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A New Bill to Leverage the Impact of PPACA

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a health care legislation established by the United States federal government to drive better health outcomes across all American States by enforcing transformation of health care practices clinically, technologically and financially so as to not only improve the quality of care but also to make health care services more accessible to all Americans by lowering the cost of healthcare services as well as improving their methods of distribution (Huntington, Covington, Center, Covington, Manchikanti, 2011). Notably, this act has become a liability to California’s health care delivery systems since it has significantly increased the demand for healthcare services within the state thereby subjecting the State’s health care system to a lot of pressure (Rosenbaum, 2011). This essay seeks to explore propose a public policy that would potentially reduce the pressure imposed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on California’s health care system.

The impact of the legislation on California’s health care system

As noted above, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has significantly impacted the health care system of California by unleashing a potential tsunami of newly insured patients on the State’s health care systems thereby flooding the already fragile and strained health care delivery system. For instance, the health care infrastructure of California has experienced workforce shortages for decades and has no potential to efficiently and effective serve the vast influx of patients induced by the coming of the Act into law. Notably, the critical shortfall of health professionals in California, coupled with the vast influx of patients, has potentially induced poor quality of care within the State due to increased burden and stress on the State’s health care delivery system that is already fragile (Maga, Lewis, 2014). Moreover, the pressure induced by the affordable care act in the State of California’s health care system is increased by the annual one hundred and ninety million hours of paperwork imposed on the health care industry, a situation that has led to patients facing increased wait times, shortened time with their caregivers as well as limited access to health care providers leading to poor health outcomes and decreased patient satisfaction. Therefore, the efficiency of California’s health care system has been significantly hampered by the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that has seen health care workforce experience increased stress and instability. Notably, the Act requires all American population to enroll in Medicaid as well as the state and federal insurance exchanges. This requirement will serve to make the impact of the workforce shortages more catastrophic as it will induce tremendous increase in demand for health care services owing to the ever increasing growth of the population and increased longevity of the American people as well as the aging of the population (Poghosyan, Lucero, Rauch, Berkowitz, 2012). For instance, the 2012 compilation of state workforce studies and reports posits that there is a shortage of both health care specialists and primary care physicians in the state of California. This shortage affects all health professions including mental health, pharmacy, dental, and allied health among others. Notably, the current medical technology and advanced care management in the state of California will see Americans, living in this state, have longer longevities than before. Consequently, the stress and burden imposed on California’s health care delivery systems will not only persist but also continue to escalate with the growing population as a result of the associated increase in demand for health care services by the large population. The growing and aging population will induce high prevalence of chronic diseases associated with old age and their comorbidities leading to additional stress on the health care workforce.

The proposed policy to correct the situation

As noted above, the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act induced a vast influx of patients thereby not only worsening the health care workforce shortage situation but also increasing the economic burden on California’s health care sector. Consequently, the legislature should introduce a new bill that seeks to address the health care professional shortage in California. This bill, at this moment, referred to as health sector staffing bill should provide for annual recruitment of health care professionals from across all health professions by the federal government. The bill should provide for funding of the program by the federal government to ensure that every qualified health care professional within the state is recruited into the health care system and deployed to the state of California to leverage on the problem of health professional shortage. The bill should further provide for ways of funding the health care sectors by maximizing receipts of the federal funds as well as leveraging the state’s purchasing power. The legislature should, therefore, formulate a health sector staffing bill that not only addresses the health care professional shortage but also seeks to address the high cost of health care induced by new taxes on high earners and health care industry such as individual mandate and the employer mandate taxes all of which affects the Californians directly (Gamble, Herman, 2013). Notably, the individual mandate requires all Americans to obtain health coverage or get an exemption failure to which they would pay a fee. This provision has induced increased demand on health care insurance leading to high insurance costs. Therefore, the health care staffing bill should provide for alternative ways of funding the affordable health care program without passing the heat to Californians by providing for ways of maximizing receipts of federal funds.

In conclusion, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has proved to be a liability to the State of California’s health care system by inducing a vast influx of patients thereby worsening the health care professional shortage. The patient influx has not only worsened the health care workforce shortage but has also increased the economic burden on California’s health care sector. Consequently, a policy that seeks to address these two issues, professional shortage and economic burden on the health sector, can significantly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of California’s health care system. The legislature should, therefore, formulate a bill that ensures a mandatory annual recruitment of health care professionals into the sector from all over the country as well as that provides for maximization of receipts of federal funding and leveraging the state’s purchasing power.