Health Care Reform Act Bill in the US - Case Study Example

Health Care Reform Act Bill Task Introduction Poverty has hit most people not just in America but also the rest of the world. The high poverty levels experienced by the populace in the globe today can be greatly attributed to the economic hard epoch. These escalating poverty levels have affected the running of most activities within the public domain negatively affecting the economy. In the recent times, healthcare spending has similarly augmented with the economy leading to reduced affordability of these services by most people with the populace. Most of the incomes obtained from low income generating businesses or occupation therefore has to be spent on taking care of health care bills for patients. Inadequate funds from the populace have also seen poor service delivery that mostly emanates from the unauthorized or unlicensed healthcare facilities. The people having low incomes with pitiable living conditions confront divergent challenges in upholding their health. These people usually live in regions with inadequate health care resources assets, factors that compromise admission and conveyance of healthcare benefits. The poverty levels have continued to escalate with time because of the economic downturn where the estimated populace that has been affected by the situation stands at 46.2 million (Presto 2011). The levels have been on the sky-scraping from 14.3 percent in 2009 to 15.1 percent, which is the most recent (Presto 2011). This implicates that most people are yet to face off with the healthcare issues that are paramount to the running of activities within an economy. It also implies that fewer people can afford cover plans in the health sector meaning that the government has to intervene to ensure affordable healthcare conveyance. The estimated populace without any insurance plan stands at about 16.3 percent, implying poor incomes for this populace. Most of the uninsured individuals are the people below 65 years, the group that the government offers insurance (Presto 2011). These people feel neglected by the government since not much has been done to address the constraint. Poor accessibility of healthcare resources and their inadequacy within the social environments of the poor has claimed many lives and brought about other undesirable upshots (Presto 2011). Though the poor get predisposed to life-threatening environments, they rarely visit health centers in cases of minor illnesses. These minor illnesses may be the starting point for other unceasing diseases that are most extensive in such environments. Poverty also leads to reduced life expectancy for the target populace since the body gets subjected to too much health threats that reduce its ability to fight any more infections. Reduced immune reaction means that the body gets susceptible to contagions that may lead to death at young ages. However, in recent time, the poor people who are unable to meet the healthcare needs are been assisted by the rest of the populace to obtain medical care through healthcare programs. The programs aim at increasing existence expectancy of the poor as well as enhance their eminence of existence. These plans have been attributed to the generosity of the general populace towards the deprived persons in the societal context. Economically these programs prevent economic swings associated with poor health of the faction that offer unskilled labor to most industrial activities. The plans have also been efforts by the health sector to deliver services to the poor to ensure the rest of the populace stays healthy. Comprehensive health is ensured to prevent the transmission of any communicable diseases to the healthy, which would compromise the position of the health sector in imparting good health to the citizens. The government has also introduced healthcare cover meant for the poor and the near-poor individuals. The insurance program also incorporates the elderly and disabled people since they are also regarded poor due to their inadequate ingenuity in making adequate incomes. Programs initiated by the public to assist the deprived within the societal context have been in existence for quite some period. These programs have the aim of obtaining medical care for the deprived people in an attempt to augment life expectation and enhance their living qualities. These programs commenced with the prologue of employer-sponsored shares that were established to fund private healthcare insurance. The insurances are utilized in obtaining medical care as well as push for the free public insurance schemes for the augmenting numbers of the deprived. The poor are obviously provided with poor treatments from the physicians due to their incapacity to provide funds for treatment. Provision of the health insurance will therefore serve to provide the deprived with chance of obtaining quality treatments similar to that awarded to the middle class preventing death risks for the sick in the deprived category. Despite possession of these insurances, the deprived still experience obstacles obtaining the required treatments. The obstacles experienced by the deprived are their inability to explain their symptoms, as well as, language barriers that offers physicians and nurses problems especially if they are not aware of the language being utilized. Programs to address these obstacles to conveyance of