Is the Affordable Care Act toxic to workers?

Image: Don DeBold (Creative Commons / Flickr)

Image: Don DeBold (Creative Commons / Flickr)

The Impact of the Affordable Care Act on the Health Care Workforce is a nurse-authored paper that appeared in a recent Heritage Foundation Backgrounder. In it, the author concludes that the Affordable Care Act does not address the root cause of the health care crisis in America, is toxic to workers, and should be repealed at the nearest opportunity. She builds her argument around four key points:

First, she asserts that the ACA will worsen the current health care workforce shortage by. She believes this will be felt most acutely in rural areas, where the primary care physician shortage is at its worst.

Second, she states that the industry changes brought forth by the ACA will cause an greater prevalence of occupational stress, burn-out, and job dissatisfaction among nurses and doctors because of increased workload and clerical demands.

This brings her to her third point, which is that the ACA’s new regulations will impose an additional 190 annually. This will undoubtedly limit precious face-to-face time with patients.

Finally, she argues that legislation such as the standards and the will push hospitals to the brink of insolvency, because the current workforce is unable to provide the excellent care that this legislation demands.

To counteract this, she encourages the continued growth of and Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development, , encouraging movement of physicians to rural areas by relieving student loan debt, and, of course, . She champions an interdisciplinary approach and teamwork training to combat inefficient care delivery, and suggests that “active interventions to prevent work overloads and strategies for stress management will reduce attrition.”

Commentary

This was a well written paper that made me question . As a researcher of occupational health psychology, I agree with her recommendations, but the gloomy forecast predicted by the author is just that—a prediction. I’m unconvinced that as Americans gain access to coverage they will at once overwhelm our system.

There are three topics that I would have liked to see covered in this article. First is in mitigating the paperwork and improving communication between different health systems, a major source of wasted time and resources. Second, there was no mention of bolstering the public health workforce and infra-structure, a very important cost-saving measure introduced in the ACA. Third is the topic of job creation at a time when it is still sorely needed. Middle wage workers may be able to fill the expanding clerical responsibilities demanded by the ACA.

The author closes with the suggestion that Americans have the right of self-determination in health care. I contest that they have a right to health care, period. If the ACA does fail us, as the author suggests, I sincerely hope that it paves the way to via a socialized system.

Anderson, A. Heritage Foundation. 2014; Backgrounder No. 2887.

by

Megan Doede, RN, MSN, CEN