Health Care Utilization HCS235

Health Care Utilization

HCS 235
October 30, 2012

Health Care Utilization
The Affordable Care Act was signed into law March 23, 2010 by President Barack Obama; however, the constitutionality of the law remained in question. In a controversial 5-to-4 ruling, The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law on June 28, 2012. The ACA is thought by some as the United States health care rescue, and as its downfall by others.
It is estimated that the ACA will provide new services to 64 million Americans, providing health care coverage to 32 million previously uninsured. In addition to providing new health insurance coverage, the ACA implemented several components that can expand access to health care. One policy …show more content…

A bill currently before Senate would increase residency programs by 15% nationwide, but that is not enough to meet the shortage. Nor will it be in effect in time to accommodate the 32 additional Americans being added to the health care system. The physicians currently in practice will deal with overworked conditions and job burnout, with many potentially giving up medicine, and broadening the shortage. One idea has been to lower the minimum standards required for foreign educated physicians to obtain American licensure. Opponents to this idea cite the potential for decreased quality of patient care. An additional downfall of the ACA is the decrease in reimbursement payments. Physicians are no longer reimbursed on a fee-for-service basis; they must now deal with bundled payments and capitation, leading many physicians to refuse to take Medicare and Medicaid patients (Barnes, n.d.). According to O’Shea M.D. ( n.d.), “being nominally “covered” in a public health insurance program is of little value if prohibitively low reimbursement rates and administrative hassles prevent physicians from accepting you as a patient” (Obama's Health Care Plan: Pros and Cons Debate). The bottom line is that the ACA coverage does little good if we do not have the infrastructure to support it.
Utilization of health care as a result of the ACA is yet to be fully determined. The addition of health care providers in some underserved areas may result in greater