AHCA: A Costly Gamble for Terminally Ill Patients - Essay Sample

Introduction

The U.S congress Representatives passed the American Health care Act to partially replace the then so-called Obamacare on the 24th of May 2017 (Gamage & Shanske,2017). This paper describes my position of the AHCA, including provision for repealing health care treatment for patients with terminal diseases like cancer.

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First, AHCA would not strengthen Medicare as the act will essentially increase costs for older people and do nothing in reducing the cost of drugs. Americans will pay more for less.

Preserving health care coverage to patients, in the long run, is a priority for any health care act. Millions of Americans need to be protected by law for sustainable health care coverage.

Terminal diseases such as cancer provisions need to be enacted by the law to provide coverage for patients suffering from them. The AHCA can, by far, alter the availability and affordability of health insurance covers for cancer patients and the like.

The repeal of the Obamacare act would drive up expense costs for prescription drugs. In effect, Medicare will become insolvent. Before the ACA was passed, in 2011, Medicare beneficiaries used to pay a hundred percent of drug costs.

The AHCA, in a way, suppresses the vulnerable and low-income earning individuals. The proposal is a two-step backward process contrary to the one step forward effort made by the ACA.

My Legislative Visit

From my undertaking, the AHCA would, to some extent, weaken medical care and increase risks to old age Americans. As the seniors reach retirement age, they would have paid more through tax per year. Seniors require medical care that is affordable to them as their immunity would be biologically weak. Generally, aid for medical services could affect all age groups, not excluding persons with disabilities. Even though Obamacare is not perfect, its repeal proves to be much ineffective and quite unaffordable for a majority of the American citizens.

Continued Medicare should be a priority for legislators when passing laws. You see, health systems are a corner stone to the well-being of a nation and the whole world at large. Sustainable health care is, for this reason, paramount. However, the lack of coverage estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) inhibits the evaluation process of AHCA. Additionally, the act touches on the policy of certain programs, like for the vulnerable, that will have major reductions and significant funding for future coverage.

Nearly 1.5 million people with a history of cancer relied on Medicaid as insurance (Enrollments, 2016). This proposed repeal could drastically leave the needy and less fortunate hopeless as they will, in effect, lack access to preventative and follow-up health care. The proposed bill could alter affordability, quality, and provision of health care to cancer patients by shifting income-based subsidy to a flat tax credit. Furthermore, state-specific eligibility plus reduced federal funding will lessen cancer patient access to medical coverage.

The progressing effort to improve health care will substantially be derailed from a cost perspective. By eliminating cost-sharing subsidies and income affordability for low-income earners will result in more numbers of uninsured people. This move entirely negates the continued effort of health care as it disrupts the nation's insurance market

Opposition to the AHCA

In the understanding of my congress representative political affiliation, I had all reason to believe that my congress member strongly opposes the AHCA. He pointed out that the repeal is curated in such a way that taxation proceeds reductions in health insurance subsidies. The resultant effect will be shrinking of the economy in the long run. Eliminating the tax penalty for uninsured citizens lowers the purchasing power for incentives, thus increasing the number of nationalists who are not insured. Tax cuts facilitate people with enough income, which they can redirect to personal health care in the form of saving.

Medicaid insures two of every eight individuals in the U.S. In America, people of color constitute to about 58 percent, and they happen to be the largest beneficiaries of Medicaid. Its expansion proportionally affects the colored community, mostly women, as well as others like the African-American. The AHCA proposes disbandment of these medic aids through the dismissal of subsidies. According to the National Health Statistics, U.S., more than 20million people will lose health coverage by the year 2026. Health coverage will, therefore, reduce significantly and medical debt will also increase, especially for the aforementioned communities.

One last point worth mentioning is the fact that the AHCA would permit first time Medicaid enrollees to be imposed on some work. This beats the logic of the whole objective of the health care program for American nationals. Among the enrollees of the medical coverage, 75 percentiles of the population are working or are from already engaged work roles. Many qualified for Medicaid expansion. This implies that none of them required new work roles as proposed by the repeal of the ACA. On the contrary, what they require is increased wages and affordable health insurance covers.

My Nursing Experience Influence on Advocacy Position

There were significant changes in nursing a year after the congress had passed the Obamacare. It allowed more students to enroll for nursing through loan programs. A group of midwives succeeded in fighting a legislation that would have significantly cut payments. Many other laws and repeal of ACA have not taken effect yet. However, healthcare advocates and professionals are starting to picture signs of its potential impact on nursing and patients like wise.

Observers however dismissed claims alluding that it is still too early to predict full impact of new law provisions. At a time of financial rigor, cuts may be a switch off. Congress representatives need to increase spending levels for nurse education in the repeal of the Affordable health care act.

My nursing experience influences the advocacy for healthcare positions in various ways, one being through policies. As a nurse, I play a significant role in influencing healthcare delivery systems. Care and provision for human health are core to my nursing position. Nursing operates from a holistic view to value people and aims to progress human health endlessly and across all community levels. These objectives are achieved through adequate delivery standards and appropriate conditions. Through policy work, I can practice standards and protocols to assure quality health care and delivery of affordable medical services to the population.

Health care lobbyists influence health policy decisions, which impact nearly all aspects of healthcare. Those policy decisions are influenced by various factors. In conclusion, I stand firm in opposition to the American Health Care Act as it would greatly decrease the number of people with Medicaid. Nursing field and other related field has been the main area for job growth. Under the repeal of ACA, the sector would lose jobs resulting in a turnaround of current trends.

References

Enrollments, M. (2016). MEDICARE/MEDICAID. New England Journal of Medicine.

Gamage, D., & Shanske, D. (2017). The American Health Care Act Would Toss the States a Hot Potato. State Tax Notes, 84(6).

National Center for Health Statistics (US. (2019). Health, United States, 2018.