Up until 2010, low-income families or those with chronic illnesses faced barriers to obtaining access to health insurance in America. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) changed that by legislating health insurance options for millions of people who were lacking affordable health coverage. In this discussion board, I will discuss how the ACA relates to access, equity, quality, and cost. I will also look at what health care reform means to the uninsured and underinsured, what the impact is of limited access to vulnerable populations, and what nurses can do to increase the awareness of civil rights in health care.
While the ACA, itself, does not guarantee an individual’s access to health care, it does improve the health coverage of most of the country’s citizens, expands insurance options to most Americans, and dramatically increases the number of American’s with insurance coverage. Before the ACA millions of people were either underinsured or underinsured impacting the quality of their health care. Of those, many were unable to find adequate care because of pre-existing conditions. Even though these plans can be expensive, the law did provide a way for families to get health insurance (Glied & Jackson,
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The passage of the ACA into law in 2010 was a watershed moment because millions of people who could not afford coverage or who were denied because of preexisting conditions are now able to obtain health insurance coverage. The ACA has decreased medical costs and provided access to quality health care. Equal access to quality health care is the first step to decreasing the health disparities that impact vulnerable populations. Nurses should be aware that they can have a direct influence on disparities by reaching out to the uninsured to make them aware of insurance options and by reminding politicians that health care disparities still exist among their