Health Care Reform Essay

Essay about Health Care Reform
Background Universal Health Care System
One of the most long–standing health care systems was originated in Germany in 1889 by Otto
von Bismarck's social legislation. Its included bills were the Health Insurance Bill 1883, Old Age
and Disability Insurance Bill of 1889, and Accident Insurance Bill of 1883. The National Insurance
Act of 1911 in Britain covered most people employed. It also financed dependents if families had
contributed for at least five years. This coverage lasted whether families worked or not. This Act
was amended in 1948 with the National Health Service revised the act to secure only legal residents
to benefit from this plan. Many universal health care systems originated after the 2nd world war.
During this period,...show more content...
Even wealthy Americans encounter instances where they can't get in touch with a doctor without
seeing a nurse first.
Health care systems in Germany faced problems including a growing population, visitation of
patients and tourists who needed assistance, and an increase in the costs of providing medical care
to the entire population. Both Germany and the US systems have its setbacks. The US suffers from
deficits in rich and poor disparity, over–testing patients, and preventable deaths of adults and infants.
German government established its system to distribute fairness to all by engulfing itself in the
socioeconomic system. This idea differs from American policy which uses the government to
develop systems of mass assistance (welfare, Medicare, etc) then state that the government shouldn't
control it. It has been demonstrated that his method is largely ineffective. The pricing and
distribution of services is largely unfair with little to no reward for effective services.
In March of 2010, Congress enacted and the President signed sweeping health–reform legislation.
The effort by President Obama and Congressional Democrats to expand health insurance coverage
too many of the 46 million uninsured people living in the United States involves provisions aimed at
increasing the number of people receiving health insurance both through the government as well as
through private insurance. In particular, much of the
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Healthcare reform Essay
The United States should have Universal Health Care
Comp II
The United States should have Universal Health Care
Virtually 50 million Americans are presently without any health insurance, and a great number of
them with health insurance are struggling to pay for their medical bills. Everybody concurs that
healthcare must be accessible to all citizens, but the debate on whether the United States should adopt
a universal health system still rages. According to the Institute of Medicine (2002), the U.S. is the
only developed country that does not guarantee that its citizens have health care coverage. President
Obama pledged to reform the country's healthcare system by increasing health coverage and...show
more content...
Moreover, there are already existing laws in the country that demand emergency rooms for patients if
they lack any insurance. This expenses the hospital finance that they convey to clients and insurance
firms. Under universal health care program, those people that usually go without insurance cover
would be demanded to pay for it through taxes. This concept of cost distribution would reduce the
individual costs of people currently paying for insurance. It is worth noting that this system of
taxation resembles the shared costs of schooling, road construction, or even space exploration
(Burke, Diego & Semelka, 2012).
Opponents of universal healthcare system assert that the program would be damaging to the quality
of health services, although researchers have established that the country's healthcare structure is
not superior to those of various developed countries that offer universal health care (Garber &
Skinner, J2008). In relation to the same research, the United States is ranked second last in terms of
the number of practicing physicians. Moreover, the country has less than the normal number of
hospital beds and period of stay for severe care. The expense of the country's healthcare per
individual is $8,000 more than Netherlands, Norway,

Health Care Reform Essay
Health care reform in the United States is a vital issue. Over the years, multiple Presidents have
attempted to address reform but significant political obstacles have prevented any major change
since the Social Security Act which established Medicaid and Medicare in 1965 (Kaiser Family
Foundation [KFF], 2009). On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law The Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The premise of this legislation was to increase access to
care by allowing more Americans to gain access to coverage and to impact the rising cost of
healthcare in the country. After its implementation, between one and three million Americans ages
18 – 26 gained access to health insurance through coverage eligibility...show more content...
There are four categories of quality measures used in pay–for–performance: process measures,
outcome measures, patient experience, and structure measures. Process measures evaluate activities
which positively affect health outcomes for patients. Outcome measures determine the effects the
care provided have on the patient. Patient experience encompasses the patients' satisfaction with the
services received. Structure measures evaluate the equipment used by facilities, as well as the
personnel employed by the facilities (James, 2012).
As of 2016, expenditures for hospital readmissions were estimated at twelve billion dollars a year
(Mason et al., 2016). These costs are many times unnecessary and avoidable. Medicare's Hospital
Readmissions Reduction Program can reduce payments by one percent to hospitals for readmissions
for heart attacks, heart failure, or pneumonia in disproportionate amounts (James, 2012). It also will
reward the hospitals that exceed the expectations set forth. The wide–ranging changes to healthcare
policy impelled hospitals to discover other avenues for mitigating financial risks associated with the
new policy. Patient coordination and discharge planning have become central to patient care. Case
managers utilize medical homes, home care,

