Public Administration - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly - Health Care Act - Assignment Example

 Healthcare is one of the White House’s top priority issues to be elevated. In the US, health care is offered by various organizations both public and private. Healthcare amenities are majorly owned and managed by private sector enterprises. According to the reports of the World Health Organization, the US spends a lot of money on health care (Steinbrook, 2009). Therefore, the issue of health care is necessary to form part of the White House’s priority since it primarily touches on economy and lives of the citizens. Public Policy The public policy is aimed to mitigate on this health care issue so that it can be affordable and beneficial to the majority of the people. This policy, Health Care Act, aims to provide affordable health care for all Americans. This act was brought forward first to the House of Representatives where it was introduced in 2009 and after that taken back to numerous Committees for consideration and deliberation. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare assumes that the suitability for Medicaid will be automatically extended in all the fifty states. Nonetheless, some states did to welcome this provision, and the United States Supreme Court passed that every state would rightfully determine whether they need to continue with Medicaid on its current terms or expand Medicaid to include more low-income persons (Steinbrook, 2009). Even though the ACA offered for the national government to make payment for all costs for Medicaid extension, individuals, and families who received enough salaries are eligible for Medicaid scheme, they are not covered by insurance provide by the employers. They are needed to buy insurance via health care exchanges to receive national subsidies of insurance payments and deductibles (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010). The ACA needs health schemes to provide women family planning and contraceptive services. Various employers reject that because such coverage they believe violates some of the religious principles. Policy Modification The ACA was a bill, which was brought forward by the U.S House of Representatives, in 2009 (Orszag,& Emanuel, 2010). Initially as drafted it never turned into a law. In order to support the policy, President Obama’s administration, and the Congress dedicated a lot of its time to putting forward reform of the US healthcare system. However, this policy needs a lot of reform in order to benefit many people, and also to seal the loopholes that exist in the system. This calls for policy modification to fit contemporary lifestyles and world. One of the modifications that is necessary for this is the establishment of irregular standards intended for certified benefits schemes. Presently, the policy holds that there should be the establishment of minimum standards designed for competent health- care benefits programs (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010). This implies that the minimum wage standards required for qualified Medicare benefits plan may be high for other citizens (Orszag,& Emanuel, 2010). Then, the question of how the minimum standard is arrived at is complex. The rich people would quickly pay and gain from the health care benefits scheme. Moreover, some people may also be locked out in the scheme since the policy only concerns with the people who have attained the minimum standards required. This section of the policy should be reviewed to at least try and benefit the majority of the people given that economic disparity is real in the United States (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010). The subsidy offered to the low and middle-class earners is not enough. Also on the issue of preventing the health insurers from denying the coverage that is based on the patients’ medical history should be reviewed and modified. This is because not all the patients will have similar medical history, and consequently their coverage will be different. Low-income persons and families whose wages and salaries are up to about 100 % to 400% of the national poverty mark will receive federal subsidies on a descending scale (Orszag & Emanuel, 2010). This is if such individuals buy insurance through an exchange. Reforms to the health care payment schemes are meant to enhance greater effectiveness and productivity in the healthcare distribution plans by restructuring Medicare compensations from fee for service to hurried payments (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010) . Moreover, in the new payment scheme, one payment is made to a clinic and a group of physician for a defined incident of care rather than personal payments to private service providers (Berwick, & Hackbarth, 2012). Regarding taxation, the businesses that employ 50 or more workers and do not provide health insurance cover to their full-time workers are made to pay a tax penalty. The Affordable health care Act sets up different federal standards for guarantors that sell products and services in both at the personal and group health care insurance markets. The resolution of these rules, as indicated, is to prohibit discrimination against women, aged people, children and adults with ill health. The law also ensures the right to inner and outer impartial appeal measures when coverage is not given and needs insurers to cover predictable medical care as a form of clinical trials concerning cancer and life-threatening illnesses. The Constitution One of the methods that Congress used in playing a role in Obama care was passing of the Act in 2010, and later signed by the President, Barack Obama (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010). The centerpiece of health care law is the personal mandate, a provision which makes it obligatory for each and every citizen to buy private health insurance that is unprecedented in the history of American (Berwick, & Hackbarth, 2012). Through legislative directives, Obama care needs private citizens to buy health insurance, reluctantly fund abortions. The new law enacts penalties that will rise to 2.5% of an individual’s income if they fail to buy public permitted health insurance. Another method Congress played a role to support Obama care is through giving and approving a budget that aims to facilitate its activities (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010). In order to adequately support it, the Senate formed a Congressional Budget Office, CBO that aims to facilitate the revenue in Obama care. The U.S Supreme Court on June, 2012 made a huge step in ensuring that this noble health policy remains to serve the people by upholding its constitutionality as per the mandates and terms of work and as an activity of Congress taxing power (Huntington et.al 2011). Since the verdict, the law, and its implementation process have consistently continued to face various challenges in Congress, state governments, federal courts, labor unions, and conformist advocacy groups. Also, the ACC Act is composed of measures for managing healthcare costs. It has also included an extension of coverage via public and private insurance that aims to enhance wider Medicaid eligibility, and Medicare coverage (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010). An individual authorization together with subsidies approach for private insurance that signified universality of health care was regarded the best means to get the support from the Senate since it had been incorporated in before bipartisan reform proposals were made. The Affordable Care Act, ACA or commonly known as Obama Care, is a US federal decree passed into law by the President of US Barack Obama, 2010. This act jointly with the Health- Care, and Education Reconciliation policy amendment, represents the most considerable regulatory service of the United States health-care scheme (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010).The ACA was passed to elevate the quality, and affordability of the health care insurance, reduce the uninsured charges by expanding public, and private insurance exposure, and to reduce the expense of healthcare for people and the government. This policy b brought Foward the mechanisms such as the mandates, insurance exchanges, and subsidies. Moreover, the demand that all the insurance companies to be responsible for all applicants in new minimum standards, and offer similar rates without the bias of pre-existing circumstances or sex. Other reforms that are essential are the raised regulation, competition and incentives to reorganize the delivery of services of healthcare. References Berwick, D. M., & Hackbarth, A. D. (2012). Eliminating waste in US health care. Jama, 307(14), 1513-1516. Huntington, W. V., Covington, L. A., Center, P. P., Covington, L. A., & Manchikanti, L. (2011). Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010: reforming the health care reform for the new decade. Pain Physician, 14(1), E35-E67. Orszag, P. R., & Emanuel, E. J. (2010). Health care reform and cost control. New England Journal of Medicine, 363(7), 601-603. Steinbrook, R. (2009). Health care and the American recovery and reinvestment act. New England Journal of Medicine, 360(11), 1057-1060. Read More