Why there is Need for Health Care Reform in the USA
The debate about health care changes in the U.S. has a long history. Potential changes in health care continue to be projected with remarkable debates of admitting single-payer schemes and a cutback in free service health care. The United States needs reforms in health care for various reasons but most importantly is to offer more stability and safe access to health care by all Americans. Most Americans do not have a health insurance policy, and many others have policies that neither cover their families nor cover them when they change employment or lose their jobs. The present policy formulators attempt to incorporate these critical issues in the new proposed policy reform. The new proposed policy reform will certainly cut down the rising health care expenditure, which will result in high savings for households, companies, and the government. Billions of dollars will be saved in national health schemes such as Medicare and Medicaid, and unnecessary grants to insurance organizations that do little to enhance care and more to expand their revenues will be reduced.
Reforms will accord each American some fundamental consumer security that will ultimately make insurance organizations responsible. According to the 2007 national analysis, most health insurance organizations discriminated against over 13 million Americans in the preceding 2 years since they suffered from a pre-existing disease or disorder. The organizations declined to compensate those people and even demanded a higher premium payment. The proposed reform will forbid insurance organizations from refusing insurance coverage because of a person’s medical past. These changes will be a perfect initial step in the trend of restoring the health care structure. Obama’s health care changes, for instance, take massive steps in ensuring Americans get a just share in view of their rights to health care.
Additionally, the United States requires a health care reform since it expends more on health care compared to other developed countries like China, France, Canada, and Germany. Statistics further indicate that if the American health care structure were a nation, it would rank as the 6th biggest economy in the world. Healthcare bills are not controlled by the government but private profit-making organizations; this situation has made most Americans bankrupt due to hefty medical bills. Thousands of hospital managers keep on making millions of dollars in income while the citizens scramble to pay their escalating medical bills. An average household of four members spends approximately $ 20,000 per annum on health care, more than six times their annual expenditure on gas. The Blue Shield Health Insurance Company of California has recently declared an increase in insurance premiums by 20 percent to cover its escalating health care expenditure. Lastly, health care reforms should be recommended to improve the existing quality of America’s healthcare system as compared to other developed nations. The United States remains the best in the World in terms of medical innovations and technology, but reforms are needed to ensure there is equitable access to health care by all citizens, and that quality is not compromised.
Why Some States in the USA are Reluctant to Accept More Federal Dollars into Their Medicaid Funds
A ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court gave the states the freedom to reject or consent to the Medicaid expansion program; many states have currently scorned the program while some are still undecided about what to do. The opposing states include Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, and Nebraska just to mention a few. The states that are reluctant to accept the expansion program have advanced several reasons as to why they should reject the program. Some states are terming the Medicaid program as terrible health insurance coverage in the nation, and faulting ObamaCare for making no efforts to correct its numerous setbacks. For several motives, Medicaid recipients frequently go to the emergency ward rather than to the family physician. In addition, the Medicaid medicine formularies restrain the underprivileged’s right to use high-quality drugs. The Medicaid expenditure has been rising at approximately 7 percent per annum. The program has thus become the main budget item for many state financial plans, even outdoing the k-12 education. Therefore, enlarging Medicaid will demand billions of dollars from the states, despite the slim state allocation.
Corruption in the Medicaid program is widespread; in reality, it is not known how huge the Medicaid racket mess is, but approximations place it in the range of 70 billion per annum. American states have been swiftly changing their Medicaid members to privately handled care organizations, which assists in minimization of expenses and corruption. In addition, some states believe that the Medicaid extension program is an attempt by the national government to micromanage the states and their actions. This notion is significantly ruining the federalist system as some states are convinced that the national government has a field of influence that is different from that of the states. Republicans argue that the states will lose their sovereignty by accepting the expansion program.