Substance Abuse And The United States

Within the PPACA legislation, there are provisions that create health insurance exchanges to be accessed by uninsured individuals. PPACA envisioned this access to health exchanges providing early detection and treatment, thus bending the healthcare cost curve (Dixon, 2014). Since national health reform had failed in the past, PPACA intentionally chose a national health care model that included health care exchanges that would be primarily managed by the states (Sirpal, 2014). After the forceful United States Supreme Court decision in 2010, states were given a choice whether to establish health care exchanges (Sirpal, 2014). Since 2014, the White House (2015) believes that a total of approximately nineteen million people have enrolled in the

This Act ensures access to quality, ethnically knowledgeable care, including long-term services and supports, for the susceptible populations. It also provides health care improvement by introducing informational technology. The PPACA was not set in place to replace Medicaid or Medicare. The PPACA has a plan out there that will fit any and everybody.

Opioid addiction is a condition that is preventable as well as one which individuals display several noticeable risk factors before the actual addiction prognosis to the point of causing death. There is a strong correlation between the early misuse of prescription opioids, which are prescribed for non-cancer pain management, and the development of a dependence on such opioids. Early detection of risk factors such as the misuse of opioids that are prescribed will help indicate that a patient is developing an addiction.1 Physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare providers must closely monitor patients and the rate at which opioids are consumed as well as refilled.

Opioids, otherwise known as prescription pain medication, are used to treat acute and chronic pain. They are the most powerful pain relievers known. When taken as directed they can be safe and effective at managing pain, however, opioids can be highly addictive. Ease of access helps people get pain medications through their physician or by having friends and family get the medication for them. With their ease of access and being highly addictive the use and misuse of opioids have become a growing epidemic. Patients should be well educated on the affects opioid use can have. More importantly instead of the use of opioids, physicians should look into alternative solutions for pain management. While pain medication is helpful with chronic pain, it is also highly addictive, doctors should be more stringent to whom and how often they prescribe pain medication.

On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and on March 30, 2010 the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act provided provisions to the PPACA. The laws focus on reform of the private health insurance market, provide better coverage for those with pre-existing conditions, improve prescription drug coverage in Medicare and extend the life of the Medicare Trust fund by at least 12 years (Washington). There are a number of provisions in the PPACA Act that will impact the accounting for many companies. Among those provisions are the following (US):

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was signed into law by President Barack Obama, on March 23rd, 2010 (Buppert, 2015). This historic piece of health care reform legislation is scheduled for implementation over a four-year period. The legislation was created to make sure that all American residents have access to quality, affordable health care and will create the transformation within the health care system necessary to contain costs (The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, n.d.). There are nine primary components for this reform. These include: affordable health

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) signed into law by president Obama on March 23, 2010 is arguably the most extensive reform of health care law ever to be enacted in the U.S. It will impact the way professionals practice health care, the way insurance companies handle health care as a product, and the way consumers purchase and use health care as a service. The Affordable Health Care Act is primarily aimed at reducing the number of uninsured Americans and reducing the overall costs of health care from an administrative and consumer standpoint. The PPACA requires insurance companies to cover all applicants and offer the same rates to all applicants of the same age

In the past, law enforcement was taught to arrest anyone distributing or using opioids. The state believed that jail was the best method to get addicts off the streets and to stop using drugs. The issue with this method was when these addicts were released from jail, they went right back to using. United States President Barack Obama, has been working on a plan to reform the nation’s criminal justice program. He proposed that drug courts, which are fundamentally substance-abuse boot camps, are the best way to help treat addiction (Redmond A3+). Obama’s plan involved getting rid of mandatory minimum sentences, which he believed would also be a very cost saving solution. Obama stated, “We should invest in alternatives to prison, like drug courts and treatment and probation programs which ultimately can save tax payers thousands of dollars each year” (Redmond A3+). The problem with Obama’s method is that he does not seem to be concerned about the mental health of these

Many people have developed an addiction due to an injury and which were prescribed painkillers to manage and treat the pain. Prolonged use leads to dependence and once a person is addicted, increasing amounts of drugs are required to prevent feeling of withdrawal. Addiction to painkillers often leads to harder drugs such as heroin due to the black market drug being cheaper. Prescription drugs remain a far deadlier problem and more people abuse prescription medication than cocaine, methamphetamine heroin, MDMA and PCP combined. Drug abuse is ending too many lives too soon and destroying families and communities.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act offers many healthcare benefits to a diverse group of American citizens. However, there are a few downsides as well. The major portions of the act deal with four primary issues:

The Domino Effect can be interpreted as an abstract theory associated with one event playing off of another, causing a predictable and connotatively negative, outcome. Since 2002, drug use within the United States has been on a strong incline upwards, resulting in 12% of Americans claiming to have used illicit drugs in the past month, up 4% in the past decade (National Trends). An illicit drug refers to a substance, either prohibited by law or medically prescribed, that is being abused in great quantities. The impact of this abuse has resulted in a five time increase of infants born with opiate addiction (Hove). A few widely abused opiates, across the United States, consistent of heroin, hydrocodone, codeine, and morphine (What Drugs…). While

The PPACA provides a number of avenues, including mandates, subsidies and tax credits to employers and individuals to increase the number of insured Americans. The legislation aims to improve healthcare outcomes and streamline delivery. The PPACA requires insurance companies to cover all applicants and offer the same rates regardless of pre-existing conditions.

In addition, the PPACA of 2010 reformed the national health care system to make insurance more affordable and expand access to affordable, high quality health care services to the uninsured. The act was modeled after Massachusetts’ health reform legislation that was passed in 2006. The legislation improved access to high quality, affordable health care services through

The decades-old United States war on drugs has not been successful and very cost ineffective (Madden, 2008). Today, drug addiction continues to be an important public health problem in our nation. The U.S. spends more than $700 billion dollars annually in costs related to substance abuse (National Institute on Drug Abuse [NIDA], 2015). Drug-related costs include abuse of tobacco, alcohol, illicit drugs, crime, lost work productivity, and health care (NIDA, 2015). And the costs corresponding to those whose lives are ruined or whose death is premature, are too immense to be measured. Collateral damage such as that of family members who have to endure witnessing these experiences is not just unfortunate; it is also priceless. Treatment programs for drug addiction are available, and psychosocial approaches have demonstrated to be better than no-treatment controls (Madden, 2008; Silverman, Roll, & Higgins, 2008). Unfortunately, currently available treatment programs are not effective in all individuals, and high relapse rates are typical (Silverman et al., 2008). Considering the immense impact drug addiction has on individuals as well as society, the development of a treatment program that produces long-term abstinence outcomes is of paramount importance.

In the United states, drug abuse policies have been trying to fight issues such as driving while under the influence of drugs, and individuals who abuse prescription drugs. These drug abuse policies in the United States are trying to help prevent drug abuse and even educate the public about what are the consequences of the use of drugs and sales.