The need to modernize health care sphere has always existed all over the world, since the diversification of society causing great gap between those, who are rich, and those, who can be called the poor, cannot be eliminated in any state. Thus, there are groups of society, who are not provided with necessary medical treatment because of not having access to general medical insurance. This problem has been dealt with in the U.S. since the 1960’s, meaning many health care reforms have been provided. Logically, not all of them were successful; however, a number of the reforms positively affected the society. We will cover the issue of two different reforms, particularly with establishment of Medicare as well as with the greatest President Obama’s reform, namely Affordable Care Act.
Adoption of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (hereinafter – ACA) caused the decrease of the spending on Medicare program (Elmendorf, 2011). The main target and the greatest reform of ACA were to change the level of uninsured Americans. This target has been scored, since, for instance, in “the uninsured rate among adults declined to 11,9 % from previous 18 percent, which is thought to be the lowest since 2008” (Levy. 2015) Notwithstanding, this program has not covered those people, “whose insurance coverage would cost more than 8% of household income as well as younger and single American, who are not likely to purchase the insurance” (Trumbull, 2010). Despite the disadvantages, ACA has been estimated, particularly by the Supreme Court, as “the most significant overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system since the Medicare”(Vicini and Stempel, 2012)
In my opinion, the so-called Obamacare has influenced the healthcare system positively implementing one of the main social aims of the government, namely to make medical treatment available for the majority of the citizens, particularly for the poor. Even though there are still gaps in the field of institutionalizing the reform, inter alia, not everybody has possibility to purchase the insurance, the ACA is thought to be completely finished by 2019, hence, many steps, as far as we see, will be made and the problems will be resolved.
References
Elmendorf, Douglas W. (2011) CBO’s Analysis of the Major Health Care Legislation Enacted in March 2010 Retrieved from:
http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/ftpdocs/121xx/doc12119/03-30-healthcarelegislation.pdf
Levy, Jenna (2015) In U.S., Uninsured Rate Dips to 11.9% in First Quarter Retrieved from:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/182348/uninsured-rate-dips-first-quarter.aspx
Torio, Celeste M., Andrews, Roxanne M. (2013) National Inpatient Hospital Costs: The Most Expensive Conditions by Payer, 2011 Retrieved from: http://hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb160.jsp
Trumbull, Mark (2010) Obama signs health care bill: Who won't be covered? Retrieved from:
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0323/Obama-signs-health-care-bill-Who-won-t-be-covered
Vicini, James, Stempel, Jonathan (2012) WRAPUP 4-US top court upholds healthcare law in Obama triumph Retrieved from
http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-healthcare-court-idUSL2E8HS4WG20120628
