Healthcare Program/Policy Evaluation Analysis Template Sample Paper
| Healthcare Program/Policy Evaluation | Evaluation of The Affordable Care Act (ACA)Policy |
| Description | Patient protection and Affordable Health Care Act, also popularly known as ‘Obama Care’ is a health policy that was signed into law by President Barack Obama on 23rd March, 2010. At the moment, the policy stands out as the most extensive in the United States’ healthcare system since the approval of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. The impacts of the policy have been vast and wide. The most significant element of the policy is that it provides subsidies which makes healthcare insurance affordable (Blumenthal et Al., 2015). Another aspect of the policy is that it emphasizes preventive care by improving legislations that govern how the care itself is delivered. |
| How was the success of the program or policy measured? | The success of the ACA policy can only be effectively measured by considering how much it reduces the number of uninsured people and if it improves the quality of care, whose availability will be at a low cost. Its success will also be quantified by reviewing the federal and state budget |
| s which will take several years to be noticeable. Basically, it can be said that the policy has been successful at availing affordable care to millions of Americans. This is because, following its introduction, more than 20 million people have been able to access healthcare insurance with more medical coverage. In addition, those who were poorly insured get a chance to access quality medical insurance at a relatively low cost. | |
| How many people were reached by the program or policy selected? How much of an impact was realized with the program or policy selected? | Before the implementation of ACA, many people were uninsured due to the loopholes in the public insurance system, and inaccessibility to affordable health insurance. The ACA policy has demonstrated the largest gains in coverage in the history of United States’ healthcare. The policy extended medical coverage to low income earners and provided subsidies to the people below 400% of poverty. For instance, after it was signed in 2010, the number of uninsured elderly people reduced from 44 million in 2013 to 27 million in 2016. |
| What data was used to conduct the program or policy evaluation? | Evaluation of a healthcare policy involves a thorough activity of gathering, examining, and the use of evidence based data to come up with answers to some fundamental questions arising from the policy. Policy evaluations may be of various types such as process and outcome evaluations, cost-benefit andcost-effectiveness evaluations, and formative and summative evaluations. In terms of cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness, the ACA demands for all insurance companies to scrape off annual and lifetime limits and cover all costs to reduce the unnecessary catastrophic costs for individuals (French et Al., 2016). |
| What specific information on unintended consequences were identified? | Healthcare providers continue to utilize several strategies to adapt and remain compliant to the requirements of the ACA policy. However, as the policy continues to take root, it yields to unintended consequences. These include continuity of care whereby different organizations are unable to offer consistent care, which often arises from transferring patients from system to system (Dubois, 2015).Another consequence is the outpatient treatment. The policy advocates for 60% outpatient care and 40% in patients, which is a disadvantage since most patients view hospitals as safer places or in case of adverse reactions, a sense of security that they may not have with outpatient facilities. |
| What stakeholders were identified in the evaluation of the program or policy? | The main stakeholders in the ACA policy are patients, insurance companies, healthcare providers, and the government (Weiner et Al., 2017). The patients benefit most from ACA because it minimizes the rise in healthcare costs making it accessible even to low income earners. |
| Who would benefit |
| most from the results |