Analysis of Health Care Reform Bill

The medical mission trip that I took to the Dominican Republic last summer motivated me to become involved in health care. Access to any sort of health care there is extremely limited. There is almost no care outside of the country’s capital, Santo Domingo.
Although the health care conditions in a third world country like the Dominican Republic may seem abhorrent, the United States does not rank much higher than some third world countries in terms of equity of service to all citizens. The World Health Organization rated the national health care systems of 191 countries in terms of “fairness,” and the United States was ranked fifty-fourth.
Health care reform has become an important issue in America recently, and I wanted to find out more about the underlying factors and get both sides of the argument. I don’t understand why a country as rich and as medically advanced as ours is unable to provide everyone with access to health insurance. I figured that this blog project would be a great time to learn about something that I’m so interested in.
The American health care system is flawed in a number of ways. It is clear that reform is needed. The key issues are which parts of the system are flawed and what should be done to fix the flaws. The new health care bill that President Barack Obama signed in March will affect everyone. The new bill will be activated in portions, and the whole thing is expected to be implemented by 2014. This bill will affect everyone differently. Basically, everyone will have health insurance. Small businesses will be offered tax credits in order to give all employees health insurance. Insurance companies must reduce paperwork and justify their premium increases. Doctors will pay increased amounts for malpractice insurance and will have low government reimbursement rates.
Since the passage of the bill, Republicans have been working hard to get it repealed. They are concerned that it will impose an overwhelming tax burden on Americans for many years to come. They also are saying that it will increase the deficit and raise premium costs. The party is worried that it will impose higher prescription drug costs on seniors and the disabled.
The Democratic Party platform is based solely on making health insurance affordable and accessible to everyone. The party plans to offer tax credits to make quality, dependable coverage affordable. They plan on reducing premium costs by $1,000 by paying for the highest-cost medical cases. There will also be a Medicare prescription drug benefit to ensure that Medicare surpluses are used only for Medicare. This will make prescription drugs affordable for seniors. In the long run, the deficit will be reduced by $1 trillion by the government providing tax cuts and credits.
Some Republicans argue that health insurance is a luxury and not a right. They argue that we are slowly turning into a socialistic government. Yet, we are the only industrialized country in the world without some form of socialized health care. Republicans also argue that we have “the best health care system in the world,” but the World Health Organization ranked us 54th in fairness of our health care system out of 191 countries.
The Office of Personnel Management director, John Berry, recognizes that health insurance premiums for federal workers will be going up next year. The reason that this is happening is because new benefits are being offered. These benefits include preventive care costs being fully covered and young adults being able to stay on family plans until the age of 26. Government run health insurance premium rates are increasing, but they are increasing at a lower rate than those in the private-sector.
The new health care bill is going to affect everyone in different ways. Doctors and physicians “in general should benefit from this bill, and patients should benefit because they will be able to get preventive care and not rely on emergency rooms," said James Thrall, chair of the American College of Radiology's Board of Chancellors. Overall, the reform bill should benefit doctors because in 2008 it was shown that physicians spent almost $24 billion in charity care, much of which was for uninsured patients.
In the new plan everyone will have to get health insurance. Families earning less than $88,000 a year will be given government subsidies to help pay for health insurance. If they still truly cannot afford health insurance they will be granted a ‘hardship exemption.’ Families that earn at least $100,000 annually will buy health insurance or will pay a penalty if they don’t have it. The extremely wealthy, those earning $200,000 to $250,000 a year, will be taxed 30 percent higher in order to help pay for Medicare expansion. Those in support of the health care reform bill argue that requiring insurance is key to keeping costs down "because there are plenty of healthy uninsured people who will reduce premiums for sick uninsured Americans by being forced to be a part of the insurance pool,” as stated by Harvard Professor Amitabh Chandra. The 32 million Americans that are currently uninsured will be required to get health insurance.
America has the “best-in-the-world” doctors and hospitals but medical systems are out of reach for millions of Americans. In the education and training of doctors, nurses, technicians, and state-of-the-art medical research, America leads the world. T.R. Reid, a former Washington Post reporter, says that “The United States is good at providing medical care but not financing it.” He also states that, “All the developed countries I looked at provide health coverage for every resident, old or young, rich or poor. This is the underlying moral principle of the health care system in every rich country—every one, that is, except the United States.” The United States has the most expensive health care in the world, but we aren’t any healthier for it.
There is no reason that our advanced doctors and hospitals are not able to prevent death from diseases like breast cancer and colon cancer. This is why insurance companies will now be required to cover routine checkups and preventive care at no extra charge. Some of the preventive care services that will now be provided at no extra charge include: 1. Certain cancer screenings like breast, cervical, colorectal, etc. 2. Daily aspirin use to prevent heart disease 3. Immunizations for children and adults 4. Vision screening, and 5. Treatment of hypertension