Supreme court decisions regarding the Affordable Care Act

Supreme Courts Decisions Regargding the Affordable Care Act

Ramifications of the Affordable Care Act

The Supreme Court's decision regarding the Affordable Care Act will have a significant impact on a number of different people affiliated with the healthcare system in the United States. Chief among these is patients, who will have substantially greater access to treatment and resources pertaining to treatment. School children will benefit from this act due to its correlation with funding to the School-Based Health Center Capital Program, which is projected to disseminate approximately $200 million dollars from 2010 to 2013 to school-based health care programs. In the latter part of 2011, over $14 million dollars was allotted to school-based health care centers throughout the nation (HRSA 2011). Subsequently, children with debilitating conditions will have greater opportunities to attend a school setting due to the increased level of care and treatment offered in such facilities. Specific services enhanced by this relatively recent awarding of funds include mental and primary health care, dental services, substance abuse counseling, as well as education and promotion for nutrition and general health. Additionally, the expanded Medicaid coverage will allow increased access to healthcare for people with low incomes.

Another group that is significantly impacted by the change in legislation regarding health care in this country is nurses, which include advanced practice and practicing nurses. Due to the increased access in care, there is projected to be a shortage of qualified nurses to accommodate the influx of patients. Therefore, nurses are seeing greater amounts of loans offered to them to help them complete their schooling so that they can join the workforce quicker. This is a fairly substantial change for nurses, since it has been more than 10 years since the amount of loans was increased (No author, 2011). Also, specific funding has been provided for nursing care facilities throughout the country, totaling approximately $50 million.

Other aspects of Affordable Health Care that specifically have targeted nurse practitioners include higher Medicaid payments for the primary care services that these professionals routinely provide for patients. Components of this act that have been targeted towards advanced nursing practitioners include a lifting of the limits for how much money can be spent on doctoral programs for nurses (No author, 2011). Most advanced practice nurses have a master's degree; the removal of the cap for funding for doctoral programs will almost certainly allow these professionals to complete more doctoral degrees, increase their breadth of knowledge, and provide better service for patients and assistance to health care professionals.