The American Nurses Association and five other healthcare groups representing millions of healthcare professionals have filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the Affordable Care Act's minimum coverage requirement for most U.S. citizens.
The ANA said it chose to file the brief because RNs are frontline witnesses to the harmful health effects on individuals who are uninsured and defer needed care. RNs have a "unique perspective" to guide the Court regarding the consequences of removing the provision, also known as the individual mandate.
"I saw it every day in the emergency department, and the situation hasn't changed," ANA President Karen A. Daley, RN, PhD, MPH, FAAN, who worked in emergency nursing for more than 26 years, said in a news release.
"Uninsured people who don't have access to care show up with a health crisis that could have been caught earlier or prevented altogether."
Other patients or government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid end up bearing the cost of uncompensated care. "We need to preserve the provision in the law that spreads risks and costs fairly and allows us to provide more effective, less expensive healthcare for all Americans," Daley said.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear 5 1/2 hours of arguments March 26-28 concerning the legality of the Affordable Care Act. A ruling is expected around June. A key issue for the Court to decide is the constitutionality of the individual mandate, which will require most people to have a specified amount of health insurance or pay a financial penalty starting in 2014.
The likelihood that a patient will receive adequate preventive care or early treatment is directly related to whether the patient is insured, according to the ANA, which said "robust data" have demonstrated that uninsured patients' diminished access to care causes their medical conditions to deteriorate and the cost of their subsequent care to increase dramatically.
The ANA said Affordable Care Act reforms, such as prohibiting denial of health insurance based on preexisting conditions, greatly improve access to healthcare. Such patient protections will not be feasible financially without a minimum coverage provision, which the ANA said is essential to achieving the goal of making health insurance universally available and affordable. "Healthcare is a basic human right," according to the ANA, and "all individuals should have access to essential healthcare services."
The ANA said it chose to file the brief because RNs are frontline witnesses to the harmful health effects on individuals who are uninsured and defer needed care. RNs have a "unique perspective" to guide the Court regarding the consequences of removing the provision, also known as the individual mandate.
"I saw it every day in the emergency department, and the situation hasn't changed," ANA President Karen A. Daley, RN, PhD, MPH, FAAN, who worked in emergency nursing for more than 26 years, said in a news release.
"Uninsured people who don't have access to care show up with a health crisis that could have been caught earlier or prevented altogether."
Other patients or government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid end up bearing the cost of uncompensated care. "We need to preserve the provision in the law that spreads risks and costs fairly and allows us to provide more effective, less expensive healthcare for all Americans," Daley said.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear 5 1/2 hours of arguments March 26-28 concerning the legality of the Affordable Care Act. A ruling is expected around June. A key issue for the Court to decide is the constitutionality of the individual mandate, which will require most people to have a specified amount of health insurance or pay a financial penalty starting in 2014.
The likelihood that a patient will receive adequate preventive care or early treatment is directly related to whether the patient is insured, according to the ANA, which said "robust data" have demonstrated that uninsured patients' diminished access to care causes their medical conditions to deteriorate and the cost of their subsequent care to increase dramatically.
The ANA said Affordable Care Act reforms, such as prohibiting denial of health insurance based on preexisting conditions, greatly improve access to healthcare. Such patient protections will not be feasible financially without a minimum coverage provision, which the ANA said is essential to achieving the goal of making health insurance universally available and affordable. "Healthcare is a basic human right," according to the ANA, and "all individuals should have access to essential healthcare services."
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