Former President Bill Clinton introduced a Health Security Proposal in 1993, which was his
attempt for a fundamental reform of the American healthcare system (Longest, 2010). In January of
1993, Clinton announced that he would be putting together a team of experts to review the issue of
health care cost and develop a plan to propose to congress (Bok, 1998). On September 22, 1993,
Clinton then made a speech to Congress announcing this new health plan (Bok, 1993). In his speech,
Clinton urged law makers to "Fix a health care system that is badly broken, giving every American
health security–health care that is always there, health care that can never be taken away" (Bok,
1993). He also mentioned in his speech that health care was...show more content...
His premiums were raised because his health insurance company told him that two of his
employees had become high risk because of their age (Rample, 2009). Because of this increase in
cost, Kennedy could no longer afford to insure his employees. The two high risk employees were
his parents who had founded the company (Rample, 2009). In his speech, Clinton stated:
"Millions of Americans are just a pink slip away from losing their health insurance and one serious
illness away from losing all their savings (Rample, 2009). During this time, over 37 million
Americans, most working adults and their children were uninsured (Rample, 2009). Medical bills
were growing at over twice the rate of inflation, and the United Stated was spending over a third
more of its income on health care than any other nation in the world (Rample, 2009). Clinton
believed the only way to fix the problem with United States health care was to start with
congressional action (Rample, 2009). Clinton combined different principles and ideas that have been
accepted by the Republican and Democratic Party in Congress (Rample, 2009). The universal Health
care plan focused on six principles: security, simplicity, savings, choice, quality and responsibility.
Security refers to the American who did not have health care, now being able to have it and for the
Americans who were insured; they know have the security of knowing it will not be taken

Healthcare Financial Reform Proposal Sandra Xavier Grand Canyon University: HCA 240 Professor
Tina Block July 8, 2012 Healthcare Financial Reform Proposal I believe healthcare reform is a waste
of time and money but I also see that it can be beneficial to many uninsured Americans. First of all,
health care costs keep rising and in 2011 the average cost for a family of four increased by 7.3% or
$19,393. This is double the cost estimated in 2003, and by 2030 payroll taxes will cover only 38%
of Medicare Costs and the rest will be added to our already enormous budget deficit. Second,
health care reform is needed to improve the quality of care, which is the worst in the developed
world. Chronic diseases cause almost 70% of...show more content...
These reforms are expected to save an additional $13.5 billion over 10 years according to
Healthcare Financial Management Association (Fiercehealthfinance.com). President Obama's
pledge to pay for the program by taxing the rich, who is anyone that makes more than $1 million a
year (which would include President Obama) and will make for "a marketplace that provides
choice and competition" (Conniff, 2009). He also proposes that reform is about every American
who has ever feared losing their coverage if they become too sick, lose their jobs or even change
their jobs. It's realizing that the biggest force behind our deficit is the growing costs for Medicare
and Medicaid programs." A powerful force for change can be created by embracing transparency.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, "transparency is a broad–scale
initiative enabling consumers to compare quality and the price of health care services so they can
make their own informative choices among doctors and hospitals. This initiative is laying the
foundation for pooling and analyzing information about procedures, hospitals and physicians
services. In order to create value driven health care, there are four steps to turn raw data into

Essay On Health Care Reform
The publics' opinion has had many influences on the debate on healthcare and healthcare reform.
Although an issue primarily in charge by the government, many people have been voicing their
opinion dating back all the way to the introduction of Medicare. Recent surveys have shown many
trends and many variations in public opinion that take a toll on health care reform. These opinions
played a very important role in the overall results of polls in the federal health care reform debate.
The polls that were studied were pulled from a range of opinion pulls dating back to 1943 however,
only 2008 and 2009–2010 reform opinions were pin pointed and reviewed/studied. These polls
specifically selected dealt with changes to the health care system as well...show more content...
Sadly many Americans do not have health care while not participating in the debate to receive it.
No matter what happens in term of reform, whether Obamacare being discontinued or a new bill
for health care arises, this issue will always spark much debate within the government and in the
publics' eye. Healthcare will always be heavily politicized time and time again. If health care is
turned into something so extreme that it affects more and more people (even those who were
happily covered), a public push for reform will become that much

The On Health Care Reform
The idea of passing the health care reform was to expand health care coverage, however, in order
to do so, many changes must be implemented in order to fulfill the ACA 's promises. The first of
which is allowing all individuals to acquire health insurance no matter the age, pre–existing
conditions, or other unfair practices. Statistics show that "half of Americas" have a preexisting
medical condition in which with the passage of the ACA, it allows individuals to acquire health
insurance without the worry of having to pay high insurance bills (Moisse, 2011). The reason why
having preexisting health conditions is no longer a factor in acquiring health insurance is because
with the passage of the ACA (as discussed earlier, it was made a mandate to acquire health insurance)
it is expected that it will balance out economically with the people who require more medical help to
their healthier counterparts that do not require as much medical attention (Goodnough, 2016).
The ACA has Americans searching for a health insurance company, however, not everyone can
afford one. This makes it an issue on whether it is possible to enforce such statute if insurance is
not accessible for all. The solution brought about with Obamacare was the creation of subsidies.
The first form of cost assistance is the use of premium tax credits which lowers premiums. Just as
Medicaid, tax credits depend upon income in which the lower your income the lower the percentage
you will have to pay towards health

