The Community and Its Environmental Health Issues

Assignment Objectives -

• Describe common health policies supporting the greater public safety in health and healthcare.
• Classify the current blood borne pathogens and their impact on health and health behavior.

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) into law. The sweeping health care reform legislation was enacted to expand coverage, control health care costs, and improve the health care delivery system. Now that the health care reform has launched, there has been criticism that the legislation will not sufficiently address many of the problems that it was intended to rectify.

From a public health perspective, health care policy should positively impact the leading causes of morbidity and mortality, especially in underserved communities. As a new analyst for health policy think tank, you have been asked to critically examine PPACA and whether or not the legislation sufficiently impacts public health in underserved communities.

Evaluate the current or potential impact of implementation of those titles in underserved communities. Specifically, examine the impact of the policy on the following:

• The leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States
• Health behavior and blood-borne pathogens
• Achieving the goals of Healthy People 2020

Following this evaluation, provide 3 recommendations (including justification) for improving the policy to maximize the impact on underserved communities.

Your paper should be 5 to 7 pages, excluding the cover page, abstract page, and reference page. Support your work with at least 3 academic or professional peer-reviewed sources published within the past 5 years.