Patient Rights and Access to Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Based on Healthcare Availability
There is a basic understanding that government exists to care for the well-being of its people. On the other hand, how far should a government go in order to ensure that its citizens are healthy and able to provide to the workforce, and therefore the well-being of the country as a whole? As a part of a social welfare system that advocates for the well-being of the individual, social workers must also look at the policies in place to address the physical, emotional, and psychological well-being of the population they serve. Social workers must also assess whether the policies that are enacted follow the values that have been instilled for the betterment of the community. In order to advocate for their clients, a social worker must be knowledgeable about the additional policies in place that were noted as resolutions to the issue. Do individuals have access to better cancer diagnosis options and treatment with the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010? This literature review aims to discuss the many perspectives available in order to best answer this question.
History and ACA Cancer Treatment Availability
There are five dimension of social welfare policy to be addressed when discussing the impact of any policy and the impact it has on the population. These dimensions include: history, economics, politics, ideology, and social movements
Over the past two years, I have been working as an ACA Patient Advocate at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). Throughout the course of the week, I interact with patients who are affected by age associated illnesses. At this community health center which serves a large, and indigenous uninsured population, my specific role as a patient advocate is to intervene, assist, manage and fight for my clients. I also provide assistance in interpreting and clarifying healthcare coverage. Lastly, I encourage my patients to engage in frenetic participation in the overall health insurance enrollment process. In so doing, I am ensuring that the health care needs of the public are met.
As Americans we should all be afforded access to healthcare. Access to healthcare is an individual right according to the human rights amendment. The human right to health guarantees a system of health protection for all. The human right to health means that everyone has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, which includes access to all medical services, sanitation, adequate food, decent housing, healthy working conditions and a clean environment (What is the Human Right to Health and Health Care, 2015). However there are strengths and weaknesses to every healthcare system and the U.S. Healthcare system is not exempt. I plan to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the U. S. Healthcare system (What is the Human Right to Health and Health Care, 2015).
Stan, D. (2011). How human services programs and their clients can benefit from national health reform legislation. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.
Upon further examination of the Health Care Safety Net Increased Eligibility Amendment Act of 2005, the following latent goals were established. The act’s first latent function is to decrease discrimination amongst services rendered to individuals based on health status, gender or income. Also, the act serves to sustain a healthy American population by encouraging people to seek medical/health care by creating and providing access to these services. Finally, the last latent goal of the Health Care Safety Net Increased Eligibility Amendment Act of 2005 serves as a benefit to the federal government’s health care system spending as the act serves to improve the health of society. Therefore, the act
The American government’s main purpose is to ensure that its citizens’ individual rights are fully protected. However, earning the trust of residents will not always be an effortless task to take on as government have many complicated yet sometimes conflicting rules and policies they need to establish to prevent further conflict from arising. Social programs/policies have been enacted by the government to pull majority of citizens out of economic failure and provide them with a sustainable environment to live in. However, the real question lies in whether or not the government is really doing its best by creating these social programs for its people. Most social programs have not yet obtained the respect of most citizens as they have been proved to be doing society more harm than good. Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise considered as the Obamacare to the public, is one of the most recent social programs that have been created by the current government to provide assistance to people who are in need of healthcare insurance policies, but it unfortunately falls short on many aspects. Although the Obamacare is still accepted by most people in this country, ever since the government brought it into existence, there have been many challenges to it from almost everywhere in current society. The Obamacare is a true depiction of the government’s failure in providing to the people
When U.S. President Barrack Obama signed the health care reform bill into law in March 2010, opposing political pundits were quick to brand the initiative as government takeover of the healthcare system and pejoratively described it as socialized medicine. I considered it my civic duty to look a little deeper into the pros and cons of the issue as earlier research findings had reported 45,000 Americans died annually for lack of health care coverage (Robertson, 2009).
The three issues that will be explored are: Welfare, Health and Pensions. Defining social policy, and understanding social policy becomes imperative, to enable understanding of the contemporary issues within it.