Health Care Reform
United States
Main article: Health care reform in the United States
Health care reform in the United States
Healthcare reform in the US
Debate over reform
History
Latest enacted legislation
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Senate bill– H.R. 3590)
Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (H.R. 4872)
preceding legislation
Social Security Amendments of 1965
Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (1986)
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (1996)
Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (2003)
Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act (2005)
[show]
More information...show more content...
The US pays twice as much yet lags other wealthy nations in such measures as infant mortality and
life expectancy, which are among the most widely collected, hence easily compared, international
statistics. Many people are underinsured, for example, in Colorado "of those with insurance for a
full year, 36.3% were underinsured."[6][7] About 10.7 million insured Americans spend more than a
quarter of their annual paychecks on health care because of the high deductible polices.[8]
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111–148) was signed into law by
President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Along with the Health Care and Education
Reconciliation Act of 2010 (signed March 30), the Act is a product of the health care reform efforts
of the Democratic 111th Congress and the Obama administration. The law includes health–related
provisions to take effect over the next four years, including expanding Medicaid eligibility for people

Healthcare in the United States Essay
Healthcare in the United States is rooted in the private sector. The private sector directly funds 56%
of the expenditures through private health insurance, household expenditures and copays, and other
private expenditures. (CMS, 2014) The US healthcare system can thank the private sector for
providing much strength such as new diagnostic technologies, innovative treatments and procedures,
and dynamism. American hospitals and physicians are regarded internationally as being of high
quality. Americans can also be proud that the physician– patient relationship is among the most
trusted and valued relationships in the country. By allowing the private sector to take a lead role in
the healthcare system, the United States values...show more content...
(Elhauge, 2010). Fragmentation leads to duplication of tests and effort. Often, physicians do not
have test results and notes from prior treatments. This results in wasteful duplication of efforts.
Fragmentation leads to unplanned hospitalizations. Approximately 20% of discharged Medicare
patients are re–hospitalized within thirty days. (Jencks, Williams, Coleman, 2009) It is estimated that
only 10% of those readmissions are planned. (Jencks, Williams, Coleman, 2009) Patients can receive
better continuation of care if their doctors coordinated better, if there was better discharge planning
and incentives for providers to control costs after the patient has been discharged. A patient centered
medical home (PCMH) could integrate patient care. A patient centered medial home is a team of
healthcare providers coming together to improve the health of a specific population. A PCMH is
designed to integrate primary care and specialists into improve care coordination, safety and
quality.(Stange, et al 2010) A PCMH would also improve physician training and development to
provide a commitment to treat the whole patient, rather than just one part.(Stange, et al 2010)
Healthcare fragmentation can also be limited through improved communication between providers
using e–mail and social media tools such as facebook and twitter. Physicians and hospitals are also
paid with a fragmented and confusing mix of public and private payments. In the private sector

Essay Health Care Reform
Health Care Reform
There has been a lot of talk and debate lately over Health Care Reform, as people are trying to
answer the question – Should a universally accessible health care system be implemented in the
United States (US)? This ongoing highly debatable issue remains a hot topic among US citizens
from all walks of life, from the very poor to the very wealthy. Health Care Reform affects everyone.
The vast majority of the US population is very dissatisfied with the current state of health care.
According to the ABC News and Washington Post cooperative poll, 57 percent of Americans aren't
satisfied with the overall system of health care (Langer, 2009). Consequently, the issue of the Health
Care Reform was born, but before analyzing the...show more content...
Moreover, Americans have quite a diverse outlook on health insurance and its applicability in
different situations. The Washington Post poll stated that 49 percent of people affirm the idea of
overall health insurance (if it is required). More importantly, the majority of respondents agreed on
certain major points that insurance must contain and they are: special aid to the poor (70 percent),
coverage of those, who have pre–existing conditions such as disability or chronic diseases (68
percent), must be offered by the employers (62 percent), and underinsured mustn't pay into
government funds (52 percent) (Langer,2009).
Most Americans are provided with some form of insurance either through their employer or an
individual plan which is part of a public program such as Medicaid or Medicare. However, there
are still 45 million people who lack coverage (Melisa Paradis, Janelle Wood, Mary Cramer, 2009).
According to the governmental insurance plan, people who are underinsured must be protected and
have an opportunity to buy suitable medical coverage through the insurance exchange. Yet the actual
utilization of such an exchange is scheduled in the beginning of 2013, which indicates a
considerable period of waiting. America's Affordable Health Choices Act informs that people should
be provided with standardized benefit packages in order to compare the

Health Care Reform Essay

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