American Health Care Reform and its Future - Research Paper Example

?The issue of healthcare reforms is perhaps one of the few s which have a cross cutting and fully universal outreach; bearing in mind that anyone can fall sick notwithstanding their status and class. While the wealthy classes can afford to get high cost medical care in the best and most expensive hospitals due to the universal care policies in place, every taxpaying American has a stake in the provision of health care services for their fellow citizens. When Obama became president in 2008, he promised to justify his election by bringing positive change in America’s services, such as education, health care and the economy in general. While there is little doubt he can bring change, its positivity, especially during the campaign period, has become relative based on political opinion and ideology. Democrats claim he improved the health sector considerably citing the reforms in healthcare popularly dubbed Obamacare. The opposition is using the flaws in the health reforms to try to bring him down and the issue of health care as one can easily deduce is a stormy one with the debate surrounding it. Many people expect it to have a decisive influence on the results of 2012 November election, although it might continue long after. Medical reforms have been taking place on different levels in America for the last several decades, two of the most pertinent aspects of medical reform are embodied in the federal statutes enacted in 2010 patient protection and affordable care acts. One of the most contentious issues pertaining to this was that all Americans should have healthcare payment coverage of face a fine, and this brought about controversy, as it had to be resolved in the Supreme Court (Torrey, 2010). Prior to the affordable care act, patients with chronic conditions or debilitating injuries were not able to buy insurance unless they were covered with their employers (Amadeo, n.d.). As a result, those who could not afford private treatment would have limited options and most would be forced to wait for death with no recourse. However, new policies have changed this, and it is approximated that, by 2014, insurance companies refusing coverage to individual is based on such criterion will be in breach of the law. Health reforms, will also benefit senior citizens who will save money on prescription drugs, eliminating the doughnut hole that makes expensive drugs inaccessible to them, though need them most (Amadeo, n.d.). Children, and by extension parents, will be safe from the Machiavellian antics of insurance companies such as raising premiums or be denying care for any reason. Furthermore, the advantages accruing to adults with pre-existing conditions will also apply to them. Moreover, young adults who previously lost coverage after the parents after high school (if they did not join college), otherwise, they would remain covered as long as they are under 26 with the exemptions of those who will have secured employment and covered by their employers (Torrey 2010). The affordable care act also provides for preventive care and children and adults will access testing and screening services without requiring them to incur any extra cost on top of their insurance premiums. This will cover conditions and diseases like HIV, Diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol and cancer among others, however, exemptions for these may apply to policies that may have been purchased before the act was passed on 23rd march in 2010. Health care reforms have had extensive influence in several spheres of social economic lives of many Americans. The availability of government health insurance poses a dilemma more so to employers; there have been uncertainty in making business decisions because employers are still not sure how these will affect them. Firstly, all employers are faced with the dilemma of whether to continue providing their workers with insurance, or they should let them purchase the government’s subsidized insurance (Accounting Today, 2010). Thus, the future is uncertain, and it is predicted that many firms will opt to discontinue paying the health insurance for their staff and pay fines, which are relatively low in comparison. However, posterity may hold many unexpected changes and between now and 2014 when the individual coverage takes full effect a lot of analysis will have to carried out by the affected institutions in this respect. Medical science and technology is a crucial factor in health care reform the reason so many people have suffered in the past is that many diseases are difficult to treat hence extremely expensive. However, the future of medical reform will be profoundly influenced by developments in medical technology, which will make access to medical care considerably easier, and hopefully more affordable. Among the technologies that are believed to hold promise in improving the health care in America the leading one is known as Nanotechnology. The science of nanotechnology involves the construction on miniature machines, which would be implanted in the human body, to detect problems by acting as Monocell laboratories (World Health Education Initiative, n.d.). These would have the capacity to handle cells and platelets in the body on individual terms resulting into a giant leap in development of medical science. In the long term, such technology would reduce the need and cost of surgery, the development of minimum invasion surgery means time spent in the recovery ward recuperating after surgery would reduce, and this translates to lower medical bills. Chip technology is expected to be fully viable by the year 2020, with the processing power of a human brain. Presently, there exist chips that are able to help deaf people hear and give some degree of sight to blind people. These technologies will enable curing of chronic conations such as Lyme disease, cancer, HIV and other conditions that create problems in the acquisition of insurance cover. Currently, according to nano.org, a doctor can prod a patient with some gadget, takes his or her blood pressure and prescribes drugs often depending on their subjectivity, which may or may not work. However, with the technology of diagnosing illnesses, doctors will be able to make accurate diagnosis. In addition, many of the tools basic to doctors like blood pressure machines and stethoscopes will appear even archaic (World Health Education Initiative, n.d.). Therefore, the future of health care reforms cannot be predicted effectively until the November elections are done. While the Democrats will undoubtedly continue implementing what they have initiated and supported although, it is possible a republican victory could lead to drastic changes. This is because they have bitterly oppressed the Obama initiated health reform bills and won a sweeping victory in the 2010 elections, in that front. Ron Paul the congressman for Texas was particularly vocal on this and claimed it was a matter of government mandate and the state was virtually forcing people to buy insurance (Taylor, 2012). Nonetheless, in the event of a republican victory it will not be possible to outlaw the current system since that would cause the 35 Million Americans already insured to lose their cover (Oberlander, 2010). Besides, economic factors may render any drastic move to change the system as counterproductive in the end. It is noteworthy that while the American public considered the issue of healthcare, after the bill was enacted it went down on the scale of priorities among the public (Bastasch, 2012). This implies that, despite the politician’s attention, it might not weigh very heavily as a determinant for which way they vote. There is also the problem of insufficient medical staff to cater for all the patients since the current staff especially doctors are already overworked under the current circumstances. In conclusion, health reforms in America are dynamic, and will evolve continuously in the face of the myriad of social, economic and political factors. Currently, despite the controversy on its appropriateness, there is no question that the reforms have achieved what has never been achieved before, the possibility of having all Americans under some form of cover whether they can afford it or not. Future American generations will no doubt benefit from the developments that have been made in the health sector especially the legislative, as well as technological ones. References Accounting Today. (2010). Health care reform's effect on business. Retrieved from http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/Health-Care-Reform-Effect-Business-55678-1.html Amadeo, K. (n.d). What is Obamacare? About.com. Retrieved from http://useconomy.about.com/od/healthcarereform/f/What-Is-Obama-Care.htm Bastasch, M. (2012). Opposition to Obamacare softens. Poll. The Daily Caller. Retrieved from http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/02/poll-opposition-to-obamacare-softens/ Oberlander, J. (2010). Beyond repeal - the future of health care reform. NEJM.org. Retrieved from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1012779 Taylor, R. (2012). Ron Paul opposition to Obamacare highlights Libertarian alternatives in medicine. Policymic. Retrieved from http://www.policymic.com/articles/10566/ron-paul-opposition-to-obamacare-highlights-libertarian-alternatives-in-medicine Torrey, T. (2010). Understanding healthcare reform. About.com. Retrieved from http://patients.about.com/od/patientempowermentissues/a/hcreform-hub.htm World Health Education Initiative. (n.d.). Healthcare reform: A vision of the future Retrieved from http://www.health-care-reform.net/future.htm Read More