Health Care Coverage in the USA

Paper Info
Page count 2
Word count 675
Read time 3 min
Topic Health
Type Coursework
Language 🇺🇸 US

The health issue is one of the fundamental problems of any modern country. However, sometimes it is not so easy to find a solution to this problem. Often not only socially important factors are involved in the health issue, but also political and economic considerations. It is not easy to find a middle ground, as there is a confrontation between various political and private forces. This paper is devoted to analyzing the situation with the healthcare sector in the United States and finding the best solution to improve the healthcare system in the country.

Despite its leading position in the world, American medicine remains in a rather deplorable state. The reason for this is the presence of several medical programs at once, each of which does not entirely cover the existing problems. Besides, political confrontations directly affect the adoption of specific legislative measures. Representatives of the Republican Party are actively forming alliances to oppose one of the most significant achievements of the previous president, Barack Obama, namely the Affordable Care Act. For the first time in many decades, this bill tried to make at least some changes in the US healthcare system. Undoubtedly, this program has performed much less than planned, including due to insufficient Medicaid expansion in all states of America (Levitt, 2020). However, it was also actively obstructed by supporters of Donald Trump, who, even before his inauguration, began processes to abolish the ACA. For example, one of the arguments against expanding the program was the alleged tax increase, although this burden would fall on a small group of Americans (Jacobs and Mettler, 2020). At the same time, Republicans actively oppose any attempts to bring an expanded health system to consideration.

On the other hand, the Democratic Party unites to defend existing programs and propose new ones. Through their efforts and the way the Obama Democratic administration originally drafted the law, the Affordable Care Act shows remarkable resilience (Levitt, 2020). One of the reasons for this is the conditions that the federal government provided. State administrations only need to pay 10 percent of the cost of expanding Medicaid, as the federal government covers the remaining 90. This substantial economic aid has helped reduce the number of people without health insurance in many states. Besides, the Democratic side of parliament, in alliance with independent representatives such as Senator Sanders, is actively working to promote the so-called Medicare-for-all (Neuman et al., 2018). This law fundamentally changes the US healthcare system, reorienting it to a central one and replacing all existing programs.

The existing disagreements between parties and alliances are primarily financial and ideological. Republicans do not want tax rises because, among other things, this will mean increased spending for themselves. They also actively oppose the ACA because the previous Democratic administration adopted it. Even with growing support from the people and the private sector, this party tries to reduce the ACA’s influence. The Democrats, for their part, are trying to expand on the already existing concept. In their view, America’s massive health care spending stems primarily from the misallocation of funds. Although the healthcare system consumed $ 2.2 trillion before the ACA, most doctors were underpaid (Palfreman, 2009). The Obama program’s introduction has helped many people get the support they need so much, even if it has not spread to all regions of the United States.

Thus, in my view, the best option for improving the American health care system is to follow the course chosen by the Democrats and the previous presidential administration. Medicaid and Medicare have shown themselves to be helpless over the decades, as many middle-class people could not get insurance while being too rich for the first program and too young for the second. The adoption of a new system, which would replace private insurance with the public one, is a large-scale and very complex project with great potential, as seen from European countries’ experience. Consequently, I believe that, at a minimum, the support and development of the Democrats’ programs should be continued to provide quality health care for all Americans.

References

Jacobs, L. R., & Mettler, S. (2020). What health reform tells us about American politics. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 45(4), 581-593. Web.

Levitt, L. (2020). The Affordable Care Act’s enduring resilience. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 45(4), 609-616. Web.

Neuman, T., Pollitz, K., & Tolbert, J. (2018). Medicare-For-All and public plan buy-in proposals: Overview and key issues. KFF. Web.

Palfreman, J. (2009). Sick around America. [Film]. PBS Frontline.

Cite this paper

Reference

EssaysInCollege. (2022, August 17). Health Care Coverage in the USA. Retrieved from https://essaysincollege.com/health-care-coverage-in-the-usa/

Reference

EssaysInCollege. (2022, August 17). Health Care Coverage in the USA. https://essaysincollege.com/health-care-coverage-in-the-usa/

Work Cited

"Health Care Coverage in the USA." EssaysInCollege, 17 Aug. 2022, essaysincollege.com/health-care-coverage-in-the-usa/.

References

EssaysInCollege. (2022) 'Health Care Coverage in the USA'. 17 August.

References

EssaysInCollege. 2022. "Health Care Coverage in the USA." August 17, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/health-care-coverage-in-the-usa/.

1. EssaysInCollege. "Health Care Coverage in the USA." August 17, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/health-care-coverage-in-the-usa/.


Bibliography


EssaysInCollege. "Health Care Coverage in the USA." August 17, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/health-care-coverage-in-the-usa/.

References

EssaysInCollege. 2022. "Health Care Coverage in the USA." August 17, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/health-care-coverage-in-the-usa/.

1. EssaysInCollege. "Health Care Coverage in the USA." August 17, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/health-care-coverage-in-the-usa/.


Bibliography


EssaysInCollege. "Health Care Coverage in the USA." August 17, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/health-care-coverage-in-the-usa/.