Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 786 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2019/02/20 Category Medicine Essay Level High school Tags: Medical Ethics Essay Did you like this example? Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) are a set of health insurance and industry reforms that aim to expand access to health insurance and change the way the federal government pays doctors. The expansion of people with insurance can be attributed to three main provisions in the law – The expansion of Medicaid, the creation of insurance exchanges and the individual mandate (Kliff, 2017). While Obamacare relies on insurance companies and federal government, single payer healthcare relies on government (single payer) and covers the cost of essential healthcare for all residents through publicly funded taxes. The first provision under Obamacare is the expansion of Medicaid, a federal program that provides health care coverage to low income Americans. Before the expansion of Medicaid, residents of states such as Massachusetts and New York qualified for Medicaid based on income, household size, disability, family status and other factors. However, after the expansion of Medicaid in these states, residents can quality based on income level alone. If their income level is below 133% of the federal poverty level, they are eligible (HealthCare.gov). The second provision under Obamacare is the creation of health insurance marketplaces or health exchanges through which people can purchase and choose from a range of government – regulated and standardized health care plans. Before Obamacare, health insurance companies could deny coverage or charge higher prices for people with pre – existing conditions. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" essay for you Create order However, under Obamacare, one’s health, medical history and gender can’t affect their premiums. Insurance companies are only allowed to account five factors while setting premiums which are Age, Location, Tobacco use, Individual vs family enrollment and Plan Category (HealthCare.gov). The third and the most controversial provision under Obamacare is the individual mandate that requires most Americans to purchase health insurance coverage. The individual mandate would provide health care to all sections of society, irrespective of their race, color and class, thus hugely benefitting the oppressed sections. This provision forces healthy people (who wouldn’t purchase insurance) to sign up in order to keep the premiums low. However, people who can’t find an affordable plan or have religious reasons for not buying health insurance are exempted from the individual mandate. One of the aims of Obamacare is to tether doctors’ payments, at least partially, to patient outcomes, rewarding doctors who practice better medicine with higher payments. Despite having various benefits, Obamacare has some evident loopholes in it. First, residents of states such as Alabama and Mississippi (without Medicaid expansion) with incomes below the federal poverty level are severely affected since they don’t qualify for either Medicaid or health insurance savings program (HealthCare.gov). Also, Insurers are fleeing the health insurance marketplaces because Medicaid Expansion have made it more expensive for insurers in non – expansive states since they have to cover for poor people who tend to be sicker than rich people. For instance, in Alabama, Blue Cross Blue Shield being the only insurer participating in the exchange is spending $1.20 for every $1 collected in premiums (Khazan, 2017). As a result, new taxes on medical device and pharmaceutical sales were created to pay for ACA. Moreover, if an individual remains uninsured, under the individual mandate provision, he/she is asked to pay penalties which rise every year if they ar e still uninsured (Kliff, 2017). While Obamacare implemented individual mandate provision to reduce the premiums by encouraging healthy people to join, covering people with pre – existing conditions have caused the premiums to rise exponentially. On the other hand, policies such as single payer healthcare requires the federal government (single payer) to cover the costs of essential healthcare for all residents with costs financed by publicly funded taxes. Single payer system aims to provide universal health care, thereby, reducing the number of uninsured people. In a single payer government run system, government would negotiate with doctors, hospitals and pharmacies, thus, reducing price per service and bringing health care costs down (Kurtzleben,2017). Such unified system would ensure high quality health care as the quality of care would have to be high enough to be acceptable to all residents. While single payer healthcare plan of free health care with no copays and deductibles seems cost effective, government would have to increase taxes to provide funding for everyone. This tax increase could exceed the money spend on copays, deductibles and health insurance plans, thus making it cost intensive. Moreover, a single payer plan doesn’t imply no copays or deductibles. For instance, Canada’s single payer system does not include coverage for dental and vision care alongside several prescription drugs. One of the largest single payer systems, England’s National Health Services charges a $12 copay for drugs prescribed outside hospital setting. Therefore, single payer doesn’t guarantee free health care (Kliff,2015).

