This is what President Obama wants to do with healthcare.
Archive for March, 2010
Using free market competition as a solution to lowering the healthcare costs sounds like a very effective way to reform our healthcare in theory, but it practice it will only keep us on the same rugged path that we are on. This solution would provide the extensive solution that is being called for in America. Over 60% of America believes that healthcare should be a right but healthcare is becoming so expensive that the middle class is even having trouble affording healthcare not just those in poverty. Using a free market system may help lower costs slightly but it would still leave many unable to afford healthcare and also leave room for anyone irresponsible to not get the coverage they need. So in the long run this option would not provide the reform that is nedded in America.
The following is “option 2” taken from facing-up.com.
We don’t need to completely start over. We already have many high-quality physicians, medical centers and insurance plans that cover most Americans. We can just extend these programs, public and private, to cover more people. We should require employers and individuals to have health insurance and offer them financial incentives to make it affordable.
The federal government already has effective health programs for the elderly (Medicare), the poor (Medicaid), low-income children (SCHIP) and its own employees. If we expand eligibility for those plans, require employers to offer coverage, require individuals to buy insurance, and increase competition between insurance companies on price and quality, we’ll be able to cover more uninsured people with the least disruption to those already covered.
Gradually expanding the current system is the most practical way to cover more people without breaking the budget.
Therefore, we should:
- Require employers to offer health coverage to all their workers, even low-wage and part-time employees. Offer tax incentives to businesses to cover the cost.
- Add a “public option,” a government insurance plan to fill in the gaps and cover those who aren’t covered by private insurance or other government plans.
- Develop health insurance pools or cooperatives to allow individuals including the self-employed and employees of small businesses to choose from a variety of insurance companies in active competition with each other. Some federal subsidies and tax incentives could be provided.
- Extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program cutoff age from 18 to 25.
- Expand Medicaid eligibility to 133 percent of the federal poverty level ($14,500 for an individual and $29,500 for a family of four) so that it covers more Americans funding and raises the income cutoff to cover the working poor.
- Make insurance “portable” so people can keep the same policy if they change jobs.
- Open up the federal employee health insurance program to allow individuals to buy coverage at favorable rates.
http://facing-up.com/node/219/p2_detail/popup
This is another great option to fix healthcare. Many in America are uninsured by healthcare, and this is a problem. This proposal is saying that everyone would be covered and would have to by their own insurance so that the market game could take place to lower price and have better quality. So in other words give the responsibility to the American people. I think this is a good idea because people could choose their own doctors and plans, and it wouldn’t require major changes in the current system. The downfall of this proposal is that it would be very expensive to get going, and adding more people to the system would make it easier for the system to collapse. I believe this is a good idea, but to much of a risk.
Healthcare reform is not a new issue for America or the rest the world. In America the first push started with Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1912. Wagner Bill, National Health Act of 1939 was one of the first on a long list to get rejected in the next 98 years to come. Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon all tried to push for health care reform in America; all failed. Now Obama is pushing again and we have to wait and see if he will be the first to make a change or just another name on a list a failure.
According to WHO sources and truecostblog.com, of 33 developed countries 32 have universal healthcare. The lone exception being the United states. Starting from 1912 to 1995 all thirty two countries have switched their healthcare system except for us yet we end up paying more than them. Obama is now pushing again for a healthcare reform in America. He is trying to budge stubborn Republican into signing a knew healthcare bill and it has been a very heated issue and debate. Into todays political world we see 3 other main solutions being argued to make the necessary changes in healthcare; Healthcare should be a right, Extending our current system, and maximizing free market competition.
http://truecostblog.com/2009/08/09/countries-with-universal-healthcare-by-date/
http://www.pnhp.org/facts/a_brief_history_universal_health_care_efforts_in_the_us.php?page=2
According to a recent Gallup poll, %64 of Americans believe that all people should have healthcare provided by the government. Countries all around the world have a better and more affordable healthcare system, because it is provided as a right through the government. The U.S. pays more, for a lesser result in comparison to other countries healthcare plans. “Education is a right, and we provide it to all, regardless of differences in need,” says an editorial in the New York Times. “In the same way, nobody would be ‘unisurable’ if we acknowledged health care for all as public responsibility.” For some people, they have to choose between eating or paying healthcare it gets so expensive. There are many things that the government can do to make things a lot better. One is provide healthcare to everyone as a right, under one insurance plan that covers all Americans so that there is no one taking advantage over anyone. One other good thing of the government running the healthcare is that they can regulate prices of drugs.
I believe this is the best way to fix Healthcare in America. This way the government takes care of all the regulation of things, everyone gets healthcare, and prices go down per individual. One problem that a lot of people are concerned about is that this will send taxes skyrocketing through the roof. This is true that taxes will rise, but probably not a lot all at once and it will be worth it in the end. This will also make for a more efficient system than the one we have now. The current system is all about individual gain by other people’s needs. Big healthcare and insurance companies take advantage of people who are poor and sick. With this new system, the government will make sure that no one is left behind or taken advantage of. A lot of people call this a socialist way of running healthcare, but even if it is remotely close to it, it will make things a lot better for the hardworking citizens of America.
Health Care Reform 2010 