Managed Competition
The article is about health reform in the United States. According to the author, one of the failures of the government of barrack Obama is the failure to reform the health care regardless of the fact that he had promised to make changes in the system. There are many people who die in the United States who should not have died. It is argued that most of the people who die are those who have no health insurance cover. The candidate had promised to come up with a method that would ensure that the entire citizen is covered. According to research, it has been observed that the uninsured individuals spend more cash in payment of healthcare than what they would have incurred in the payment of insurance cover.
Healthcare is a very important factor in the United States. The author argues that the democrats are likely to lose the next elections since they have not facilitated reforms in the healthcare. The presidential aspirants for the other party seem to have the necessary measures to ensure healthcare reforms are put in place. Generally, there are several failures that the healthcare system faces currently. First, 16 percent of the people in the United States are not insured. In addition, several people are also uninsured (Gruber, 2006). The people who are insured on the other hand face a lot of problems. First, they are not allowed by the insurance companies to choose their doctors. In addition, there is a lot of bureaucracy in the claim for the health insurance cover. These are some of the parts in the healthcare that needs reforms so that the American citizens can live better lives.
Even though there cannot be a mutual agreement between all American citizens on the goals of the healthcare reform, there are goals that the highest percentage they would recommend. According to the author of the article, there are four major goals of healthcare system that the citizens are proposing. Even though these goals are conflicting in nature in their achievement, they can be achieved since many countries such as France and England have easily been achieved. One major challenge in the achievement of the goals is the low funding by the government. These goals include; ensuring cover to all the citizens (Gruber, 2006). This will ensure that all the citizens get better healthcare services and unnecessary deaths will be avoided.
The other goal of the healthcare reform is enhancing the freedom of choice of the patients. They should be able to choose who treats them. The other goal is ensure that the citizens are able to afford insurance cover (Palmisano, 2004). This would involve policies that would ensure that the costs of insurance are low through regulating the insurance companies. The other goal is to reduce the bureaucracy in claiming insurance covers. They will ensure that the patients get the services without much complicated procedures. Finally, the United States citizens would wish to get quality healthcare.
Currently, there are several reforms that have been proposed. The first one is that there should be market reforms. The proposer of this reform argues that there should be reforms in the insurance market whereby the citizens should be assured that their insurance contracts will be renewed. In addition, the only factors that should affect premiums are the age and gender of individuals (Palmisano, 2004). The arguments here are that the administrative costs of the insurance companies will be reduced hence the long run costs of premiums will be low hence insurance will be affordable to many.
Tax credits are the other proposed reform. In this case, individuals who pay tax are supposed to be refunded the costs of insurance from the tax they pay. This makes the insurance affordable. In addition, those with no taxable income are to receive insurance cover paid for by the government.
Individual mandates are another reform. In this case, laws are put in place requiring people without insurance covers to take one. In addition, each person is required to take an insurance cover for all family members.
Employer mandate is another proposal. In this case, the employers are required to pay for insurance cover for their employees. The other option is to help the employees pay for their insurance cover.
Managed competition is another proposed reform. In this case, it is proposed that private insurance companies should be encouraged to provide various types of insurance covers (Palmisano, 2004). This will stimulate competition hence the citizens will have a choice on the type of insurance cover they wish to take. In addition, the current system whereby the federal government ensures that all the employees in the country together with their families are covered is encouraged.
Generally, the best alternative according to the author that would solve the needs of the United States citizens is single payer system with managed competition. This system has the proposals that have been discussed above. Many researchers have come to a conclusion that single payer system is the best strategy that will ensure insurance cover for all the citizens at the least costs (Fleck, 2004).
The objections of the strategy have been responded to. The argument that the system is like socialized medical care has been solved by explaining that even though the medical care payment is publicly funded, health care is privately delivered. The argument that freedom of choice is limited is limited has been solved by the explanation that those who may wish to have an insurance cover beyond that provided by the public may do so at their won costs. There are measures of ensuring that the medical care is not over utilized. There will be no struggle to receive medication since those requiring urgent care will be prioritized.
In conclusion, it can be seen that the citizens of United States are very careful in choosing a presidential candidate who will ensure proper healthcare in the country. Even though there are many proposals of healthcare system, the best seems to be single payer system with managed competition. Even though there are many limitations to the reform, it has been observed that this is the best reform that will solve the needs of the citizens of the United States.
References.
Gruber J, (2006). The Massachusetts Health Care Resolution; A local start for universal access. Hastings center report.
Palmisano D, Emmons D and Wonzniak G (2004). Expanding insurance cover through tax credits, consumer choice and market enhancements. Journal of American medical association.
Fleck l. (2002) Rationing: don’t give up. Hastings center report.
