Healthcare Laws Efficiency - Essay Example

?Health Care Laws Introduction Development of effective health care policies is one of the major issues being faced by the American government. In America, health care policy is not based on universal access to health facilities. That is the reason why millions of American people are uninsured or do not have access to health care facilities. From Elizabethan Poor Laws to current social welfare policy, some deficiencies do exist in the heath care system, which need to be overcome by the government of America in order to provide health care facilities to every citizen of the United States as soon as possible. In this paper, we will examine the Elizabeth poor laws (EPL) and the Affordable Care Act in order to find some similarities and differences between the EPL and the current social welfare policy in accordance with an article to know how different health care reforms have served the people living in the United States of America. The article, which will be discussed in the paper, is ‘Some states seek flexibility to push health-care overhaul further’ written by Sarah kliff. Summary of Elizabethan Poor Laws The Elizabethan Poor Laws were framed largely in 1601. At that time, Britain was facing a problem of increase in the number of poor people who had no proper shelter or source of income. Therefore, the government passed the Elizabethan Poor Laws for the welfare of the needy people. According to the Poor Law, the government of the Great Britain was responsible for apprenticing children. Jansson (2011) states, “The Elizabethan Poor Law assigned responsibility for the poor to local public officials” (p. 65). The law provided a clear distinction between the undeserving people and those who actually deserved to be set to work on wool, iron, Hempe, and other necessary ware. The goals of the Elizabethan Poor Laws addressed a large number of people who deserved shelter, food, and jobs from the government. According to the law, the deserving people were those who were very old, homeless, disabled, or had some sort of sickness or disease. The people who did not have any sort of proper source of income were also put into the category of deserving people. On the other hand, undeserving people included those who were physically fine and were able to earn for themselves and for their families. There was no place for the undeserving people in the law. The Elizabethan Poor Laws, which were a good effort by the government to distinguish between the poor population and the undeserving population, consisted of four major rules, which included: The children of such people would be set to work whose parents are not able to earn for them. All such persons, whether married or unmarried, would be set to work, who have no proper source of income to maintain themselves. All poor people would be set to work by proving them with all kinds of facilities that they require from the government. All physically disable people would be given necessary relief in order to help them maintain themselves properly. Children of unprivileged people would be apprenticed until the age of twenty in case of boys and twenty-one years in case of girls. Summary of the Selected Article The article is about the Affordable Care Act, which was enacted on March 23, 2010. One main point about the act is that most of the tax provisions contained in the act have not been implemented as yet and they will become effective within next few years. The provisions, which are in effect at the moment, include heath insurance premium tax credit, small business health care tax credit, changes to flexible spending arrangements, and health coverage for older children, and some others. However, there are some issues related to the act, which have made some states seek flexibility to push the heath care further. The author of the article, Sarah Cliff, has mentioned that the governor of Oregon is among the most stalwarts as far as health reforms are concerned. He wants to feel the real essence of heath reform and wants the reform to be implemented with all of its provisions instantly. Anticipating the delay in the implementation, Oregon designed a new plan in which certain changes are made related to paying the doctors and allowing public employees to work towards implementing federal insurance program for helping low-income Americans. However, for the implementation of the plan, Oregon wants Obama administration to waive integral pillars of the Affordable Care Act. “What Oregon wants to do would require the Obama administration to waive integral pillars of its signature legislative accomplishment” (Kliff, 2011). Many other governors are also pursuing such health measures that go beyond the Affordable Care Act. If we talk about the Republican governors, we come to know that they have opposed the law in a very aggressive manner. Many states are opposing the implementation of the law whereas two states, which include, Louisiana and Florida, have refused to implement the law. On the other hand, Democrats want to go a bit further instead of just expanding the coverage. The timeline of the implementation of the law is the main issue as far as he cases of Vermont and Oregon are concerned. The governors of these states do not want to wait until 2014. They want full law to be implemented as soon as possible along with of its provisions. In the meantime, governors of some of the states continue to lay the foundations for the implementation of such health measures that go beyond the Affordable Care Act. Vermont is one of such states. The governor of Vermont has implemented a single-payer system for the provision of health acre facilities. “The state has begun discussions with the Obama administration about waivers that would be necessary to convert health insurance there into a single-payer health plan, run by a public board” (Kliff, 2011). Similarly, Montana is also setting p the stage for the implementation of the single-payer system. Obama administration has given the opportunity to all states to come up with innovative ideas to strengthen the health care system. “The health-care law does allow states to pursue ideas outside its purview” (Kliff, 2011). Summing it up, the Affordable Care Act can be a great heath reform for the United States of America if the administration takes steps for its complete implementation as soon as possible. Similarities between EPL and Current Social Welfare Policy There exist some similarities between the Elizabethan Poor Law and the current Social Welfare policy. The main similarity between the two acts is that both of them are focused towards brining improvements to the lives of poor and deserving people. There is no lifetime dollar limit on the coverage. The Elizabethan Poor Laws also focused on bringing lifetime improvement to the lives of poor parents and children. Another similarity between the two acts is that of provision of facilities to the children. Moreover, lack of proper source of income for the parents is also considered in both of the laws. One of the great points regarding the Elizabethan Poor Law was that it focused the children of the poor parents. It was in the law that the children of such parents, who did not have any proper source of income, would be given relief in the form of provision of various facilities to them and their parents. In Elizabethan Poor Law, the age of the children who were supposed to be granted the facilities, was 20 to 21, whereas in case of the Affordable Care Act, it is 19 years. Differences between EPL and Current Social Welfare Policy Along with similarities, there also exist some differences between the Elizabethan Poor Law and the current Social Welfare policy. There were no tax credits, which could help people to pay for insurance in the Elizabethan Poor Laws. On the other hand, the Affordable Care Act will start providing tax credits to help poor people pay for insurance from 2014. Another difference between the two acts is related to the provision of vision and dental coverage for the children along with the provision of pregnancy care and newborn care to the mothers and the children. The current social welfare policy will start providing these facilities to the people from 2014. On the other hand, the Elizabethan Poor laws did not provide such facilities. Conclusion Summing it up, in America, health care policy is not based on universal access to health facilities. To overcome the difficulties of the needy people, Obama administration has taken considerable steps in the form of health reforms. In this paper, we examined two of the famous health reforms, which included, the Elizabethan Poor Law and the Affordable Care Act. After a close analysis, we found some similarities and differences in the laws. Although the Affordable Care Act provides a number of benefits to the lives of needy people, Obama administration needs to implement the law at its fullest as soon as possible to minimize the negative image of the law in the eyes of the opposition. References Jansson, B. (2011). The Reluctant Welfare State: Engaging History to Advance Social Work Practice in Contemporary Society (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole. Kliff, S. (2011). Some states seek flexibility to push health-care overhaul further. 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