Healthcare Reform In United States - Essay Example

 Healthcare Reform In United States Outline Thesis: The 2010 Health care reform has created and changed existing health care policies to improve the health care delivery in the United States. I. The health care system in the United States is a mixture of private and public insurance programs and is one of the most expensive in the world. A. The need for a reform is highlighted by the fact that nearly one fifth of the population of United States lack health insurance. B. The goal of the reform was to achieve access and improve overall quality of health care in the nation. II. The 2010 reform has tried to implement policies to ensure a drastic reduction in the population of uninsured in the country. A. Subsidies in insurance premiums and tax credits to businesses will help extend coverage to many more people in the nation. B. Unlike in the past, insurers will be restricted to deny or impose higher premiums. C. The legislation includes preventive care and prevents exclusions made for necessary care. D. The new legislation will drastically help reduce the deficit. E. The legislation will also eliminate overpayment in Medicare Advantage. III. The 2010 Reform will increase health care coverage and access to almost 95% of the population of United States but probably at the cost of increased taxes for businesses and high income families. Healthcare reform in the United States Health care reform is a term used to describe major health policy changes regarding healthcare delivery and the insurance associated with delivery in a given place. The health care system in the United States is made of a mixture of private and public sectors and is the most expensive in the world with $7,290 spent per person on health care cost (Centre for Medicare and Medicaid Services). According to a study conducted by the World Health Organization, the U.S. health care system ranked 37th in overall performance and 72nd in overall level of health among 191 nations reviewed in the study. Again, nearly 19% of the population (30 million) in United States was without health insurance coverage in 2010 (Congressional Budget Office). A recent study also revealed that in U.S., more than 44,800 excess deaths occur annually that can be associated with lack of insurance (Wilper et. al). These were the driving factors that led to the change in the U.S. health care reform. U.S. 2010 Health care reform tries to achieve the following goals: Expand the population that receives health care coverage through public sector insurance programs or private sector insurance companies. This is to ensure that more people within the country receive health care services. Expand the range of health care providers that consumers can choose from Improve access to health care specialists Improve the overall quality of health care services Provide more health care services to the citizens of the country Decrease the overall cost of health care services Key Elements of the 2010 Reform The new health care reform in the United States is estimated to reduce the number of uninsured in the country from 19% in 2010 to 8% by 2016 (International Insurance News). The provisions made in the legislation will take effect by 2014. Following are some of the key highlights of the health care reform: Extend coverage through insurance mandate The new legislation provides subsidies in insurance premiums and tax credits up to 35% of premiums for businesses to provide health care benefits. Those people who are not covered under Medicare or employer sponsored insurance will receive assistance through direct subsidies to purchase insurance through a new on-line exchange, an internet state run market place. This will also improve price competition between insurers. Guaranteed issue and individual mandate: Unlike in the previous years, starting in 2014, insurers will not be allowed to deny coverage to sicker applicants or impose higher premiums, cost sharing, black-out periods or cancel policies for minor errors in insurance application. The law will also require people, whose insurance plans do not meet a nationally approved minimum standard, to pay a tax penalty. This will almost resemble a universal health coverage common in many countries like United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates and Australia. Make Health Insurance more effective: The new legislation makes it compulsory for insurers to exclude lifetime and annual caps and cover more of a person’s health care cost. It ensures that first dollar costs are used for screening and immunizations and it also prevents exclusions made for necessary care. The legislation makes certain that insurance company overheads do not cost more that 15% of insurance premiums. Reduce the deficit: According to the estimations made by the Congressional Budget Office (2010), the reform legislation would reduce the deficit by $143 billion over 10 years. This will significantly help in revamping the health care system in the country. Eliminate overpayment in Medicare Advantage: According to the estimate made by MedPAC, Medicare was paying approximately $12 billion a year to the private insurers. Which means that under the traditional Medicare, an average person was paying $90 a year as subsidy to private insurers for which they received no benefit. Eliminating this overpayment would save $177 billion over ten years (MedPAC.). Advantages and disadvantages of Reform 2010 Advantages: Through this new legislation, nearly 95% of people who are legally staying in the United States can heave health insurance coverage (International Insurance News). Making insurance mandatory will bring younger and healthier people into the insurance pool at a relatively low incremental cost thereby reducing the cost for everybody else in the pool. A major advantage of this reform is that insurers cannot deny coverage or impose higher premiums for people having preexisting conditions or are very old. Disadvantage: To achieve the goals of this legislation, the government has to raise a significant amount of money which it might do by increasing taxes on businesses and high income families. Such expenditure from the government can strain the economy of the country. Also, citizens who do not whish to have a health insurance policy might have to pay 2% more taxes than others who opt for them. Works Cited Centre for Medicare and Medicaid Services. National Health Expenditure Projections 2009- 2019. April 7, 2011 < https://www.cms.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/downloads/ proj2009.pdf> Congressional Budget Office. The Reconciliation Proposal. April 7, 2011 International Insurance News. International Insurance and Healthcare Industry News. April 9, 2011 MedPAC. Executive Summary. April 7, 2011 Wilper, A.P., Woolhandler, S., Lasser, K.E., McCormick, D., Bor, D.H., Himmelstein, D.U. Health Insurance and Mortality in US Adults. American Journal of Public Health, 2009. 99(12). World Health Ooganization. Measuring Overall Health System Performance for 191 Countries. April 6, 2011 Read More