According to current population reports, 28.5 million of the United States population remained uninsured. Of the 34 member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United States, Poland, ad Greece are the only countries without a universal healthcare system. In many of the cases, advocates for the right to health care often argue that no individual in the developed countries like the United States ought to go without a health insurance. In their arguments, they admit that a right to health care would halt medical bankruptcies, enhance public health, and reduce the general costs of national medical spending. On the other hand, opponents often claim that the right to healthcare results in collectivism, and should be an individual’s responsibility. All the same, I would personally concede with the proponents of the right to health care, and that the federal government should be responsible for the provision of the health care the United States, as well as, uphold the Obamacare Act.
Responsibility for Healthcare in the United States
I think that healthcare in the United States should be the government’s responsibility, for one thing, the founding American documents offers strong support to a right to health care. In this case, the Declaration of Independence conditions that “all the Americans have unreliable rights including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” That implies that the people should have the health care required to reserve life and strive for happiness. In fact, the purpose of the United States Constitution, as elucidated in the preface is to enhance the general welfare of the Americans. As such, as part of the attempts to promote the well-being of the United States citizens, health care is a legitimate function of the government. Altogether, the government should provide health care to the Americans, by way of its efforts to enhance the welfare of the people given by the constitution.
Besides, placing health care in a universal player system that guarantees all the Americans a right to health care would help cut the costs of health care in the country. According to a recent article, Canada, which applies the Universal health care system, spends half of what the United States devotes to its health care. Besides, the United Kingdom, which also provides universal health care, utilized only 41.5 percent of the total United State spending on medical care. That means that the United States needs to adopt a single-player health care system to reduce the enormous spending on healthcare. Nonetheless, that may not happen on its own for the reason that an individual’s waste may be another person’s revenue channel. As such, there is the need for a player with the influence to ensure that the health care system plays by the rules, and that player is the federal government. Therefore, it should be the responsibility of the United States government to provide health care to citizens, which is affordable.
The Obamacare
I do not suppose that the Obamacare should be repealed since it has seen the provision of healthcare insurance to a tremendous number of the American citizens. Since the inception of Obamacare in 2010, approximately 20 million United States citizens acquired health care insurance coverage, as of March 2016, representing a historic decline in the uninsured rates in the country. The increased insurance rates in the country were mainly attributed to the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) including the expansion of the Medicaid, increased coverage of health insurance marketplace, and the private insurance transformation, which enabled the youths to remain on their parents’ insurance plan. Again, it necessitated intends to cover for people with pre-existing health conditions. In what follows, the uninsured rates among the young dropped by 46.5 percent by 2016, whereas, the number declined significantly among the Black Non-Hispanics, Hispanics, and among White non-Hispanic, accounting for more than 50, 25, and 50 percent drop respectively. In regard, repealing the Obamacare would only undermine the government’s effort to promote the people’s welfare by providing equal and affordable health care to the Americans. Hence, the Obamacare should not be repealed for the reason that it is driving the country towards achieving a universal health care system, which guarantees a right to health to its people, especially the minorities.
In addition, it would cost the taxpayers a lot of money to repeal the Obamacare. Permitting to a recent analysis from the Committee for A Responsible Federal Budget, repealing the Obamacare would immediately save the government approximately $750 billion, yet would result in a net deficit of $359 over the next ten years. In essence, dismantling the Affordable Care Act would help cut costs in the Medicare components, taxes, and fees, together with, the coverage provisions. Nonetheless, the lawmakers would have to delay the Medicaid expansion, subsidies, as well as, the termination of the exchanges until the development of a replacement plan, a move, which will last for a minimum of 2 years. Meanwhile, maintaining the provision of the services for two years would lower the savings to approximately $ 550 billion, yet the government would require the savings to fund the replacement plan. Perhaps, it would have to source the lost money from in a different place in the budget or offer tougher credits that would make it difficult for the Americans to afford the coverage. That would undermine the government’ responsibility to promote the welfare of the people. In short, the Obamacare should not be repealed because it would be costly, and would increase the cost of healthcare in the country.
The Role of Government
The primary role in which the United States government should engage in is to take over the financing of the health care system. Currently, it is apparent that there exists a private care system in the nation. However, that is way off the board, as the government is fundamentally involved in the financing of the health care, and in most cases subsidizes the private market-based systems. Case in point, the Medicare, Medicaid, children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Obamacare marketplace subsidies took up to 25 percent of the federal budget in 2015. By that financing, the government subsidizes virtually anyone, who has the hold of a health insurance including the person, who believes in owning the private insurance. Despite the massive financing, the United States has recent seen increasing upsurge and unaffordability of healthcare, fraud, declining benefits, and rising bureaucracy, which are getting worse in the sector. That gives the implication that it is perhaps time for the government to discontinue the robust and deregulated private health care system in the country, and take up a greater role in the health care. Through government leadership in the health care, the country would perhaps be able to meet the medical care needs of almost all the United States population. Thereby, the government should take over the financing role in health care to enhance equality and efficiency in the system.
References
Barnett, J. C., & Vornovitsky, M. (2016). Health Insurance Coverage in the United States. Washington DC: United States Census Bureau.
Committe for A Responsible Federal Budget. (2017, January 4). The Cost of Full Repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Retrieved from http://crfb.org/papers/cost-full-repeal-affordable-care-act
Ridic, G., Gleason, S., & Ridic, O. (2012). Comparisons of Health care Systems in the United States, Germany, and Canada. Journal of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 24(2), 112-120.
U.S Department of Health and Human Services. (2016, March 3). 20 Million People Have Gained Health Insurance Coverage Because of the Affordable Care Act, New Estimates Show. Retrieved from https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2016/03/03/20-million-people-have-gained-health-insurance-coverage-because-affordable-care-act-new-estimates
