The Affordable Care Act addressed the healthcare coverage access problem by mandating American to purchase medical insurance while lowering the requirement of enrollment as lift pre-conditions limitation, enhance preventive care and focus on quality of care by changing payable measurement (Cohn, 2021). The ACA increases health insurance coverage to all populations in American including the minorities. This policy is adopted and adjusted from the idea of Universal Care and proposed and executed by former president
Barack Obama. The other healthcare policy is the The Indian Health Care Improvement Act of 1976. The IHCIA was mainly made to improve Native American health to a healthy parity and making Native American are responsible for their own health. Unfortunately, many of Native American are not enrolled into the system’s service within the Indian Health service, mainly because of the low income and they can not afford the cost of insurance and medical care. In order to make a health care policy that can address the affordability and quality of care seems a mission impossible to current economic and political aspects. The funding coming from tax which means high taxation means cutting food from the table or educational funding from the youth. The path of seeking for a solution may come as a long and curving road shaped by political wars and economic growth.
Important information for writing discussion questions and participation
Welcome to class
Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to
I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.
Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.
If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.
Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.
Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.
I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!
Hi Class,
Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.
Contact me if you have any questions.
Important information on Writing a Discussion Question
- Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
- There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
- Include in-text citations in your response
- Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
- Follow APA-7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor
- A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
- Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
- Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
- Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
- Follow APA 7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
- Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
- Here are some helpful links
- The is a great resource
Initial Post
Using 500 to 750 words, address the following:
- What are the racial and ethnic health disparities in the United States, and why do they exist?
- What are two policies to address racial and ethnic health disparities? Make clear if they are policies adopted, proposed, or ones you would recommend.
Cite additional sources beyond the Learning Materials for this week.
Replies
Reply to at least two of your classmates. In your reply posts, each reply should be 200 to 400 words. You should cite at least one to two sources that add new information in response to your classmate’s post.
Please refer to the for details on how this activity will be graded.
Posting to the Discussion Forum
- Select the appropriate Thread.
- Select Reply.
- Create your post.
- Select Post to Forum.
It is no secret unfortunately that racial and ethic health disparities exist in the United States. “Health disparities are differences that exist among specific population groups in the United States in the attainment of full health potential that can be measured by differences in incidence, prevalence, mortality, burden of disease, and other adverse health conditions” (Baciu et al., 2017). There are many racial and ethnic health disparities that are noted. There are higher rates of premature death and chronic health conditions compared to whites, African Americans have a higher rate of HIV/AIDS, mortality rates for infants is higher than whites, along with obesity, heart disease and cancer (Baciu et al., 2017). So why do they exist? There are many reasons like, how fragmented the delivery of healthcare is, quality of care received, “stereotyping, stigma, biases, and uncertainty on that part of clinicians can contribute to unequal treatment of patients, as can care that is poorly matches to the needs to undeserved patients. Disparities also may emerge from patient-level factors. For example, minority patients may be more likely to decline recommended services, adhere poorly to treatment regiments, and delay seeking care for symptoms. Studies are needed to better understand how clinicians and patients interact in the health care setting that may result in generating or reducing health care disparities” (Wasserman et al, 2019). “Health disparities are driven by underlying social and economic inequities that are rooted in racism. Addressing disparities is important not only from a social justice standpoint but for improving our nation’s overall health and economic prosperity” (Ndugga & Artiga, 2021). One policy to address health care disparities is the one set forth by the AMA; it is currently a policy adopted. “These policies aim to increase awareness of racial and ethnic disparities in health care among the general public, strengthen patient-provider relationships in publicly funded health plans, and apply the same managed care protections to publicly funded HMO participants that apply to private HMO participants” (AMA, 2021). Another policy implemented is the HHS action plan which is also a policy already adopted. “This first-ever HHS Disparities Action Plan and the NPA Stakeholder Strategy can be used together to coordinate action that will effectively address racial and ethnic health disparities across the country. Furthermore, the HHS Disparities Action Plan builds on national health disparities’ goals and objectives recently unveiled in Health People 2020 and leverages key provisions of the Affordable Care Act and other cutting-edge HHS initiatives” (Health & Human Services, n.d.). These policies have helped decrease some of the health disparities that we see in the United States, but not all of them. There is a long way to go in the Untied States to reach the equality that needs to be achieved. The U.S. needs to make people aware and how they can help, and there needs to be more medical professionals in rural areas to help those who do not have easy access to healthcare. Another implementation that can be made is increase healthcare coverage and making healthcare coverage more readily attainable for those who need help.
