Nursing’s Reform Agenda for Health Care Reform

The Key Components

The health care system of the US is in a state of crisis, despite several efforts aimed at reforming it. The issues that continue to aggravate the situation include increasing number of the uninsured, rising cost of health care, and deteriorating safety, and quality standards. These issues are critical and require the attention of key stakeholders such as the public, policy-makers, and health care providers (American Nurses Association, 2008). In 1989, the American Nurses Association created a task force to assess three dimensions of health care: quality, cost-effectiveness, and access. These dimensions formed the key factors of ANA’s Health System Reform Agenda, an updated policy that highlights four key factors in health care.

In considering the issue of access, ANA asserts that health care is a basic human right. A standard and reasonable health package should be accessible to all. On the issue of cost, ANA borrows from the six pillars developed by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) that includes safety, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, efficiency, timeliness, and equitability (American Nurses Association, 2008). These when based on research, ANA maintains, will save money. In furthering the agenda of cost cutting, ANA recommends a shift from expensive treatment measures to cheap preventive measures. Lastly, there is need for a single financier in the health care reform projects.

Benefits and Drawbacks

The implementation of the health care reform agenda will be beneficial to citizens in several ways. The patients will not lose benefits or insurance coverage from costly treatments. Additionally, children below twenty-six years old will receive cover under their parents and the same will extend to people with pre-existing health problems (American Nurses Association, 2008). However, certain issues remain unresolved. ANA’s plan for cost cutting merely represents transfer of funds from treatment measures to preventive and awareness issues and thus will not save funds significantly (Robert & Alyene, 2013). The idea of a single financier is monopolistic and non-competitive while uniform health care package regardless of socio-economic status complicates the health care insurance packages tailored to suit varying income levels. Finally, the implementation of the reforms, Mary and Kathryn (2011) asserts, requires proper advocacy and lobbying, which at present, is lacking.

References

American Nurses Association. (2008). ANA’s health system reform agenda [PDF Document]. Retrieved from American Nurses Association Website: http://www.nursingworld.org/healthcarereform.

Mary, E. & Kathryn, W. (2011). The doctor of nursing practice essentials: a new model for advanced practice nursing. London: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Robert, E. & Alyene, S. (2013). The Obama medicare agenda: why seniors will fare worse. Retrieved from Heritage Foundations website: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/05/the-obama-medicare-agenda-why-seniors-will-fare-worse.