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Health Economics Health Reform

In: Business and Management

Submitted By raelynmom
Words 2579
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The Cost of Preventive Care
Veronica Lee
Regis College
HP-622-01-11FA, Economics of Health Care
December 4, 2011

Is There a Real Cost Savings with Preventive Care?
Introduction:
On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) into law, which creates health insurance reforms that will transform healthcare over the next four years. The PPACA will ensure that all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care and will create the transformation with the health care system necessary to contain costs (The Patient Protection). One of those health insurance reforms started on September 23, 2010, which will provide free preventive care. The PPACA will eliminate co-pays and deductibles for recommended preventive care, including preventive care for women, provide individuals with the information they need to make healthy decisions, improve education on disease prevention and public health, and invest in a national prevention and public health strategy (The Patient Protection). There are some exceptions to the law for grandfathered insurance plans. This preventive services provision applies only to people enrolled in job-related health plans or individual health insurance policies created after March 23, 2010 (Preventive Care). This law is supposed to improve quality healthcare and lower costs for patients. This paper will discuss what effect the new law may have on the United States healthcare system.
What is Preventive Care? The definition of preventive care is "a pattern of nursing and medical care that focuses on disease prevention and health maintenance. It includes early diagnosis of disease, discovery and identification of people at risk of development of specific problems, counseling, and other necessary intervention to avert a health problem. Screening tests, health education, and immunization

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