Hello,
Please respond to the student’s post from a personal perspective. For scholar resources only US based, no older 5 years articles:
On November 16., 2022, the State of Nevada completed Assembly Bill Number 6 on Health and Human Services. The purpose of this bill relates to health care and its cost growth benchmark for healthcare spending during that year. This collaboration required involvement from multiple state agencies to help develop strategies to meet this benchmark. This involved the Director of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Patient Protection Commission to participate. However the primary sponsor for this assembly was the Assembly Committee on Health and Human Services. This included the following persons: Sarah Peters (chair), David Orentlicher (vice chair), Cecelia Gonzalez, Michelle Gorelow, Sabra Newby, Duy Nguyen, Angie Taylor, Clara Thomas, Ken Gray, Gregory Hafen II, Brian Hibbetts, and Gregory Koenig (who resides from my small rural town.)
Currently, this bill explains there is a need of a systematic review of current health care needs within the State of Nevada. Within this review, quality, accessibility, and affordability must be the forefront focus. The bill explains that in 2021, the Governor issued Executive Order 2021-29, which establishes healthcare cost targets and requires the Division of Insurance of the Department of Business and Industry, the Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies to engage in meeting such targets. This will then be reviews and monitored to continue to watch healthcare spending (Nevada Legislature, 2023).
This bill exudes the stress of NR 503, focusing on availability and affordability to the population. By focusing and monitoring such measures, the states is choosing to acknowledge social determinants of health and find better ways to serve the community and healthcare population. Each specified section within this bill is proposed to evaluate and target particular measures, for example, Section 12 of this bill requires the Director to compile and submit to the Governor and the Legislature an annual report of certain data and analysis relating to health care spending in this State that is based on the data collected from insurers (Nevada Legislature, 2023).
If the true, genuine goal is to improve quality of life, all agencies must strive for better. As discussed in “Beyond Health Care: The Role of Social Determinants in Promoting Health and Health Equity,” the author discusses the importance of approaching social determinants outside of healthcare systems through actionable policy and practice shaping. This directly correlates with this Bill. A specific example of this, as noted byt the article, is the assessment of availability and accessibility to public transportation, affecting access to employment, healthy foods, health care, school, and more (Artiga & Hinton, 2018).
As future nurse practitioners, we have a responsibility to advocate for our patients’ resources and to be an active part in bettering public health. By starting at the beginning by assessing social determinants of health, we can hope for a better and healthier community.
