Government’s Role in U.S. Health Care
Government’s Role in U.S. Health Care
Health insurance coverage facilitates access to health care and protects individuals and families from catastrophic health expenses. Both the market and government have important roles in helping ensure the availability, affordability, and adequacy of private health insurance.
In 2006, about two-thirds of Americans had private coverage, including about 60% with employment-based and 9% with directly purchased health insurance. In the same year, about 27% of the population had government benefits through Medicare, Medicaid, and military health programs. About 16% of the population was uninsured.
Government helps make sure access to health insurance where the market might not. It does this through public programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and through policies that influence the market for private insurance. Federal policies include tax subsidies and regulations. Subsidies make health insurance more affordable for consumers and employers, and regulations help ensure access to insurance and the adequacy of benefits.
The article written by Jim Heskett on Government's role in U.S. Healthcare talks about the overall expenses government is bearing to ensure their citizens. It does not only talk about the expenses, but it also discusses a number of problems undertaken due to it. It is predicted or analyzed that this health care service will consume U.S.'s 40 percent of Gross National Product till 2050. But the author discusses that points that are they addressing it in the right way or not. To put things on a single platform it is the facts that are rising questions that out of $2 trillion per year how come $600 billion has never been seen by anyone? It is said that it goes out for administration. This cost is more than the amount spent for other twenty-one countries whose life expectancy exceeds those in the U.S (Heskett, 2007).
US citizens will be able to maintain existing health insurance coverage for at least a year, even if they do not satisfy the conditions of the provisions came into force on 1 October of a new insurance law. On Thursday US President Barack Obama in response to a wave of criticism in relation to the administration of the law promoted by the public. The developed package of complementary measures will solve all the problems encountered in the implementation of reforms in the health sector - Obama assured. - In particular, even if your current insurance plan contradicts the law came into force, it will remain valid for a year. Those whose insurance lost force due to the law will be able to make once again them valid.
The other problem is that the current system leaves more than 40 million Americans without health insurance because many are not employed nor have very low incomes, programs that provide incentives through employers and tax relief does not help them. Government has enough room for improvement and can offer insurance to the rest of the citizens of America through incentives or bringing flexibility in their policies.
Furthermore, they say that more than half of the $98 billion of excess administrative costs identified goes for insurance company marketing and underwriting. This estimation does not include the costs of categorizing out acceptable applicants or refusing payments under existing policies, another substantial amount. Moreover, does not include the costs that doctors and hospitals incur in denying applications for payment. McKinsey gave its solution. He estimates that it would cost "only" $77 billion per year (or about $1,900 per person) to provide health care to all of the uninsured Americans. If made available along with consumer education, others have suggested that all of this amount could be make back by eventually through the elimination of health care expenses incurred by those unable to pay these days (Haughton, 2010).
If we go further, we can see that in the article Robert frank, an economist, proposed ways of overcoming opposition to some kind of government-funded solution to the problem. The two main obstacles according to him in the current system are insurance company opposition and higher taxes. His solution to the problem is that insurance companies, who have acted in good faith to respond to incentives provided by the market, could be subsidized for their losses while their managements shift their health insurance strategies, perhaps to provide only supplemental private coverage, but as per what I thought is that instead of providing private coverage the insurance companies and especially the government of U.S. should make sure that it is their responsibility to eliminate uninsured citizens by providing them with the best possible solutions of health insurance therefore, they should subsidize the rates of basic checkups and reduce the cost for low income group or unemployed people. As for the others are concerned like employed citizens the government should make sure that companies in which the citizens are employed should offer health insurance religiously. As it is said in this article that the portion of $280 billion, which is kept in annual savings, should be used for this purpose to eradicate the problem from its basis.
Another solution can be followed by the thought that if insurance is provided to the employee of any company then his family members, if married, must be included like wife and children and if he is not married then parents should be included among them. It might reduce the number of uninsured Americans throughout America. As it was stated elsewhere, in 2007, federal spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is expected to total $634 billion. These programs serve primarily older, low-income, and disabled people, populations that otherwise would have difficulty finding adequate and affordable coverage in the private market. Government should focus these areas as well (White, 2011).
The information provided can alter the situations in the future certainly by working upon the solutions provided, and it should be America's government's responsibility to eliminate uninsured citizens through proper means. Just like recently the President of America announced that consumers can purchase health insurance policies and compare their options on the website healthcare.gov to improve their living standards. Instead of keeping the money as annual savings, America's government should use that money to benefit the citizens. According to the recent observations the consumers in America would be able to sort plans not only by the amount of the premium, but also by the size of the deductible. Consumers would be able to see all health plans that have special programs to manage certain conditions like asthma, heart disease, depression, diabetes, lower back pain, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Therefore, we could sum up like this that America is taking steps and plans to make their people insured on health insurance basis and eliminate the illness factor. This will make America a healthy state in the future.
References
Haughton, J. G. (2010). Government's role in health care past, present and future. J Natl Med Assoc.
Heskett, J. (2007). What Is the Government’s Role in U.S. Healthcare? Harvard Business Schools.
White, D. (2011). Government's Role in U.S. Healthcare Grows. Retrieved from economy.com: https://www.economy.com/dismal/article_free.asp?cid=225334&src=ma
