Health Care ReformHealth Care ReformOne of the most pressing economical issues today is health care. Far too many Americans cannot afford reasonable health care when they become ill. Health care reform is a general rubric used for discussing major health policy creation or changes. Health care reform is needed to ensure Americans get the high-quality care that is needed and deserved. Health care reform is not only for the sick, but it also improves the health of the nation by investing in critical prevention and wellness initiatives that help keep Americans healthy.
The debate over health care reform in the United States centers on the questions of whether Americans have a right to health care, who should have access to health care and under what circumstances, the quality achieved for the high sums spent, and the sustainability of expenditures that have been rising faster than the level of general inflation and the growth of the economy. Americans spend more on health care than any other country in the world. Therefore, the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States is indeed medical debt. Even though Americans spend so much, the actual use of health care services in the U.S. by most measures of health services use is well below the average of the worlds developed countries (Health Care).
The Affordable Care Act includes many provisions that protect people and their health (not just the private market, like the expansion of Medicaid eligibility and the introduction of tax credits to finance the new features of our health insurance program, like “Obamacare.”)
This report covers the first half of the second half of 2014, including the Affordable Care Act’s second half. This report also covers some of our most recent ACA health reforms as they are implemented. However, the report does not address the very large number of reforms that, as shown here, still have little to no effect on people’s lives in the way we originally anticipated. I am in no way trying to give a complete or complete summary of all of the most recent ACA health-care reform laws.
What we do understand is that the health benefits and other basic services of the ACA have been enhanced over the past five years.
• The most recent Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010. The new law was fully implemented in 2012, and covered almost all of the ACA’s benefits.
• The Medicare program has continued to decline despite a decade of sustained gains.
• Under the 2012 law, the cost of health care would have to be kept at least equal to the cost of health insurance premiums, in the case of premiums increasing or decreasing without health insurance and under the current law, even if premiums were to rise. Because the ACA is set to expire in 2014, coverage of health insurance costs may continue to rise under the ACA.
The amount of money that individual insurers can spend to cover health care costs under the ACA exceeds that of any general government spending, and since only a tiny fraction of the money is needed to provide health care, that is the kind of spending that has become the foundation of high-cost or high-quality health coverage.
In order to maintain the quality of health care, people must pay more, and the amount paid by insurers to cover their care will have to continue to rise because the ACA will not provide much or anything in the way of preventive and preventive medicine. The insurance companies must also pay back more in premium and deductibles for the benefit of many, most people who are covered by insurance and for other people in the United States. The amount paid for by the companies to reduce health costs has increased steadily over the last five decades:
• The cost of health insurance increased by 3.4 percentage points between 1999 and 2000 in the same period as the health-care reform law
• Premiums on health insurance have risen sharply for those who live in nursing homes. Health care costs on health insurance have increased by about two-thirds over the last five years.
• Since the Affordable Care Act became law in 2010, the cost of medical care has soared at nearly twice the rate of inflation.
• Medicare health-care premiums have increased by nearly 20% since the health-care reform law was introduced. That is more than double the rate of inflation for the entire period of the health
The Affordable Care Act includes many provisions that protect people and their health (not just the private market, like the expansion of Medicaid eligibility and the introduction of tax credits to finance the new features of our health insurance program, like “Obamacare.”)
This report covers the first half of the second half of 2014, including the Affordable Care Act’s second half. This report also covers some of our most recent ACA health reforms as they are implemented. However, the report does not address the very large number of reforms that, as shown here, still have little to no effect on people’s lives in the way we originally anticipated. I am in no way trying to give a complete or complete summary of all of the most recent ACA health-care reform laws.
What we do understand is that the health benefits and other basic services of the ACA have been enhanced over the past five years.
• The most recent Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010. The new law was fully implemented in 2012, and covered almost all of the ACA’s benefits.
• The Medicare program has continued to decline despite a decade of sustained gains.
• Under the 2012 law, the cost of health care would have to be kept at least equal to the cost of health insurance premiums, in the case of premiums increasing or decreasing without health insurance and under the current law, even if premiums were to rise. Because the ACA is set to expire in 2014, coverage of health insurance costs may continue to rise under the ACA.
The amount of money that individual insurers can spend to cover health care costs under the ACA exceeds that of any general government spending, and since only a tiny fraction of the money is needed to provide health care, that is the kind of spending that has become the foundation of high-cost or high-quality health coverage.
In order to maintain the quality of health care, people must pay more, and the amount paid by insurers to cover their care will have to continue to rise because the ACA will not provide much or anything in the way of preventive and preventive medicine. The insurance companies must also pay back more in premium and deductibles for the benefit of many, most people who are covered by insurance and for other people in the United States. The amount paid for by the companies to reduce health costs has increased steadily over the last five decades:
• The cost of health insurance increased by 3.4 percentage points between 1999 and 2000 in the same period as the health-care reform law
• Premiums on health insurance have risen sharply for those who live in nursing homes. Health care costs on health insurance have increased by about two-thirds over the last five years.