Mgt/230 Week 1 Assignment Free Essays

Mgt/230 Week 1 Decision Making Process Paper University of Phoenix People should make decisions every day, some of those decisions are easy to make, while others are quite difficult to implement. An appropriately combined and organized decision-making process will help to control this issue and bring a positive outcome for those involved. The decision-making process may become challenging for people due to â€Å"the lack of structure and entail risk, uncertainly and conflict† (Bateman and Snell, 2012, p. We will write a custom essay sample on Mgt/230 Week 1 Assignment or any similar topic only for you Order Now 86). That is why people trying to make important personal or professional decisions should have an appropriate model to follow in order to avoid these challenges. Bateman and Snell identified six steps or stages of decision-making process which may be attached to any problem or decision. First, it is necessary to identify and analyze the problem. The problem at hand for me was the necessity to purchase my own home. In 2002 I was renting a home in a small city with my husband and son living there as well. The house was also shared with my Mother-in-Law, and it was too small for all four of us to share. My husband and I realized after a short period of time that this living situation was not going to work out and that we should start looking for a place of our own. Since I am an animal lover and was the owner of one horse and one dog at that time, finding a home that also had a small amount of acreage was also necessary to accommodate us all. Generating and evaluating alternative solutions (steps 2 and 3 in the decision making process) was really not an option for us as we knew exactly what we would have to do if we were to obtain the right place for all of us to live. The only alternative solution in this situation would have been to rent a large piece of property with a larger home and we had come to a point in our lives where purchasing seemed like the better investment. Step 4 in the decision making process is, making the choice. We searched around for just the right place to purchase. It took several months of searching before we happened upon the home we ultimately chose. The house wasn’t quite as big as we were hoping for but we thought we could build an addition and do some remodeling to make it perfect. The property attached to the house was large enough to house my horse and our dog, and for my son to play. The decision was made, we were purchasing this house. Step 5 in the process is implementing the decision. After the decision was made to purchase our new home, we set up meetings and appointments with the realtor, our bank and our lawyer to finalize paperwork on the loan and other necessities. All paperwork was signed and keys were handed over to us about a month later. Once the house was ours we quickly made the necessary changes so that it would accommodate our entire family, by adding an extra room and re-painting the entire house. We built a barn to house the horse and put in a shed for storage. We thought it was perfect. Step 6 in the process is evaluating the decision. Shortly after purchasing our home and property everything was going well, and this continued for many years to come, even though it was probably more work than we had initially expected, we were happy with our decision. Living in the country on our own farm with barely a neighbor to be seen was definitely the way to go. Looking back on this decision some 10 years later, I still believe I made the right decision even though my life has completely changed since that time. The house and property suited us very well up until about 4 years ago after my divorce. I see now that the house is not nearly large enough for my even larger family. Since my divorce I have had two more children and am getting re-married and this home is not nearly large enough for five people, especially if we have guests over for holidays or birthdays. We are currently in the decision making process once again, that being the possible purchase of yet another, larger, home and more acreage as the number of farm animals has grown over the past 10 years as well. Having the information that I do now, in our readings, I am going to go through the steps one by one and be sure that my ultimate decision will be the right one and that this new place (if we purchase one) will be perfect for more than 10 years. References Bateman, T. S. , Snell, S. A. (2010). Management: leading collaborating in a competitive world (9th ed. ). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database. How to cite Mgt/230 Week 1 Assignment, Essay examples

The Significance of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle free essay sample

This paper describes how the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle defines the national and linguistic history of the beginning of England. This paper examines the content of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as a primary historical source for the creation of English and England. It shows how the work of historian Venerable Bede documents England prior to the Chronicle and details religious and cultural life in that era, while the Chronicle focuses on the broader historical scale of war. It also focuses on the linguistic significance of the Chronicle the first important piece of English prose. From the paper: One of the most important aspects of The Angle-Saxon Chronicle is that it is the first continuous national history of any western people in their own language. Written down by a succession of generations of scribes, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle covers such fundamentally important events in the history of early England as the migration of the Saxon war-lords, the results of the Romanization of Britain, the onslaught of the Vikings, the Norman Conquest and on the reign of Stephen. We will write a custom essay sample on The Significance of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page

