Introduction
As part of his presidency bid campaigns, president Barrack Obama had promised people of the United States that he will do changes in the countries systems for the advantages of the people. Iin addition he made several promises for the purpose of making better the life of the American people. Due to his successful win over his opponent, he succeeded to become the president of the United States. He had the roles therefore to fulfill the promises he had promised his people.
One of the major changes that he had promised was reforming the health care sector. His main intention was to make health care affordable to all the people. Through this, he therefore introduced the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA which was a statute designed and passed by the congress signed into a law on March 2010 by president barrack Obama. The law had the intentions of socializing the health care system of the United States. By doing this, it the law thus required that the private citizens pay for health insurance and fund abortions unwillingly failure to which they will face legal sanctions. In addition failure to purchase government approved health insurance will result to an individual getting a penalty of 2.5% of his salary. According to how the people evaluated the law, most of them assessed and termed it as unconstitutional and it violated the constitution. This is especially on the idea that all the citizens carry insurance failure to which they will be charged a penalty. In addition, firms with more than 50 workers will be required t pay insurance for them failure to which it will attract penalty to the firm. The purpose of the increase in the amount of revenue collected would be meant to cater for the medical services of the people. On the other hand this would make it affordable for most of the people to receive insurance and health care for the people (Wager et al 2009).
Despite the opposition by many people especially the manufacturers and institution owners, the sole purpose of the reform was aimed at improving the health care provisions of the United States to include those people who were less fortunate in the society. The opposition was due to the fact that the people had to dig deeper in their pockets to cater for the medical care and health insurance costs. However, despite all the oppositions they law encountered it made it easy for the poor people in the society to receive healthcare in a much easier way compared to how they previously received. In the newly proposed universal healthcare in America, there are various elements that have been included.
Firstly, the law barred the insurance companies from stopping to provide their services to the people even when they get sick. The law indicates that the lifetime limits should be done away with meaning that the health of an individual is covered the whole time they are alive. This is imperative especially amongst the poor communities who cannot afford to cater for the medical expenses at certain time in their lives.
Secondly, the government ensures that even the small companies are provided with tax credit so that they are able to cover for the health of the workers (Wager et al 2009). This is because all the employees have the right according to the provisions of the 2010 health bill, to safe working environments and health. Since such companies would find it difficult to cater for such unprecedented expenses, the government has decided to provide the tax credits to act as the subsidy for the same. This is imperative bearing in mind that there are so many businesses and companies that are sorely run and therefore such individual would not afford such expenses.
The third element is that all young people below the age of 26 have the right to stay on their parents health cover (Wager et al 2009) above that age, they are expected to have insured themselves. This age has factored in all the possibilities since in some parts and cultures, some people shall not have gained the financial independence until later after that age. This is especially amongst the children coming from poor families who have to struggle for existence, schooling and later establishing themselves. For that reason, the government has seen it prudent to have them stay on their parent’s health plan until that late when it is expected that they shall be able to have their own cover.
Fourthly, most people shall be forced to get the insurance coverage or instead have to pay tax if they fail. This indicates the government’s commitments to matters concerning the health, in that people have no option whether they want their health covered or not. The fifth element is that the health plan is not discriminatory in nature (Malhotra 2009). That means that no one is supposed to be excluded from the plan due to the pre-existing conditions. This therefore indicates that if one loses the job, or is faced with impending natural disasters, they can still have their health covered. This is imperative especially among the old people who might have nothing left to cater for their ill health and no one at their disposal to help them.
The above five elements of the newly adopted health plan proposed by the president Obama is unprecedented. This is because of the fact that it caters for the health of everyone whether young or old, poor or rich (Mahar 2006). Though facing a lot of criticism from the economic experts and certain sections of the people, the plan has been embraced by majority of the people of the United States. The criticism came especially amongst the affluent groups who looked at this proposal as a plan to use their taxes to help the poor at their expenses. The president being black was seen as trying to do favor to his similar others who are considered not very stable in terms of finances. However, the interpretation of that law indicates that whatever people had in mind was actually far from the reality.
Conclusion
According to me, the plan is important in that it ensures equal distribution of the national resources. This is because the tax collected is used to cater for the health of all the people regardless of whether they can afford it or not. Secondly, the old people and also the minority young and unemployed can also enjoy health coverage. This has been the people who have suffered in the past and normally considered the neglected. This is because the old people might have retired from working meaning that they have no constant income. The young on the other hand might be unemployed and coming from poor backgrounds.
There are also various setbacks to this plan. For instance, the American economy is currently recovering from recession. This means that increasing more expenses will have negative impacts especially for the companies and the citizens who have to be required to pay more taxes. This is bearing in mind that the American population is large and catering for health expenses shall require a lot of finances. This is the main reason why the economic experts point out the dangers that may occur both in the short and long-term. Certain companies which cannot ensure the medical coverage of their workers shall be required to close down the businesses since the law is very clear about that. However, I see success in the long-run but for the now, the American people must work extra hard to make the system succeed.
References
Wager, Karen A., Lee, Frances Wickham, and Glaser, John P. (2009). Health Care Information Systems: A Practical Approach for Health Care Management, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. ISBN: 978-0-470-38780-1
Mahar, Maggie(2006). Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much, Harper/Collins, ISBN 978-0-06-076533-0
Starr, Paul.(2008). The Social Transformation of American Medicine, Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-07934-2
Malhotra, Umang,( 2010) Solving the American Healthcare Crisis, Universe, ISBN 978-1-4401-8018-7
Reid, T.R. (2009). The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper and Fairer Health Care. Penquin Books. ISBN 978-1594202346.
