New reforms to the pending Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), have the potential to greatly change how public health care is applied by agencies. The current form of the PPACA has the potential to heighten the impact of public health care programs by addressing the most critical aspects of public health. Those aspects being prevention, wellness and intervention. How these changes may affect the students who are enrolled in a Masters in Public Health program is unclear. What is clear is that government changes to public health care policy is something with which all public health care workers must deal.
The PPACA involves dozens of health care initiatives as defined by a more positive improvement to what has always been a poor public willingness to support changes that can be marketed and seen by naysayers and lobbyists as an unfair tax burden. The changes within the public attitude shows an more grassroots willingness to address issues such as prevention. Graduates of Masters in Public Health online degree programs now can use prevention as a tool. The fiscal bean-counters can also use prevention as a means to justify cost, since preventing epidemics is cheaper then trying to cure an epidemic.
The problem the current PPACA package has is that while it represents the largest monetary contribution of public health funding it does not provide a clear delineation of how funding will be spent. How money is allocated can become more political and less humanitarian. These types of issues with the act will impact how public health workers do their jobs.
While there is a great desire for change within the public sphere, finding the energy to implement said changes is a harder task. The very process; however, should be a beacon of hope for public health care.
