Example Of Health Care Reform: New York And Vermont States Report

Health Insurance

The primary goal for both the two states, New York and Vermont, is to provide health insurance cover to a large percentage of American citizens. New York State offers health insurance coverage to more than 86% of its residents. Vermont also provides medical cover to about 89.7% of its residents making the state be ranked 10th and recognized by providing the best health services. Equally New York and Vermont have taken a similar period of 20 years while trying to provide health cover to as many citizens as possible. In fact, New York State is still working hard to lower further the number of uncovered residents from 14 percent.
Furthermore, companies in New York provide health cover and other insurance benefits to over 60% of workers, which translates to about 3 out of 4 workers who benefits from health insurance plan offered by the employer. Similarly, the companies in Vermont offer about 56.8% health benefits with 71% of the workers accepting the insurance plans offered by the employer, (Healthcare.org, 2015). As a result of their zeal to achieve a health covered populace, New York, and Vermont receive massive government funding to support health insurance plan. New York gets about $110 per capita while Vermont is the third highest state that obtains enormous public health support per capita.
In contrast, the Vermont state provides health insurance cover for a large share of its population, 89.7% of residents, which implies that only 1 among every 10 residents lacks health insurance, (Healthcare.org, 2015). Whereas New York offers health insurance to 86% of its residents while leaving a large share of residents, 14%, unprotected. Even though, the two state have spent the same period of 20 years trying to provide health cover to almost the entire population, New York worked extremely hard for 20 years toward providing a reachable health plan. Whereas Vermont spent the 20 years to maintain a stable rate of residents that benefit from its already established health insurance plan.
Unlike New York, Vermont is recognized for offering the best health care services and is ranked 10th state in health insurance coverage and 3rd highest in federal health funding. On the other hand, New York is listed 22nd countrywide in health insurance coverage and 10th highest nationwide in public health funding. Concerning employer health insurance plans, New York State has the largest number of companies offering health insurance benefits to their employees compared to Vermont. New York has over 60 percent of companies providing health insurance benefits to employees implying that 3 among every 4 workers subscribe to the insurance plan. Whereas in Vermont, only 56.8% of businesses offer health insurance benefits to workers and only 71% of the workers subscribe to this service, (Healthcare.org, 2015).
Conclusively, the facts and the statistics about the two states show that Vermont is in a proper position of providing quality health care and insurance compared to New York State.

Population Health Statistics and State’s Health Ranking

Comparatively, New York and Vermont offer health insurance cover to a considerably large share of their populace. Vermont provides the best health services to about 89.7% of residents implying that only 1 in every 10 Vermont residents in unprotected. Similarly, 86% of New York residents are covered, and only 14% remain unprotected as the state plans to push the rate of uncovered residents much lower, (Healthcare.org, 2015). Out of 56.8% of companies offering health insurance plan, Vermont has a high number of workers subscribing to this scheme. Equally, New York has s high percentage of employers providing health insurance benefits to workers (60%), and many of the workers, about 71% subscribe to these company insurance benefits to the employees.
About 90.2% of Vermont residents have access to medical care whenever they need it with New York also offering medical care to about 90% of residents when needed. Both these states, New York, and Vermont record the highest number of ninth graders that graduate from high school within a period of four years. The two states also register extremely low prevalence of children health complications such as obesity and complete immunization to toddlers. For instance, Vermont immunized 79.8% of children in 2008 in about 19 to 35 months while New York made 83% complete immunizations. On the face of this, they have low occupational death rates and adult diseases such as cancer and their associated deaths of about 18 deaths for every 10,000 residents.
Both New York and Vermont are ranked highly in countrywide health care, for example; New York is ranked 10th while Vermont is 3rd highest in state health funding. However, New York and Vermont lie at two distant ends in the U.S health ranking and, therefore; there is not much to compare. Vermont is ranked number one while New York is ranked 25th in health care provision.
In contrast, Vermont has been ranked number one for a second year in a row by the United Health Foundation as the healthiest and just the best in providing health care than all the state of the United States. On the other hand, New York appears in middle (position 25) on the list of healthiest American States as ranked by the United Health Foundation. Unlike New York, Vermont has tremendously ready availability of primary care with about 165.1 primary care doctors for every 100,000 Vermont populaces. Conversely, New York has a small doctor to patient ratio of approximately 17 primary care doctors for every 10,000 residents. Furthermore, New York enjoys the best rate of complete immunization coverage countrywide with 83% of children receiving full immunization. Conversely, Vermont has a lower total immunization percentage of 79.8% of children receiving full vaccination for a period of 19 to 35 months.

