Modern Healthcare Reform in America - Essay Example

Health Care Reform The paper deals with the modern health care reform in America. The President Obama initiated health care reform in order to increase quality of medical services provided and decrease costs spent by the government on the sphere of medicine. At the same time, he is much concerned about potential financial gains from this policy. Key words: health care reform, physician, insurance, low income families. The American health care system has been always known for being the most advanced and open-minded in the world. The latest steps of the President Barak Obama and his government have been focused on improvements in health care system. A sphere of finance is closely interwoven with the sphere of medicine in the modern America. The country provides its citizens with both public and private health insurance. 84 percent of American population is insured. There are two well-known and wide-spread types of health care insurance: Medicare and Medicaid (Caudron, 1994). As a rule, the first type of insurance is focused on elderly people and the second type is focused on poor people insurance. There is a need to develop a sphere of insurance financing in the country. On the one hand, it is better to focus on the sphere of medicine and the services it provides, but on the other hand, it is necessary to take into account financial aspects of the new health care reform. The government is focused on health care system improvement and high quality of services it provides. The main emphasis is maid on a pre-paid insurance in the United States. The Americans are focused on being provided with high-quality insurance otherwise to pay for it makes no sense. The needs of individuals and the wants of the whole nation are of the main concerns for the President’s team. Barak Obama appealed for his team on June 15, 2009 and the American Medical Association with the proclamation of cooperation with physicians in order to improve a new health care reform. Physicians are presented as the most reliable partners on the way to reform introduction and health-care services should be more individually oriented and outcome-oriented. There is a need for a constant support of the patients; sensitivity of the physicians to their patients is one of the utmost concerns. Quality of medical care in America should be above financial gains (Abernetty, 2008). To provide hospital efficiency is really important for the modern American health care system (Buchmueller & Monheit, 2009). The government spent $2.2tn on healthcare system in 2007 and the number of insured people is 46.3 out of 300 million (Unlock the Solutions, 2011). The employers are currently responsible for provision of their employees with insurance. At the same time, it is claimed that Medicaid and Medicare insurance systems should be less costly. There is a need to find a perfect balance between private and governmental costs spent on insurance. Therefore, it is evident that health care insurance in the modern America can be considered from different perspectives. For the insurance providers, health care reform can bring in such advantage as keeping positive sides of the insurance and the drawback is that “According to experts, more than 87 million American could lose access to their current health care plan under the new law. Workers at a majority of the nation’s employers – including as many as four out of every five small businesses – would lose their current coverage, thus providing further evidence that ObamaCare is doing exactly the opposite of what Democrats promised it would do” (ObamaCare). Another advantage for providers of health care insurers is that modern doctors are motivated and encouraged for further cooperation with the insurance providers. The main drawback for the hospitals is that the number of doctors will decrease and the number of patients will grow. For the patients the new health care reform can bring in the following changes: low-income families will pay less, but in case the family has serious health problems, it can even go bankrupt after the new reform introduction. Another benefit for hospitals is that improvement of physicians’ skills and abilities is financed by the government. The physicians will have an opportunity to wide-spread their services in different communities, ambulatory settings et cetera. At the same time, it is evident that a kind of disadvantage may occur (Promise of Health Insurance Reform 2010). The nation will hardly readily accept innovative changes in the field of health care service after the reform. There is a need to decrease pressure in this sphere and provide the nation with the equal demand and supply in the field of medical services. Very often nowadays medical lawsuits occur. This fact exerts a negative influence on the reputation of the hospitals. Under conditions of the heath care reform it is claimed that different non-hospital trainings and other strategies focused on improvement of medical services are introduced. The negative element of this policy can be found in high costs spent on these programs, which may turn out to be inefficient and ineffective. Therefore, health care reform initiated by the President Obama and his government can exert different impacts on different groups of people with respect to new health care reform introduction. On the one hand, insurance providers have an opportunity to provide its customers with the benefits of insurance, but on the other hand it is hard to say whether the number of people, which are able of insurance purchasing increases or decreased. The modern physicians are in the core of the reform. They are positioned as the partners and the supporters of innovative movement, but they have an opportunity to have no job, because they are focused on working more effectively and the number of doctors may essentially decrease. Moreover, it should be noted that the modern doctors are on the way of their self-development and it is beneficial for them to have many opportunities to develop their skills on different trainings and programs. A client-oriented approach or individually-focused approach is of the main concern for the modern doctors. They have a perfect opportunity to satisfy the needs of every patient. Nevertheless, in case a patient has low income it will be too hard for him to pay for insurance whether he wants or not, because the scopes of a new health care reform is huge. It covers the American nation overall in spite of financial abilities of people. Therefore, it is possible to hope for better and to focus only on positive sides on health care reform. Still, in order to be objective, it should be mentioned that the number of clients, who are insured, can constantly grow (ObamaCare). A high-quality of health care services provided nationwide is the main issue for the President. Nevertheless, there are many other issues beyond this promise and many different aspects should be taken into account in order to give an unprejudiced evaluation to the policies of the new health care reform. Therefore, in the modern context, health care reform in America is an open road for possible directions and choices at different levels. If to follow the words of a famous saying: “the boat floats however it is called”, then “ObamaCare” is not only a partial homonym to health care, but it is the reflection of the President’s real intention to serve in the name of the nation and in the interests of the nation. References Abernetty, D. (2008). Of State Laboratories and Legislative Alloys: How "Fair Share" Laws Can Be Written to Avoid ERISA Preemption and Influence Private Sector Health Care Reform in America. William and Mary Law Review, 49(5), 1859+. Buchmueller, T. C., & Monheit, A. C. (2009). Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance and the Form & Reform: The Economic Realities of the United States Healthcare System. (2010). Journal of Law and Health, 23(2), 89+. ObamaCare: Three Months of Broken Promises. Retrieved April 10, 2012 from: http://www.speaker.gov/UploadedFiles/ObamaCare3MonthsBrokenPromises.pdf Promise of Health Insurance Reform.  (2010). Inquiry, 46(2), 187+. Unlock the Solutions to Diverse Dilemmas Arising from the State Health Care Reform Laboratories? (2011). Journal of Law and Health, 24(1), 79+. Read More