Affordable care policy and implementation

Affordable Care Act signed law President Barack Obama March 2010. Many provisions law directly affect

Several different important elements exist as part of the Affordable Care Act, specifically as it pertains to community and public health. One of the most salient of these is the commitment that the act makes towards preventative care -- which directly impacts public health. A large part of the goal of this act is to improve the general wellness of the community by helping people to maintain their health. A healthy community, quite frankly, will have less need for more expensive medical care if it can maintain its health in the first place. In this respect, the fact that individuals can now get a free checkup from their doctors helps to reinforce this preemptive approach to enforcing wellness. Also, the act has made many diagnostic procedures related to a general examination free or available to the general public at reduced cost to help accommodate the prioritization of wellness.

Another aspect of this act hat helps to demonstrate its dedication towards community and public health is the fact that individuals with "pre-existing conditions" (U.S. Department of Health, 2014) can now get coverage. Previously, individuals with certain pre-existing conditions and medical conditions could not obtain health care, or could only do so at an exorbitant rate. Now, these people can get care as easily, and at the same price, as those who did not previously have pre-existing conditions. The act also indicates its commitment to community and public health by providing a discount for prescriptions for senior citizens. Many of these individuals have limited incomes, a great deal of which can be spent on health insurance costs. Reducing the amount that senior citizens have to pay for prescriptions helps them to manage these costs more effectively. The act also features consumer assistance and a general fraud-free health care marketplace to obtain insurance, which is beneficial to the community at large.

Nurses have a vital role in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. There are numerous varieties of nurses, all of whom are responsible for myriad tasks. As such, these employees are those of the health care system as advocated by the Affordable Care Act that the general public and community interacts with the most. Therefore, nurses are responsible for facilitating treatment that is integral to virtually all aspects of this act -- especially in terms of preventative care. Nurses are the ones who take the initial vital signs of patients -- their blood pressure, their weight and height. Additionally, advanced practice nurses may treat patients in much the same way that physicians do (depending on the particular state in which they practice and the specific needs of a certain patient). Therefore, these professionals are charged with actually doing the work that will assist patients, and are the primary line of transformation in changing "the current "sick care" system into a true "health care" system" (ANA, 2014).