Affordable Care Act (ACA) Analysis

The Affordable Healthcare Act promotes preventative health care for Americans and in return increases the number of individuals taking improved measures of precaution when it comes to their health. The utilization of mid-level practitioners, such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants would progressively benefit the delivery of primary care. NPs and PAs are more cost effective, provide coverage for the increasing amount of new people requiring health coverage, and require less liability risk cost when compared to a physician’s rate. According to Shell (2013), “Partly driving this change is the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which will extend health care coverage to approximately 30 million more individuals, most of whom have not been

According to Garment (2013), “The American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) estimates that the U.S. will face a physician shortage of over 90,000 physicians by 2020; a figure that’s expected to reach over 130,000 by 2025” (p.4). The increasing amount of money required for health care services from a physician is a driving force to pursue alternative ways of receiving primary care. According to The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (2013), “NPs in a physician practice potentially decreased the cost of patient visits by as much as one third, particularly when seeing patients in an independent, rather than complementary, manner” (p. 2). NPs are maintaining the standard of care and for a lesser amount for patients to pay. Mid-level practitioners are completing the same amount of work and improving the quality of care. According to Garment (2013), “However, decades of studies have demonstrated that, when permitted to practice to the full extent of their training, NPs and Pas can perform a majority of the tasks that physicians do while providing the same quality of care” (p. 2). In addition to providing the same standard of care for less money, there is a reduced salary expense when going from a base physician salary to a mid-level