The Ethics of Health Care Reform - Research Paper Example

Evaluate the Ethics of the Affordable Care Act Introduction Health and safety is regarded as one of the decisive aspects of human life, irrespective of the domain of the society to which an individual belong. In today’s contemporary social setting, people are quite busy with their daily work to earn better livelihood for themselves. However, in between the extreme pressure, individuals have to deal in fulfilling their personal and professional lifestyle needs; they seldom get time to maintain a proper lifestyle that keeps them away from diseases and health complications. This further makes them vulnerable towards diseases and health complications. Observably, the number of health disorders among people all over the world has enhanced considerably (Rooney & et al., 2008). This scenario is quite apparent in the US, wherein the number of health related issues has augmented considerably over the years. Contextually, the healthcare authorities of the country have emerged with the notion of ‘The Affordable Care Act’, which potentially ensures a better position for the citizens of the nation in terms of dealing with health related issues. This particular research paper intends to evaluate the ethics associated with the Affordable Care Act. In addition to this, the research paper will also discuss about other vital implications associated with the Act. Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)”, is a law, which was passed by the government of the United States and headed by the current President of the nation Mr. Barack Obama in the year 2010. It is regarded as one of the most significant developmental aspect in the healthcare setting of the country. It was enacted with the intention of enhancing the quality as well as the affordability of the healthcare insurance amid the citizens of the nation. The law includes various new rules for the insurance companies along with healthcare organizations towards enhancing the healthcare settings of the country. As per the law, all Americans who possess a healthcare insurance will able to avail treatment wherever and whenever he/she desire or needed. The Act protects the rights of the patients towards obtaining proper and quality healthcare services. The act also reduces the number as well as the amount of premium of health insurance, further making it affordable for a huge number of people. The law also provides the customers with the right to access the cost of their treatment at large (Obama Care Facts, n.d.). Review of Literature It has been evident that healthcare reforms are usually accompanied with numerous ethical issues. The scenario is not quite different with that of PPACA, which passed by the government of the United States. This approach of the US government has raised debates all over the country, wherein certain portion of Americans depict it as a positive attempt of the government, while others possess an opposing perception towards the same (Gavel, 2013). Ethical Issues of the Act Notably, in recent times, PPACA is amid the most significant reforms in healthcare settings in the United States. It has been able to attract the attention of maximum number of people belonging to the US and other parts of the world owing to certain fascinating benefits or aspects that it provides to the customers. However, the Act is not excluded from certain ethical issues. Observably, the healthcare reforms in the US are mainly intended towards offering certain benefits that includes ensuring deliverance of quality care to the people, making sure the freedom of choice of treatment for patients and ensuring affordability of healthcare services for the people. However, it is often argued that the US government holds the perception of viewing these goals differently and strategizes their move accordingly. These aspects eventually raise the ethical issues persisting within the healthcare reforms such as Affordable Care Act (American College of Emergency Physicians, 2013). The ‘death panel’ dispute is one of the major ethical controversies associated with the Affordable Care Act. As per this issue, it can be affirmed that the approach of the government might lead towards the denial of treatment for senior citizens in the country. It is also strongly believed that the ACA of the US government will reduce the control of patients or the people over their treatment, which is again morally insignificant. Again, it has also been argued that the ACA will require every citizen of the US to possess health insurance in order to access the benefits of the Act. However, the denial of a large group of people to acquire medical insurance might certainly lead to the collapse of the entire plans of the government. Furthermore, according to the report of Runge (2013), the ACA impose potential impact on the ethical care programs of the “Long-Term care (LTC) facilities”. The legislation of the ACA requires the LTC to mandatorily include certain components that are deemed to affect its ethical functionality. This also depicts a potential issue of ACA (Runge, 2013). Economic Justice as a Moral Issue The healthcare reforms as per the ACA are deemed to have major impact on the economy of the US. Observably, ACA, also known as the Obamacare, has increased the spending of the country in the domain of healthcare, further making a serious concern for the economy of the United States. It has been apparently noted that the country is facing a massive budget deficit of $700 billion and a national debt of approximately $17 trillion as per latest financial report. Contextually, the increase in spending of the country as per the ACA in the healthcare sector will certainly add to the economic concern of the nation. It is strongly believed that the spending of the Obamacare care will surpass $1.8 trillion in a decade, which is a considerable amount and a potential negative impact to the economy of the nation, depicting it as a moral issue (The Heritage Foundation, 2014). Furthermore, in this similar regard, Cutler (2013) depicted that the ACA will certainly affect the economy of the nation at large. This is because of the aspect that the Act will inhibit the employment growth of the nation, which is again a hindrance to the overall economic