Health Care Reforms

New York and Vermont states tend to agree on health care reforms and future state of health. The two states are currently implementing the Affordable Care Act of 2010 that would see them offer nationwide patient protection and at the same time obtain financial aid from the national government, (Bielaszka-DuVernay, 2011). Moreover, the primary goal of implementing health care reforms is to provide health insurance to all Vermonters and New York residents, as well as curb the invalid growth in health care costs. In order to achieve the goal of accessible medical and insurance cover to uninsured people, the two states have plans in line with the reforms to establish exchange programs for both health and insurance cover, (Bielaszka-DuVernay, 2011). This program will help the states to obtain substantial state funding that would help them cut down the value of health care.
Unlike New York, Vermont has progressed in its roadmap to providing reasonable, accessible, and quality health services. Vermont has managed to implement a number of health care reforms including the enactment Act 48 of 2011 purposely to increase access healthcare, improve quality of health care, and lower the cost of obtaining health care for residents. Although the two states are on the run to ensuring insurance coverage for Vermonters and New York residents, Vermont encourages a state exchange program that offers individual policies. This is contra to employer insurance benefits, and that could see the reimplementation of a single-payer system. The individual market in New York provides limited insurance coverage options. Thus, the state exchange could only encourage big companies to seek insurance benefits plans for their workers in the insurance exchange, (Huntington et al., 2011).

The Influence of Health Care Reforms on Professional Nursing

Health care reforms have had a number of implications for the professional nursing practice in a majority of the American States especially New York and Vermont. With increased reforms in the health sector, the knowledge of registered nurses is continuously falling below par, requiring these nurses to seek higher degrees in order to have a say in those health care reforms. Equally, Vermont and New York states have been experiencing a demographic shift respect to health care reforms. The demographic change brought about by health care reforms implies an increase in the number of retiring nurses and consequently the growth in the number of aging patients that need more medical service. Furthermore, some of the health care reforms have faced resistance for implementation with impediments coming in distinct forms including unions and politicians. For instance, Shumlin administration’s plan to cut the number of centralized, delicate, inpatient psychiatric beds to 16 from 54 encountered tough opposition psychiatry representatives in Vermont.
In contrast, many registered nurses in Vermont have obtained advanced educational courses such as degrees in nursing so as to have a voice in reforms compared to New York. A survey conducted by the University of Vermont reveal that over 42% had a degree, masters or doctoral degrees in nursing. Only 23% of registered nurses had an associate degree, a percentage, much lower than the one published earlier indicating that 35% of registered nurses had associate degrees in nursing. Unlike Vermont where mental health workers have been critical in pushing the resistance to reforms including the single-payer system, New York’s professional nurses play a vital role in implementing changes. Professional nurses in New York aid in the removal of impediments to practice and care that could be realized through changes, (Huntington et al., 2011). As reported by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Health (2010) recognized APRNs as fundamental advocates to reforms.

References

Bielaszka-DuVernay, C. (2011). Vermont’s blueprint for medical homes, community health teams, and better health at lower cost. Health Affairs, 30(3), 383-386.
Healthcare.org,. (2015). Health Insurance Vermont – Affordable Quotes Now at Healthcare.org. Retrieved 13 March 2015, from http://www.healthcare.org/vermont/
Healthcare.org,. (2015). Health Insurance New York – Affordable Quotes Now at Healthcare.org. Retrieved 13 March 2015, from http://www.healthcare.org/new-york/
Huntington, W. V., Covington, L. A., Center, P. P., Covington, L. A., & Manchikanti, L. (2011). Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010: reforming the health care reform for the new decade. Pain Physician, 14(1), E35-E67.