The author compares the specific goals and claims of the Affordable Care Act with the actual experiences in the areas of its implementation. The assessment is made in terms of access, costs and affordability, and quality of care provided. The article uses secondary data to present the perimeters of the assessment. According to the findings, affordable healthcare cost has not been realized and over 37 million Americans are likely to remain uninsured even after full implementation of ACA in 2019. More millions are likely to remain underinsured as profiteering will dominate the culture of healthcare in the US. The author notes that there is need to address the for-profit and bureaucracy in the US healthcare system and concludes by laying out benefits and economic, moral and sociopolitical lessons from ACA within the first five
“If Obamacare is so wonderful, why is it that its loudest advocates don 't want to be subject to it,” stated Senator Ted Cruz. As financial and social hardships began to become apparent in the United States, one major problem facing the citizens and governing body is Health Care for all. Socialized medicine is a health care system where the government funds and runs health care facilities, employs the health care professionals, and pays for all health care amenities. This idea of giving high quality care to citizens previously unable to afford healthcare has caused problems in the United States, and this idea of “socialized medicine” has proven to create hardships in other countries in the past. Obamacare has introduced socialized medicine in the United States, which has caused negative effects both financially and ethically.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) is a new health care legislation law passed by the American government in 2012 to reform the United States health care system. All the states will enact this legislation, however, selected will limit the provision provided to their citizens (Kaiser Commisson, 2013). According to Spares, (2011), the ACA opens the door for many 47 million nonelderly uninsured Americans who have never been eligible for affordable health care insurance including many of the 1.8 million uninsured Georgians. The ACA health care reform law’s goal is to decrease the number of uninsured community and increase health care regulations so that health care quality increases in a cost efficient way (Sparer, 2011). Part of the ACA’s provisions will be to increase wellness care for a healthier America to prevent costly chronic disease treatment (Knickman & Kovner, 2015).
The issue regarding the lack of healthcare in America is prominent but is a more significant issue than what is commonly known. For instance, it is not publicly recognized that those who are mentally ill are covered by the same healthcare as those with conventional ailments. Because of this, money becomes an issue; health insurers cannot cover every case, or cannot fully cover any case. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Patient Protection Act, both part of “Obamacare,” were passed in order to fix this very issue; these acts are ultimately attempts to reach parity. However, the chance to have healthcare that fulfills parity, equality of coverage, has passed, the ACA is too late and it is time to come up with new solutions. To settle for
Barriers will always exist, nonetheless our society has to try to not be part of the problem and orchestrate a way to minimize the biases that happen due to someone’s inability to pay for commercial health insurance. The different systems that influence our lives affect the way we act and respond to everyone and everything around us. Although, it could be lessened if Social Workers could alleviate some of these barriers of discrimination by becoming advocates for the people who use state insurance. It has to start with their first interaction, which in many cases is the case
This writer believes that health care is a right, and therefore the government cannot discriminate who should and should not receive health care. As a matter of social justice and political obligation, the government should be responsible for making sure that every citizen of the country, regardless of their race, color and ethnicity, has access to affordable coverage and quality care. According the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (2007), everyone has the right to health, including health care. Good health is everything – it means a person is able to be a productive citizen and it increases quality of life while positively impacting the quality of life for the entire community. Thus the role of the government to achieve health for
In the United States there has been a concern about providing health care assistance to citizens for a number of years. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s the government began proposing various bills that would provide health care relief with opposition from both political parties due to their different agendas on what would be best for Americans. In this case study, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will address its origin and impact on healthcare, an analysis utilizing Bardach Eightfold Path process, and implementation in the workplace including state and Federal standards.
In order to first start a policy process, the problem for which a policy is to be created must be identified and the policy holding a solution to the problem. Researchers and stakeholders will investigate the problem to identify if the policy will reach the policy making agenda. Policies must be to improve society’s health and wellbeing. In the United States (U.S.) public health related issues that require a formulation of a new policy and come from local, state, or federal legislations which ruling govern the provision of health care services and regulations. In this