Health Care Disparities and the Affordable Care Act

This article discusses the two key areas for the disparity in health care, the impact of the Affordable Care Act on reducing disparities, and the strategies to deliver equal care to all patients.

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1. Two key areas for the disparity in health care are- unequal access to health care
experienced by one group of people and the disparities in the quality of care provided to
the different individuals. Health care disparity generally refers to a greater burden of
illness, disability or the mortality faced by a particular group of people in comparison to
the other group of people (Balicer et al., 2012). Disparities in terms of health can occur
across several dimensions, which involves socio-economic status, location, age gender,
sexual orientation and the disability status of the people.
2. The Affordable care act have reduced the disparities in Health care and have improved
the health and the health care for the vulnerable populations in the United States. Some of
the provisions discussed in the ACA focuses exclusively on the disparities, while the
other principle have broader goals (Sommers et al., 2016). ACA has increased the federal
priorities for addressing the disparities by the elevation of the National Centre for
Minority Health and Health Care Disparities. Take Care New York is a primary health
care policy to improve the clinical preventive services in the primary care. It focusses on
provision of primary care facilities to the clients irrespective of their race (National
Center for Health Statistics , 2016).
3. Delivery of equal care to the patient irrespective of the race, ethnicity, socioeconomic
status, sexual orientation and disability requires a continuous monitoring to stop any
racial activities taking place (Balicer et al., 2011). The health care workers of the
organisation should be trained to deliver a culturally safe care to the patient by
communicating them with empathy. In case of communicating with people from
linguistically different background simple languages should be made. Liaison nurses
should be present for patient advocacy in terms of health care facilities, Medicare
facilities and treatment regimen. Organisations should be strict to the equality laws and
norms and preserve the basic rights of the patients.

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References
Balicer, R. D., Shadmi, E., Lieberman, N., Greenberg-Dotan, S., Goldfracht, M., Jana, L.,
Cohen, A. D., Regev-Rosenberg, S., … Jacobson, O. (2011). Reducing health
disparities: strategy planning and implementation in Israel's largest health care
organization. Health services research, 46(4), 1281-99.
National Center for Health Statistics (US. (2016). Health, United States, 2015: with special
feature on racial and ethnic health disparities.
Sommers, B. D., Gunja, M. Z., Finegold, K., & Musco, T. (2015). Changes in self-reported
insurance coverage, access to care, and health under the Affordable Care
Act. Jama, 314(4), 366-374.