African American Community Essays - Gospel Songs,

African American Community By 1945, nearly everyone in the African American community had heard gospel music (2). At this time, gospel music was a sacred folk music with origins in field hollers, work songs, slave songs, Baptist lining hymns, and Negro spirituals. These songs that influenced gospel music were adapted and reworked into expressions of praise and thanks of the community. Although the harmonies were similar to those of the blues or hymns in that they shared the same simplicity, the rhythm was much different. The rhythms often times had the music with its unique accents, the speech, walk, and laughter which brought along with it synchronized movements. (2) The gospel piano style was based on the rhythm section concept, where the middle of the piano was used to support the singers. This area supported the singers by doubling the vocal line in harmony. The bottom, left corner of the piano was used as a bass fiddle while the upper right hand portion played the counter melodies, taking the place of a trumpet or flute. It was the right hand corner that filled in the material during the rhythmic breaks. Often times the text of the gospel songs portrayed meanings of the Trinity, blessings, thanks and lamentations. The singers used the voices to communicate their feelings about Christianity. Many singers sang through the problems and moved their audiences, often congregations, so much so that the audience forgot their own problems temporarily and the weights of the world were taken away through the music. (2) During the beginning of the Golden Age of Gospel (1945-1955), gospel music reached a near perfection and had a huge, devote audience. Th e call and response form in particular flourished in the new type of music. The African American gospel song had a unique power and ability to overcome. It was a means of transcending the listeners, singers and entire congregation to a higher spiritual and emotional level. During the post-Civil War years, the congregation style of singing was transformed by the new Pentecostal congregations, also known as Holiness and Sanctified. (5) African American gospel music was a twentieth century phenomenon which evolved through the people that moved from rural communities to urban centers in cities. They left their areas of limited promise and social and economic terror in hopes of starting over. (4) Gospel was s style of repertoire and singing. The music was delivered as a high powered spiritual force. The emphasis was placed on the vocal rhythms. Gospel music combined call and response forms, with slow-metered , lined out protestant hymns. Born in 1912, Mahalia Jackson was the third of six children. Growing up in segregated, racist times, Mahalia lived in what she called a "shotgun shack". White folks owned the bars and grocery stores of the neighborhood. Blacks were left with the left over jobs, often working for white families, or working on the railroad tracks. Mahalia's father found work on the riverfront, dock towns and on the boats. On Sundays, her father worked preaching in a Baptist church. For as hard as her parents worked, money always seemed to be short. When Mahalia was only five years old, her mother died. Her father remarried and acquired a whole new family with the marriage. Although she never earned any pay for her work, Mahalia began doing chores for her Aunt Duke after school. Both sets of Mahalia's grandparents were born into slavery and she was doomed to head the same way. When Mahalia was in eight grade, she began to look for work outside of her aunt's chores and got a job as a laundress. (4) When Mahalia finally became famous, she always demanded her payments in cash, paid up-front. The reason for her requests was because often times during her childhood years, they never received the payments they worked hard to receive. They would often be cheated out of their sums because plantation owners claimed that the money they earned was equal to their fees for room and board. (1) When Mahalia was just a small child, everyone that knew her agreed that she possessed something special. At eight years old, she had an uncommonly large voice. Using her talented voice both in and outside of church, she

Adoption By Gays- Its Okay Essays - Same-sex Sexuality, Free Essays

Adoption By Gays- It's Okay Essays - Same-sex Sexuality, Free Essays Adoption By Gays- It's Okay When a gay couple sought to adopt a boy- who had leukemia, had been neglected by his biological parents, had lived in five foster homes, and whose adoption was favored by his legal representative- the judge deemed it not in the interest of a seven-year-old male child to be placed for adoption into the home of a pair of adult male homosexual lovers.(Utne 58) Three years of searching for a qualified heterosexual couple failed. This and many other similar cases have denied children a family by ignoring many qualified homosexuals. With this being an age when people are supposedly more open-minded, why is it that gays are treated this way just because of their sexual orientation? Many Americans are still uncomfortable with the idea of gay parents. The traditional family has always included a mother and a father. However, today more and more families are being headed by gay parents. Some have children from previous marriages. Many must use artificial insemination or surrogate mothers because it is extremely difficult for gays to adopt children. Although it seems to contradict societys view of the traditional family, homosexuals should be allowed to adopt because they deserve equal rights, and sexual orientation is not a reasonable determining factor in the qualifications of a parent. Also, allowing them to adopt can actually help society. Surveys suggest that a large majority of the American public generally favor anti-discrimination laws.(Harris 2) Why then, according to a Newsweek survey, do only 36% of those surveyed think gay couples should have the right to adopt? Samuel Chavers, assistant general counsel for Children and Families, says adoption is not a right; its a privilege. If this is true, there is still not a rational basis for denying homosexuals the privilege to adopt. It is clearly an anti-gay bias. Although only two states specifically ban adoption by gays, most states discourage it. Just as blacks and women have fought for equal rights, gays are now struggling to do the same. It is unfair to single out a group of people with many members who would make great parents. Since we live in a world where all men are created equal, homosexuals should enjoy the same rights as heterosexuals. Gays face discrimination because of their sexual preferences, and they must also face the qualifications for adopting. June Amer has a son of her own, whom she and her partner have raised. They wanted to adopt a second child. Amer truthfully filled out an application form that asked whether she was a homosexual. Her application was immediately rejected.(Fitzgerald 1B) This was a woman who had already proved to be a good parent and who lived in a healthy environment. She could have provided much-needed care for another child. Her only characteristic that did not meet the qualifications was that she had a female lover. Because of this reason, many qualified applicants are being turned down. It is great that people are willing to adopt children, but it is terrible that this one qualification is stopping so many of them. Sexual orientation alone doesnt make a person a good or bad parent.(Kantrowitz 57) Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, agrees. The goal should be to identify those homes that would provide nurturing environments. The determination should not be sexual orientation.(Wagner 1) Adoption agencies need to quit using sexual orientation as a factor. A family is a family. That is exactly what so many children today are in need of: a family. There are now 36,000 children in this country- in foster homes or institutions- who are free for adoption.(Utne 54) These children need the love that homosexuals can provide just as well as heterosexuals. If the many willing gays could adopt these children, it would help our society by lessening the problem of children without families. A home is much better than an institution, or worse, the streets. It would also help by diversifying society. All people are not the same, so why should all families have to be the same? If children are adopted by gay parents, more people will become accepting and open-minded towards different lifestyles. Society will definitely be positively affected the day that homosexuals