Thank you,
Morgan Lening
AMA. (2021). Reducing disparities in health care. Retrieved May 18, 2021, from https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/patient-support-advocacy/reducing-disparities-health-care
Health & Human Services. (2021, May 18). HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. Reading presented at HHS Plan Complete.
Ndugga Follow @nambinjn on Twitter and Samantha Artiga Follow @SArtiga2 on Twitter Published: May 11, N., & Artiga, S. (2021, May 12). Disparities in health and health CARE: 5 key questions and answers. Retrieved May 18, 2021, from https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/issue-brief/disparities-in-health-and-health-care-5-key-question-and-answers/#:~:text=Health%20disparities%20are%20driven%20by%20underlying%20social%20and%20economic%20inequities,overall%20health%20and%20economic%20prosperity.
Wasserman, J., Palmer, R. C., Gomez, M. M., Berzon, R., Ibrahim, S. A., & Ayanian, J. Z. (2019). Advancing health services research to eliminate health Care disparities. American Journal of Public Health, 109(S1). doi:10.2105/ajph.2018.304922
Weinstein, J. N., Geller, A., Negussie, Y., & Baciu, A. (2017). Communities in action: Pathways to health equity. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Note: The value of each of the criterion on this rubric represents a point range (example: 25–20 points, 20–15 points, 15–10 points, 10–0 points).
Criteria | Exceeds Expectations | Meets Expectations | Needs Improvement | Inadequate | Total Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Quality of Initial Post | Initial post is on time and of the correct length (500–750 words).
All components of the initial post requirements are addressed. Course content synthesis is applied. References are included according to the Discussion instructions. 25 points |
Initial post is on time and of the correct length (500–750 words).
Most components of the initial post requirements are addressed. Course content synthesis is applied but limited. References are included according to the Discussion instructions. 20 points |
Initial post is one day late.
Does not meet the correct length (500–750 words). Some components of the initial post requirements are addressed. Course content synthesis is weak or missing. References are included but not according to the Discussion instructions. 15 points |
Initial post is more than one day late.
Initial post much fewer than (500–750 words). Few components of the initial post requirements are addressed. Course content synthesis is missing. References are not included. 10 points |
25 |
Peer Replies | On time.
There was substantial evidence and synthesis of course content utilizing course topics and the introduction of questions and new information. Replies are 200–400 words. References are included according to the Discussion instructions. 25 points |
On time. There was some evidence and synthesis of course content utilizing course topics and the introduction of questions or new information.
Replies are 200–400 words. References are included according to the Discussion instructions. 20 points |
There was either some synthesis of course content or the introduction of questions or new information.
Replies are less than 200 words. References are included but not according to the Discussion instructions. 15 points |
There was little or no evidence of course content utilizing course topics or the introduction of questions or new information.
Replies are less than 200 words References are not included. 10 points |
25 |
Frequency of Contribution | Initial post with two peer replies posted on two separate days.
25 points |
Initial post with two peer replies posted on the same day.
20 points |
Initial post with one peer reply.
15 points |
Only initial post submitted or only replied to peers.
10 points |
25 |
Organization, Writing Mechanics, and APA Format | Clearly organized, no or limited writing mechanics and/or APA errors.
25 points |
Clearly organized, few to some writing mechanics and/or APA errors.
20 points |
Poorly organized, several to moderate writing mechanics and/or APA errors.
15 points |
Poorly organized, many writing mechanics and/or APA errors.
10 points |
25 |
Total points | 100 |