2010 Healthcare Reform in America - Essay Example

The House, in a remarkable vote, approved the health care bill 219 to 212. It had to overhaul the US healthcare system and guarantee the availability of medical insurance to millions of Americans (Kane, 2010). This took place after fruitless attempts by several Democratic presidents for decades, which made the moment very significant in the long legislative contest. This Health Care Reform legislation is expected to cover around thirty million Americans who do not have access to it. It requires Americans to make sure that they have health insurance coverage and for low and middle-income persons, it would subsidize private coverage. Furthermore, it would include approximately sixteen million more Americans in the Medicaid rolls.

As Wolfe (2010) notes, the Healthcare Reform legislation is of great significance to children and young adults, as regards healthcare access and coverage. To start with, beginning in 2010, new private plans must offer preventive care free of charge. It does not permit them to charge deductibles or co-payments for preventive services. This is also the case for Medicare starting from 1 January 2011. It, therefore, places more children at an advantage of getting access to well-child health checks for earlier detection of potential health problems. For instance, those with diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and other treatable diseases can be identified earlier, and get faster treatment, thereby preventing costly and fatal long-term complications.

The bill also forbids insurance companies and health plans from denying health care to children who previously had insurance under the aegis of having preexisting health conditions. Put differently, the reform does not allow insurance companies to drop from coverage children who are below the age of 19 years based on pre-existing conditions. The application of this prohibition started six months artier the bill was passed. It will begin applying to all individuals in 2014 (Rao, 2010; & Hancock, 2010).

As far as young adults are concerned, they can now stay on their parent’s policy for a longer period. Previously, insurance could drop children from the insurance policies of their parents' arbitrarily once they attained the age of 18. Following the enactment of the bill, they are required to give parents the opportunity of keeping their children on their policies until they become 26 years old or get a job that can provide them with benefits. This provision is of great significance to young adults who are not able to get insurance somewhere else, as well as to college students who have an admissions requirement of proving insurance coverage (Wolfe, 2010).

Apart from the aforementioned advantages, the Health Care Reform Plan could bring the disadvantage of increased costs of premiums will increase. Insurance companies may claim that they will not be in a position to deal with the financial weight that will emanate from being forced to hold high-risk policies. Additionally, most of the changes will only go into operation beginning in 2014 and as a result, children, and young adults among others are still under the yoke of oppressive health insurance plans until then (South, 2010).

Obama’s Health Care Reform 2010 assures him a place in history as the only president in the US who managed to overhaul the nation’s health care system. It means an important revamp to the country’s current health care system. More specifically, it ends the sad stories about children with pre-existing conditions whose lives hinge on getting insurance coverage; children who can no longer obtain coverage from insurance companies, among others. In other words, it protects them from the most horrible practices of insurance companies. The bill’s advantages outweigh the disadvantages.