Public Health Reform - Research Paper Example

Public Health Reform Introduction There are measures and policies that are put in place to ensure optimum health provisions to the American population that are known as Healthcare Reforms. The healthcare reforms were signed into law in March 2012. The reforms aim at increasing medical access to American citizens (Perloff, 1998). This means that all the American population should get access to quality healthcare. These reforms also aim at minimizing medical costs while ensuring maximum healthcare sustainability. The reforms, therefore, aim at bringing positive changes into healthcare delivery system. The primary objective of the healthcare reforms is to render excellence and affordable medical attention to all the citizens of the U.S. (Kronenfeld & Kronenfeld, 2004). The public health reforms have been put underway. The government has come up with strategies and approaches to warrant that all citizens profit from the medical access. Previously, it was optional for anyone to buy healthcare insurance policy. But since the passage of the healthcare reform bill into law, all members of the public are required to purchase medical insurance policy. This process is referred to as the individual mandate. The government has placed a deadline by which all citizens should have purchased an insurance policy (Kronenfeld & Kronenfeld, 2004). Public health reform The Affordable Care Act is a portion of the healthcare reform law that was put in place aimed at reducing the cost of healthcare. The act aims at expanding medical coverage to all citizens of the U.S at the lowest costs possible. The act has clauses that hold insurance of its clients. The act also avails citizens with options on whether to choose private health insurance or the public health insurance. Quality of healthcare at the lowest costs is also a major factor that was included in the act. This act advocates for healthcare equality throughout the United States. The act consists of two separate pieces of legislation. These include the Healthcare and Affordable Care Act and Education Reconciliation Act and the Patient Protection. The Healthcare and Education Reconciliation Act aims at educating the public on the best ways of staying a healthy life. The Act has initiated policies and programs that will ensure that citizens will be educated and informed on how to counter some disorders such as diabetes and cancer. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act aims at protecting the needs and rights of all patients, regardless of their social status (Kronenfeld & Kronenfeld, 2004). It has policies that aim at healthcare equity in the country. It also aims at providing healthcare at minimum costs while ensuring maximum standards of medication. The federal government performs these duties by reimbursing funds to hospitals that are used for Medicaid and Medicare. Individuals and families who receive low income receive federal subsidies. The government, via the Affordable care act, provides subsidies through the Medicare program. There are several people who are exempted from the affordable care act. These include immigrants who are approximately eight million in number. These immigrants are excluded from the health insurance mandate (Perloff, 1998). They can, however, be included in the medical treatment and active labor act. There are also some citizens who are eligible in the Medicaid, but are not enrolled. Younger students who are often single Americans are eligible for Medicaid, but they choose to pay an annual penalty instead. There are other citizens who are exempted from paying the annual penalty and their insurance coverage that cost more than eight percent of the household income. Other citizens that live in the United States may opt out of the Medicare coverage. They may, however, fail to qualify for the subsidized coverage or the Medicaid coverage. This act has its strengths. The strengths of the act are determined by its advantages and positive effects they create in the health reforms. The act has insurance reforms that have made vital improvements within the medical insurance system. It has made sure that there is equal coverage for the people in the private insurance sector. The insurance reforms also aim at providing coverage to those who cannot afford medical coverage at the moment. The affordable care act also makes medical access affordable. This is because the law aims at expanding Medicaid and Medicare. The expansion would make health insurance affordable to people who earn low income. The law advocates for sharing of responsibilities between employers and employees. The individual mandate provides that all people or families must have medical insurance cover. Employers should also ensure that they provide coverage for their employees. The law, under the Medicaid expansion will serve to accommodate more children with access to quality medication than before (Reverby & Rosner, 1979). The affordable healthcare act will serve to reduce or do away with health disparities and racial differences within the healthcare system. This is done by promoting health initiatives in communities. It also advocates for healthcare workforce diversity. People of color are absorbed into the healthcare workforce. This will promote a good relationship between whites and people of color. The law also aims at improving quality of healthcare. Quality improvement often comes due to innovation and technological advancements. It is, however, hard to balance between advancements in technology and low medical costs. This is because innovations usually require large amounts of funds to be implemented (McDonough, 2011). Therefore, new quality measures and programs have to be designed, demonstrated and applied in order to minimize costs while providing optimum healthcare services. In as much as the affordable care act has tremendous strengths, it is faced with some weaknesses that should be dealt with in order to prevent the collapse of the act. One of the weaknesses is that the affordable care act may raise insurance premiums after a while. This will mean that the majority of families and individuals will be taxed more than they used to be taxed before. Taxation is a major economic crisis that faces the U.S. increase in premiums will result into an increase in taxation, and this will affect the normal American people economically. The employers’ mandate that employers should help to provide healthcare insurance to their employees will increase production costs of the employers and this ultimately reduces their profits. When employers who have more than fifty employees within their organization do not offer health insurance to their employees who are employed on full time basis, they will incur an employer mandate penalty (Minteer, 2006). The employer mandate policy helps to subsidize the individual mandate by helping the federal government to raise funds for their healthcare coverage. The individual mandate seems to be a violation of the constitution. The normal business market advocates for free entry and exit into the business. However, the individual mandate imposes penalties, taxes or fines for most individuals who have not purchased the insurance coverage. The affordable care act limits the profits earned by the insurance companies. This is because the government restricts the maximum amount of premiums that should be paid on each coverage program. Immigrants that have entered U.S illegally or those who have unauthorized entry are not covered within the patient protection and affordable care act. This does not seem fair to these immigrants because their principal purpose for getting to the U.S is in search for better standards of living. These are usually people of low income. Excluding them from the patient protection and affordable care act will only increase their woes. They would be fined or penalized, not because they could not afford the healthcare insurance coverage but because they are not legible according to the law (Reverby & Rosner, 1979). The Medicaid and Medicare section of the patient protection and affordable care act has reduced its amount of money it reimburses to hospitals. This money is usually used for the healthcare expenses of patients in hospitals. The reimbursement is, however, not enough, and it causes hospitals to being forced to raise funds through payer fees. This under reimbursement also leads to physicians and doctors to be underpaid (McDonough, 2011). I would suggest that people who earn a lot of income to be taxed more so that the tax earned from them is channeled into helping those who cannot afford insurance coverage. The federal government should design a system of taxation that would extract a certain amount of money from salaries and wages of people who earn more than a predetermined amount of salary. The federal government should also increase its reimbursement of Medicaid and Medicare funds to hospitals so that the hospitals can operate optimally. This reimbursement can also be used to pay doctors and physicians and motivate them. Conclusion The individual mandate should also be revised and be ‘softened’ so that it can accommodate all the needs of the U.S citizens. The time in which immigrants must spend in the U.S must be reduce from five years to a shorter period before the immigrants can be qualified to be incorporated in the patient protection and affordable care act. These suggestions, if implemented would improve the affordable care act. References Kronenfeld, J. J., & Kronenfeld, M. R. (2004). Healthcare reform in America a reference handbook. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. McDonough, J. E. (2011). Inside national health reform. Berkeley: University of California Press ;. Minteer, B. A. (2006). The landscape of reform civic pragmatism and environmental thought in America. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Perloff, R. M. (1998). Political communication: politics, press, and public in America. Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum. Reverby, S., & Rosner, D. (1979). Health care in America: essays in social history. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. The public mandate for health care reform in America: Americans speak out: a briefing. (1993). Washington: U.S. G.P.O. Read More