Landmark: The Inside Story of America's New Health-Care Law - Book Report/Review Example

Landmark Introduction The health care debate is not new in the United States of America. Many of the other developed countries had already developed universal health care systems, leaving US as one of the few developed countries who had not adopted a universal health care system. However, even after the adoption of a universal health care system, US remain to be among the highest spenders on health care per person than among the other countries that have government sponsored health care system. Only Netherlands and Norway have spent a greater percentage of their GDP than the US. It is believed that the high cost of health care is brought about by the fact that the US Government is the highest payer of health insurance. This happens through the Medicare and Medicaid Programs. The people who qualify for these programs (the elderly and poor)happen to be the most prone to illnesses and thus more medical attention.Some of the citizens are also not insured partly because they cannot afford it. When such people have medical emergencies, the law requires hospitals to take care of them, forcing the government to take care of this expense. These are some of the reasons as to why many people will be in agreement that the US health care system needed reforms such as the Affordable Care Act. Summary Landmark is a collection of writings done by reporters, editors and staff of 'Washington Post'. The writings come after the actual text of the bill. The book does not only give a summary of the bill, but a detailed analysis of the possible impact of the bill to the various categories of American citizens and the US health system. One of the most appealing things about the writings in this book is the fact that they give details on the historical background and perspectives of the American system (Washington Post Company 46).This includes the legislative process, negotiations, compromises, obstacles, and challenges that marked the legislative process of this bill. The historical background brings a better understanding of the bill. Landmark has three sections. The first section avails detail on the manner in which the bill came to an existence. The second section analyses the impacts and effects of the law. The final section gives a summary of the actual legislation. Discussion Looking at the history of the United States of America, someone can easily notice that 12 US presidents from Theodore Roosevelt (1910) and to Barak Obama (2010) had some version of a national health care system on their agenda in one form or another. However, it was only during president Obama’s reign that this was actually brought into action. However, the contribution of the other reigns to the country’s healthcare system should never be taken for granted. There are a number of strategies that were used by President Obama and the democrats to make this bill a success. It is clear from the writing that they allowed the congress to write the bill given their ability to write laws. President Obama and the Democrats also made sure that they did not appear to overemphasize on the problems faced by the uninsured people in the country. Instead, they chose to focus on the rising cost of health care that would obviously be a burden to middle class voters and the corporate world. They also made sure that the bill was introduced soon after the elections so that they would capitalize on the elections. The fact that they found ways of dealing with the industries and special interests helped them in dealing with the opposition. At the beginning of the campaign all stakeholders, including Democrats, Republicans, Labor leaders, AMA, Corporate executives, consumer advocates, and official from the American chamber of congress drug lobbyist W.J. Tauzin, head of PhRMA, Karen Ignagi (Insurers representative), and Chip Khan (Hospital Representative) were all invited to a meeting that was held at the Whitehouse. This was strategically successful in creating the picture of the government’s willingness to involve all the stakeholders in coming up with a solution to the problems facing the US health care system. Despite the fact that President Obama and the democrats were highly strategic, things did not come the easy way for them in this course. There are a number of challenges that they faced during this process. Some of these challenges are highlighted in “Landmark”. One of the challenges that are touched on in this book is convincing people of the sources of finance given the fact that the bill is expected to cost the country 1 trillion dollars in over a 10 year span. It was not an easy task convincing some of the members who had special interests to support this course (Emanuel 123). At some point, one of the party’s politicians, Senator Kennedy passed and the party was not able to recapture the seat in the resulting by-elections. This weakened the party’s position. Other challenges resulted from the abortion issue and general public opinion. This book reveals the people who were the biggest victims of the state of the health care system in the US before the introduction of this law. Apparently the people who faced the highest risks had to spend more in order to get insurance cover. People who did not have insurance because of their inability to afford it had to pray hard that they did not fall sick. This is something that had to change after the introduction of this law. After all the main aim of the reform was to make sure that healthcare services were affordable and accessible to all the citizens of the US. The law seeks to reduce these problems by first making sure that there is no unnecessary increase in insurance cover price and reducing the number of uninsured people in the country. The penalty for non-compliance is 1% of an individual’s income in 2014, 2% in 2015 and 2.5 in 2016. In accordance to the new the depended, coverage will be extended to 26 years. The law will also expand coverage to young adults without dependents and people with incomes133% above the federal poverty line. People who are 400% above the FPL will also get subsidies. This means that people who fall between the 400% and 133% are by themselves, even if they are not able to afford insurance cover. For those states that previously had strict Medicaid eligibility criteria may now see an influx of new qualified enrollees under the new Law. There will be a resultant influx of federal funds for insurance coverage. This will not be a big problem for states which had less strict Medicaid eligibility (Gruber and Newquist 101). However, it is also revealed that states have the freedom of avoiding expansion if they have an alternative plan that complies with the minimum requirement of this law. However, by opting for alternative funds they risk losing federal funds. The writings also reveal that the new law will see the US moving from a model that was fee based to one that ensured equal and quality medical services. It is highly possible that most healthcare providers in the United States of America will form networks, thus forming teams that include a host of supporting cast such as: counselors, dieticians, data crunchers, performance evaluators, case managers, and many others. The use of technologies such as the electronic records systems will also make the implementation of this law more successful as they make health care provision easier and more accurate. However, even the implementation of this law is not going to be an easy thing. There are a number of challenges that are going to face the implementation process. The probable challenges to the implementation process include: extra administration obligations, patient compliance, and perceived lower reimbursements facing providers. Nevertheless, the effect of reimbursements can be minimized if providers are allowed to cost share. Conclusion This book can be said to be successful in presenting an analysis of the Affordable Care Act. One fact that cannot be disputed is that this book gives importance to one of the most ignored aspect of healthcare laws, which are the history. It gives readers details on the politics and the political process that led to the adoption of this bill. It also avails the details on the challenges that had to be faced so that the bill would finally be passed into law. Such an experience enables readers to appreciate the people that were behind the bill. Another important thing is the fact that it gives details on the benefits of the implementation of the bill and the possible challenges of its implementation. Given these factors this book can be said to be an effective companion to anyone who wishes to have a complete comprehension of the Affordable Care Act. Work cited Emanuel, Ezekiel J. Reinventing American Health Care: How the Affordable Care Act Will Improve Our Terribly Complex, Blatantly Unjust, Outrageously Expensive, Grossly Inefficient, Error Prone System. , 2014. Print. Gruber, Jonathan, and H P. Newquist. Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It's Necessary, How It Works. New York: Hill and Wang, 2011. Print. Washington Post Company. Landmark: The Inside Story of America's New Health-Care Law and What It Means for Us All. New York: PublicAffairs, 2010. Internet resource. Read More