reform such as people’s current plans being terminated, high costs, and at minimum some people’s hours being cut by their employers.
A community can be defined as a group of people, who live, learn, work and play in an environment at a given time. (Yiu, 2012, p.213) There are many factors that may influence the community’s development and health status. These can include resources available, accessibility, transportation, safety, community needs etc… These influences may combine together to form community strengths and as well as community challenges or weaknesses. As a community health care nurse, it is significant for us to assess and identify these strengths and challenges within the community in order for us to intervene and provide the appropriate needed health care services for the community members. This individual scholarly paper will explore and focus on one challenge issue identified from our group community assessment.
There is an ongoing debate on the topic of how to fix the health care system in America. Some believe that there should be a Single Payer system that ensures all health care costs are covered by the government, and the people that want a Public Option system believe that there should be no government interference with paying for individual’s health care costs. In 1993, President Bill Clinton introduced the Health Security Act. Its goal was to provide universal health care for America. There was a lot of controversy throughout the nation whether this Act was going in the right direction, and in 1994, the Act died. Since then there have been multiple other attempts to fix the health care situation, but those attempts have not succeeded. The Affordable Care Act was passed in the senate on December 24, 2009, and passed in the house on March 21, 2010. President Obama signed it into law on March 23 (Obamacare Facts). This indeed was a step forward to end the debate about health care, and began to establish the middle ground for people in America. In order for America to stay on track to rebuild the health care system, we need to keep going in the same direction and expand our horizons by keeping and adding on to the Affordable Care Act so every citizen is content.
In response to this continuous issue, on Mar. 23, 2010 the senate approved President Barrack Obama’s bill entitled, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The purpose of this bill was to reduce medical costs while simultaneously providing every American access to health insurance. In order for the Obama administration to effectively improve health care is to consider all other governmental polices that will be directly and indirectly affected, whether it is positively or negatively. As with any new law, there are those who ...