healthcare have been instituted. These programs include funding of projects that aim at developing community-based healthcare centers, community health clinics, translators and edifying programs on sensitization of the deprived. The poor obtain healthcare support through the invention of the federal governments. These federal governments control the manner in which these assistances are administered. The administration has also developed welfare programs that offer health cover and medical care. Medicaid got implemented in 1960 together with Medicare and has continued to offer services to the poor and other people considered to be nearly deprived. Recently, Medicaid enrollment has augmented given the augment on the number of populace who have mislaid or never attained the employer-sponsored insurances (Swartz 2009). According to figures, most of the young individuals were uninsured and were beneath the poverty level. Similarly, most the uninsured individuals are regarded ineligible to the insurance scheme simply due to inadequate eligibility to the presented requirements. The other part of the ineligible individual suffers due to the limit instituted by their states meaning that they might have incomes exceeding the stipulated amount. Several states have implemented programs in response to the augmenting number of workers unable to obtain Medicaid. These programs aim at increasing eligibility of more people to the cover scheme as well as persuade these low-income earners to purchase personal health cover by utilizing state subsidies (Swartz 2009). The states have implemented these measures to increase coverage and decrease the demands on health centers and physicians who offer uncompensated attention to the uninsured. Healthy New York is a program developed to offer Medicaid to persons ineligible to the scheme but whose earnings, are beneath 250 percent of the paucity intensity (Swartz 2009). Commonwealth Care is another program employed in Massachusetts to offer alternative of four care policies to persons without eligibility to Medicaid but have earnings beneath 300 percent of the dictated limit or degree of poverty (Swartz 2009). The care plan got instigated in 2006 to address the matter of the eligible candidates and poverty-stricken persons. Badger Care Plus got implemented in 2008 with the sole goal of providing health insurance for all children despite their incomes. It supports all children, self-employed parents, expectant women and cultivators (Swartz 2009). The federal administration also offers alternative method to approach the issue of healthcare for the deprived. It funds Community Health Centers that offer medical care for the deprived and uninsured (Swartz 2009). According to the supporters of the CHCs, they offer better approach to the issue of health problems for the deprived and the uninsured. The issues addressed by CHCs are explanation of symptoms and good communication since the health personnel are obtained from the same community. These people argue that the CHCs offer pronounced results in the health sector than the insurance programs. Although the funding of CHCs is underway, concerns have cropped up on the uninsured patients requiring specialized treatments. These patients often face more problems than their covered counterparts do since the CHCs have limited medical equipments or facilities. This implies that CHCs necessity addition of relevant resources to ensure provision of quality healthcare services. However, these schemes have not been satisfactorily evaluated on their cost-effectiveness in addressing the presented problems (Swartz 2009). The healthcare programs have also brought substantial concern since they have increasingly risen in terms of cost. The issue of eligibility has substantially cut off the number of populace benefiting from the scheme. This has led to problems in the health sector since not all people’s admittance to healthcare. Like any other social problem, poverty is associated with different ideologies and values. These ideologies are systems of intertwined beliefs that are associated with any societal occurrence. These ideologies serve as drivers of policies towards the alleviation of these social predicaments. Poverty is often regarded as a consequence of inequity in resource distribution (Broussard & Joseph 2008). In relation to this ideology, poverty can be termed as systematic or structural problem. The policy instituted to respond to this ideology can be wealth redistribution although it is unachievable. The supplementary ideology that contradicts the first one is that poverty roots from individuals mostly to certain deficits in life. These deficits hinder the poor from undertaking any money-generating activities leaving them with little to utilize during their existence. The proposed policies to address this ideology are the removal of these deficits in the lives of the deprived persons. This approach has received much support and systems have been instituted to reduce the deficits by offering credit to the deprived to allow these alleviate their social status. However, some drawbacks have been presented by the implementation of policies to address the issue of poverty. In most circumstances, power plays chief role in determining the ideologies and values that pass to implementation level. Therefore, societal policies are mostly not a consequence of value, attitudes and