Understanding Health Policy - Essay Example

The Democrats counter this by stating that the overall budget gap would be lesser by $100 Billion if the bill is passed and hence they are asking for support in pushing the bill through. Both sides of the debate on reforming healthcare as well as continuing the status quo are vocal and vehement in their stance. The PBS (2009) website gives further evidence of this, while the proponents of Health Care reform call for the state to play a more proactive role and the insurers to cover pre-existing conditions and make the process of claims easier, the opponents are adamant that this would erode the competitiveness of the service providers.

This is akin to the debate on patents for new drugs that are on similar lines with one side insisting that drug costs are lowered and the other side touting the benefits of research and development essential for the discovery of new drugs. (Pbs.org, 2009) After considering the various options, it is my personal opinion that the Health Care reform bill must be passed. In order to stem the rising tide of medical expense related bankruptcies and the increase in the number of people not covered under the existing system, the proposed legislation must be passed.

As a US Citizen, I want to ensure that I am taken care of when ill and would also like the same for others as well. If we consider the issue from an ethical perspective, it makes it clear that we should not deny medical care to the needy for whatever reason that the health care system currently does. The Huffington Post (2009) states that 1 in every 5 bankruptcies in the US are because of reasons to do with medical expenses being too much for the families to take (Huffington Post, 2009). Further, the data from the OECD website (2009) also talks about how a million people are pushed into the ranks of the uninsured every year as they cannot afford health insurance at the current rates (OECD, 2009).

As pointed in the earlier sections, this number swells the ranks of the already 45 Million who are uninsured.