THE LOST BEAUTIFULNESS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

THE LOST BEAUTIFULNESS - Essay Example On the other hand, I utterly dislike the characters of Jake Safransky, Hanneh’s husband, and Benjamin Rosenblatt, the landlord. Hanneh’s husband is a grouch who only thinks of their material condition and refuses to appreciate the beauty that his wife is offering to him. He also persistently dampens Hanneh’s enthusiasm, but fortunately Hanneh does not give in to his discouraging words. But the most appalling character in the story is the landlord, Mr. Rosenblatt. He is an unjust, greedy, uncaring, and wicked person. He is a classic epitome of a voracious capitalist during that period. The story fosters a strong connection with its audience. I, for one, felt the gravity of the injustice imposed on Hanneh. I felt how her efforts, dreams, and created beauty were crushed by the greediness of one man. The story already has a ‘universal appeal’ for it tackles issues that people all over the world experience, such as poverty, injustice, indifference, and hopelessness. And, more importantly, the story engages its audience to a realm of beauty, which no one could say no

Quality Management Process Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Quality Management Process - Essay Example "The importance of using a plan in order to guide the firm's communication effort would be able to bring forth a clear, coordinated, memorable, and effective way of interacting with one another" (Draft a Communications Plan, 2006). Based on the data presented in the planning process of the project, an estimated time of at least 330 days could be needed in order to complete the quality communications plan. During the course of this period, the staff and the officials who are leaders of the said projects would be able to complete the tasks required of them. Aside from that, additional changes and revisions could be done within that period. The revisions that should be applied within the project should be done so within schedule and also reason. This is because of the tight project schedule that has been planned in the project. Aside from that, there is also the need to thoroughly examine the outcome of the projects done. Testing the outcome of the said project is also necessary to ensure that it would be exactly as planned. The several steps divided into different categories and these categories would be the basis for the flow of the communication report between the company and the participants for the quality communications plan. ... On the other hand, to save time as the project is in a tight schedule, the report regarding the success of the project should be applied or implemented in a regular basis so that the waiting time would not be that long and that other projects could also be done. In the implementation of the plan, there should only be one resource person from the team that would report to the officials because if there are so many people relaying the information, the management would have a hard time comprehending it. It would also be better if there was some kind of system or a chain of command in relaying the message. Another thing which would be likely included in the quality management process is the budget estimate. A budget estimate seems to be more than the acceptable range because of its urgency to be on time and on schedule. The budget throughout the categories would need to be constant as to oversee that there would be no over-spending done in the project. The starting period would be the difficult part because it needs to be well-established so as the other steps would be next in line therefore, a chunk of the budget should be reserved especially to the start of the project. Despite of that, there would be time to cut back on other cost once the project has been progressing in the direction that it should be heading. Collection of Data in the Quality Communications Plan In order to ensure the implementation of the quality communication plan, certain data and information are needed to be collected. Aside from that, these data would also be a guide in determining whether or not such plans are effective or not. Here are some of the data and information needed upon the implementation of the quality