advancement of the US. The taxes that are being imposed on the health insurance companies and the medical device companies as per the Act, will also pose a threat to the economic growth of the nation. This can also depict as an ethical issue associated with the Act (Cutler, 2013). Capitalism and Socialism Perspectives With Regard to the Affordable Care Act From the above discussion, it is apparent that ACA has certain potential ethical issues in terms of its impact to the economy and the overall healthcare setting. However, considering the perceptions of the capitalists and the socialists, an in-depth understanding about the aforementioned aspect can be acquired. According to the report of Geyman (2014), the ACA cannot be considered as an approach of the government towards enhancing the healthcare settings, rather privatizing the healthcare setting. It is believed in this regard that Obamacare is just a capitalistic approach wherein certain portion of people will be able to earn a considerable sum of money. As per the report, experts in various domains believe that the Act or the program is not a non-profit one. Justifiably, the stocks of the healthcare sectors have inclined by 40% in the year 2013 after the emergence of the Obamacare Act in the US (Geyman, 2014). These aspects certainly raise ethical issues for ACA. In this regard, Smerconish (2013) depicts the socialist viewpoint about the ACA. The report of Smerconish (2013) suggests that a real socialist cannot consider the Obamacare as a social approach of the government. This is owing to the fact that the Act relies heavily upon the privatized healthcare companies, ensuring the management of the healthcare services in the nation effectively. It is believed that a socialized approach will be reluctant to include a healthcare insurance, rather remaining much focused towards publicly funding the reforms with the help of progressive taxation policies (Smerconish, 2013). These aspects also emerge as potential ethical facets of the ACA. Analysis and Suggestion As per the above analysis and discussion, it has been quite apparent that the Obamacare or the ACA has certain ethical aspects associated with it. It is quite evident that the healthcare reform policies of the US government are largely focused towards enhancing the healthcare settings wherein the patients i.e. the customers will be able to obtain high quality services from the healthcare authorities. The Act includes the assessment and the reformation of various domains of healthcare setting with regard to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness to a considerable level. However, the approach of the government in relation to the introduction of the ACA has certain ethical issues that are affecting the wellbeing of the citizens of the country by a certain degree. Thus, in order to ensure maximum success for the Obamacare healthcare reforms in future context, the reformers of the Act will need to adopt and implement certain effective as well as efficient measures to deal with the rising ethical issues against the Act. Contextually, the government will need to consider both welfare of the healthcare sector as well as that of other areas of the economy while enacting its legislations. This approach will ensure that the reformers or the government can be able to maintain a balance amid the healthcare objectives of the country along with fulfilling the economic and the social goals of the nation. This might lead towards the elimination of ethical issues that have been discussed above. Conclusion From the overall evaluation of the research, it can be comprehended that healthcare reform policies of the US government impose considerable impact upon other operational aspects of the nation apart from healthcare. In this regard, the formation of the Obamacare Act has been believed to impose certain negative impacts on the wellbeing of the economy and the people of the society altogether. The additional spending associated with the Obamacare Act is deemed to impose negative impact on the growth of the economy. The Act is also deemed to hinder the employment growth of the nations, which can be regarded as one of its negative impact. Hence, in order to deal with these issues in future context, the government of the nation will need to come up with specific measures that assure maximum success of the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. Thus, it can be concluded that the mitigation of the issues related to the Act would certainly aid in offering quality care to the patients belonging to the nation at large. References American College of Emergency Physicians. (2013). The ethics of health care reform: issues in emergency - medicine - an information paper. Retrieved from http://www.acep.org/Content.aspx?id=80871 Cutler, D. M. (2013). The economics of the affordable care act. Retrieved from http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/07/the-economics-of-the-affordable-care-act/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 Gavel, D. (2013). Measuring the effectiveness of the affordable care act. Retrieved from http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/articles/measuring-the-effectiveness-of-the-affordable-care-act Geyman, J. (2014). The affordable care act: not a government takeover but a privatized bonanza. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-geyman/the-affordable-care-act-n_b_4591796.html Obama Care Facts. (n.d.). Affordable care act summary. Retrieved from http://obamacarefacts.com/affordablecareact-summary.php Runge, A. (2013). How the affordable care act impacts compliance and ethics programs of long-term care facilities. Retrieved from http://www.wahcnews.com/newsletters/wa-arunge-0613.pdf Rooney, T., Podger, G., & Hackitt, J. (2008). The role of the health and safety commission and the health and safety executive in regulating workplace health and safety: third report of session 2007-08. US: The Stationery Office. Smerconish, M. (2013). What do socialists think of Obamacare? Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-smerconish/what-do-socialists-think_b_4054666.html The Heritage Foundation. (2014). Federal spending, budget, and debt. Retrieved from http://solutions.heritage.org/budget-and-spending/ Read More