• Since the Affordable Care Act became law in 2010, the cost of medical care has soared at nearly twice the rate of inflation.
• Medicare health-care premiums have increased by nearly 20% since the health-care reform law was introduced. That is more than double the rate of inflation for the entire period of the health
The Affordable Care Act includes many provisions that protect people and their health (not just the private market, like the expansion of Medicaid eligibility and the introduction of tax credits to finance the new features of our health insurance program, like “Obamacare.”)
This report covers the first half of the second half of 2014, including the Affordable Care Act’s second half. This report also covers some of our most recent ACA health reforms as they are implemented. However, the report does not address the very large number of reforms that, as shown here, still have little to no effect on people’s lives in the way we originally anticipated. I am in no way trying to give a complete or complete summary of all of the most recent ACA health-care reform laws.
What we do understand is that the health benefits and other basic services of the ACA have been enhanced over the past five years.
• The most recent Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010. The new law was fully implemented in 2012, and covered almost all of the ACA’s benefits.
• The Medicare program has continued to decline despite a decade of sustained gains.
• Under the 2012 law, the cost of health care would have to be kept at least equal to the cost of health insurance premiums, in the case of premiums increasing or decreasing without health insurance and under the current law, even if premiums were to rise. Because the ACA is set to expire in 2014, coverage of health insurance costs may continue to rise under the ACA.
The amount of money that individual insurers can spend to cover health care costs under the ACA exceeds that of any general government spending, and since only a tiny fraction of the money is needed to provide health care, that is the kind of spending that has become the foundation of high-cost or high-quality health coverage.
In order to maintain the quality of health care, people must pay more, and the amount paid by insurers to cover their care will have to continue to rise because the ACA will not provide much or anything in the way of preventive and preventive medicine. The insurance companies must also pay back more in premium and deductibles for the benefit of many, most people who are covered by insurance and for other people in the United States. The amount paid for by the companies to reduce health costs has increased steadily over the last five decades:
• The cost of health insurance increased by 3.4 percentage points between 1999 and 2000 in the same period as the health-care reform law
• Premiums on health insurance have risen sharply for those who live in nursing homes. Health care costs on health insurance have increased by about two-thirds over the last five years.
• Since the Affordable Care Act became law in 2010, the cost of medical care has soared at nearly twice the rate of inflation.
• Medicare health-care premiums have increased by nearly 20% since the health-care reform law was introduced. That is more than double the rate of inflation for the entire period of the health
According to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Services, the U.S. is the “only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage” (IOM Home). Americans are divided along party lines in their views regarding the role of government in the health economy and especially whether a new public health plan should be created and administered by the federal government. Those is favor of universal health care argue that the large number of uninsured Americans creates direct and hidden costs shared by all, and that extending coverage to all would lower costs and improve quality. Opponents of law requiring people to have health insurance argue that this impinges on their personal freedom. Both sides of the political spectrum have also looked to more philosophical arguments, debating whether people have a fundamental right to have health care which needs to be protected by their government.
The current figures estimate that spending on health care in the U.S. is about 16% of its gross domestic profit (GDP). In 2007, an estimated $2.26 trillion was spent on health care in the U.S. Health care costs are rising faster than wages or inflation, and the health share of GDP is expected to continue its upward trend and should reached 19.5 percent of GDP by 2017. Government health care spending the U.S. is consistently greater than in Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom and Japan, and an even larger portion is paid by private insurances and the individuals themselves. These mentioned have mostly public health care (Bartlett).
The U.S. spends more on health care per capita than any other UN member nation. It also spends a greater fraction of its national budget on health care than Canada, Germany, France, or Japan. In 2004, the U.S. spent $6,102 per capita on health care. Although the U.S. Medicare coverage of prescription drugs began in 2006, most patented prescription drugs are more costly in the U.S. than in most other countries. Reasons behind this are possibly the absence of government price controls and the enforcement of intellectual property rights limiting the availability of generic drugs until after patent expiration. Some U.S. citizens obtain their medications from foreign sources to take advantage of lower prices (Bartlett).
The cost and quality of care in the United States are frequently the two major issues of discussion. The U.S pays twice as much for health care, but is way behind other nations in infant mortality and life expectancy. Compared to the Japanese, where the average lifespan is about 82 years, or the French, with an average lifespan of 79 years, Americans live a far shorter life despite the perceived better quality of life (Health Care). However, both males and females in the U.S. have better cancer survivor rates than their counterparts in Europe. In 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) ranked the U.S. health care system 37th in overall performance and 72nd by overall level of health, among the 191 member nations included in the study (WHO | World Health Organization).
The U.S. system is often compared with Canadas system. Canadas system is largely publicly funded. In 2006, Canadians spent US$3,678 compared to Americas $6.714 as discussed earlier. This amounted to 15.3% of U.S. GDP in that year, while Canada spent 10% of GDP on health care. A 2007 review of all studies comparing health outcomes in Canada and the U.S. found that “health outcomes may be superior in patients cared for in Canada versus the U.S., but differences are not consistent (Bartlett).
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