ideologies but eventually a mandate of the most influential individuals (Broussard & Joseph 2008). The social activities target the poor through empowerment into alleviation of the situation greatly improving the quality of existence. H.R. 3962 bill aims at bestowing affordable healthcare services to the populace, provide quality services to all people despite of their social status and decrease the increment in the spending with regards to healthcare (Kaiser 2011). Some of these will be improvements and renovations on the existing healthcare systems. The bill will lead to cover reforms that create new-fangled Health Insurance Exchange that incorporates health insurance alternative for the public (Kaiser 2011). Health delivery structures reforms offer to improve quality and decrease increment of health spending in an attempt to make healthcare affordable to all people regardless of their income earnings. The bill offers to provide flexible insurance plans that favor all groups of the populace regardless of the social class. The healthcare bill bared support from the Democratic while their equivalent in the Republicans opposed the move strongly. However, the bills still got approved through the support of the Democrats and without any Republican vote (Tumulty 2010). John Dingell and other six co-sponsors sponsored the bill. The bill obtained support from organizations such as American Medical Association as well as from American Association of Retired Persons. The opposing organizations to the bill were American Health Insurance Plans and Eagle Forum. The sponsors of the bill utilized various media instruments to effect its passing through influence from the general public. The bill has also faced other opposition from SHRM that urges the American populace to oppose the bill since it does not fully fulfill the mentioned goals. The proponents of the bill are utilizing the opportunity that the Americans are tired of the present healthcare systems to lure people into accepting the bill. The bill has been discussed extensively all over America through the internet, television and other media to try to promote the passing of the anticipated bill. The proponents are also utilizing organizations that have a say on the implementation of the proposed law. Similarly, the opposing team is also utilizing organizations that have a role in the implementation of such bill to try to persuade the populace of the disadvantages of passing the bill. SHRM raises concerns over the provision that enhance the accessibility of wellness programs between workers and their employers. The bill compromises the situation of healthcare coverage since employers may be forced to pay for the coverage offered to their workers once they decline the coverage. The organization further argues that the act will erode ERISA through the application of state law solutions (Stamer 2011). SHRM offers further opposition since the act comprises of the public insurance that presents problems concerning the cost swing to personal plans. The organizations campaigning for the implementation of the act had a lot to gain one being the fame for providing the public with accurate insights on the bill. Consequently, the organizations opposing had something to loss once the bill passed meaning that they had to try to alter the most anticipated outcomes (Stamer 2011). Conclusion The bill on healthcare will adequately address the issue of healthcare mostly for the deprived who find difficulty spending and attaining quality healthcare services. The bill goals appear more feasible than other healthcare bills that have previously been implemented. The bill or policy will address all issues in healthcare collectively to prevent any unnecessary amendments that may serve to alter the provisions. The policy will also serve to address the quality and affordability of medical care for patients some of whom have chronic diseases. The bill will ensure that the deprived individuals with chronic diseases get some help from the government through enhancement of their eligibility towards the insurance schemes. The government ought to introduce comprehensive or collective limits to which individuals are offered with the healthcare insurance. References Broussard, A. C. & Joseph, A. L. (2008). Family poverty in diverse contexts. New York: Routledge. Tumulty, K. (2010). Making History: House Passes Health Care Reform. 2010. Web. Jan 26, 2012. Retrieved from < http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1973989,00.html> Swartz, K. (2009). Health care for the poor: For whom, what care, and whose responsibility? 2009. Web. Jan 26, 2012. Retrieved from < http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/focus/pdfs/foc262l.pdf > Kaiser, H. J. (2011). Summary of New Health Reform Law. 2011. Web. Jan 26, 2012. Retrieved from < http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/8061.pdf> Presto, S. (2011). Poor Americans Struggle with High Health Care Costs. Sep 13, 2011. Web. Jan 26, 2012. Retrieved from < http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Recession-Pushes-US-Poverty-Rate-to-151-Percent-129736643.html> Stamer M. C. (2011). SHRM Urges American’s To Oppose HR 3962, The Affordable Health Care For America Act. 2011. Web. Retrieved from < http://slphrbenefitsupdate.com/2009/11/06/shrm-urges-americans-to-oppose-hr-3962-the-affordable-health-care-for-america-act/> Read More