Synopsis
The Health Care Law was signed by president Obama on March 23, 2010. The law is aimed at improving the health care system in the country. If the will function as it was planned, the quality of the medical care will be improved and health care insurance will be affordable to everybody. However, the implementation of the issues provided in the law can be a big threat to the country’s economy, affect the quality of the medical care and make the cost of the insurance very high. Moreover, in the light of new reforms, many Americans can lose their healthcare coverage. As we can see, the Health Care Law should be repealed and considered one more time in order to provide more affordable decisions for the implementation of the issues provided. Special attention should be paid to health insurance exchanges as a core idea of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Introduction
The Health care Law signed by president of the Unites States of America Barack Obama is considered to be one of the most significant conversions that were implemented in the health care system of the United States. The law covers nearly all aspects of the health care system staring with insurance and ending with the delivery of services. The aims of the healthcare reform are improving the quality of the Medicare and provide every American with affordable medical insurance. However, it still provokes much debate and confusions about the impact of the law on economy of the country, quality of the health care services, as well as life of Americans. There were numerous suggestions to repeal the Health Care reform, especially from the side of Republicans. In this paper, we are going to discuss the disadvantages of the Health Care Law and provide the reasons to repeal it, as well as suggest several recommendations to improve it.
Methods
In this report, we used the method of the critical analysis of the specialized literature that deal with the Health Care Law analysis and critique. In order to support the idea that Health Care Law should be repealed, we analyzed the key policy issues of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act presented in the “President Obama’s Health Care Plan” and recent surveys on “Potential Impact of State Health Programs” provided by the Legislative Analyst’s Office, as well as the work by Paul Howard, “The Impact of the Affordable Care Act On the Economy, Employers, and the Workforce” and “Fund Report” on key points and lacks of the Affordable Care Act provided by Timothy Stoltzfus Jost, J.D.
Background
During the elections of the 2008, the candidate Barack Obama’s main point in the campaign was to reform the health care system of the United States as it was disadvantageous for the economy of the country. He argued that health services should be equal and affordable for everyone. Since the projects of the Health Care Reform were passed to the House, it was debated for many times and did not have support from the Republicans and many Democrats as well. In January 2010, president provided his own proposal health care bill and placed pressure on Houses to pass it. Finally, on March 23, 2010 President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (HR 3590) into law.
According to this Obama’s health care plan, the main purposes of the law are the following ones: “It will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance. It will provide insurance to those who don’t. And it will lower the cost of health care for our families, our businesses, and our government” (“President’s Obama’s Health Care Plan”, 2010, p. 1). As we can see, the idea of the law is to improve the health care system in the United States and make it equal for all citizens. However, there are many arguments that this law will be a threat to national economy and people. This is the main claim provided by Republicans who strive to repeal the Health Care Law.
Key Points of the Health Care Law
In order to analyze why the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act can be disadvantageous for the country’s economy and American citizens, we should analyze the key points of the law. Thus “the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is far-reaching legislation that will change how millions of Americans access health care coverage” (Tailor, 2010, p. 2).
The law offers the following primary provisions as creating an individual mandate (all citizens should have health insurance or pay a penalty); establishing the American Health Benefit Exchanges (the individuals who has no access to affordable employer coverage could purchase it); changing, private health insurance coverage (new requirements for health plans that will provide individuals with affordable coverage and prevent them from losing it); law-income and childless adults will be mandated coverage; providing coverage to individuals who cannot purchase it or regarded as medically uninsurable. (Tailor, 2010, p. 3). However, behind the benefits presented in the Health Care Law Plan, their implementation needs improvement, moreover, the results of such reforms will be far from beneficial for many American people as well as for the country’s economy.
Reasons to repeal Health Care Law
In the light of negative influence of particular points in the Health Care Law, it should be repealed, or reviewed accordingly. In this part of the report, we are going to provide reasons to repeal Health Care Law. First of all, it is a great economic impact, as it will increase the deficit and not reduce it, the insurance cost will raise and the employment will be reduced, finally, regulatory uncertainty under the law will hinder job creation (Howard, n. d., p. 2). The implementation of the strategies mentioned in the Act needs much funding and spending, “the reduction of federal deficit will be an enormous boon for U. S. economy” (Howard, n. d., p. 2). In this light, it will cause the cuts in the government spending. Providing coverage to “medically uninsured” will increase health care spending and cost of the medical services and care goods.
The Health Care Law was claimed to reduce the deficit, however, “the CBO notes that the federal government will spend about $401 billion more on health care programs in the Affordable Care Act’s first decade, while increasing federal revenues, through taxes and fees, by an even greater amount, $525 billion” (Howard, n. d., p. 2). In addition, there will be many implementation costs. Moreover, “providing coverage for everybody” implies that employer should be preoccupied with this question, as a result, the employer will cover expenses on coverage while reducing employee wages or job creation. In addition, under the new law, many Americans can lose current health care plans. Moreover, it is unconstitutionally to force every person buy health insurance or pay penalty. Finally, such reforms will lead to lowering of the quality of the medical services, as the main focus of the law is put on the cost and health coverage of people.
Recommendations
In order to prevent the negative consequences of the Health Care Law, the legislator should address the government with comprehensive analysis of the consequences that it can lead to, and appropriate solutions to these problems in the legislative session. We suggest you to address these recommendations in the next session in Senate before negative consequences of the law make itself felt. This plan may contain the next suggestions: to establish the cost control through “minimizing administrative cost and adverse selection” (Jost, 2010, p. 6).
In addition, in will be valuable to protect the introduced exchanges from adverse selections which means “the disproportionate purchase of health insurance by the least healthy individuals” (Jost, 2010, p. 6). The exchange model should provide more choice flexibility for customers. Transparency and disclosure are very important while implementing the Act, as it will allow the government control over situation. The ACA provisions should enforce the competition among insures with the focus on prices provided and quality of services.
Conclusion
Thus, we can see that the Health Care Law should be repealed, otherwise, it can lead to great economic problems, as well as increase the level of unemployment and lower the quality of medical services and make the cost of the medic aid very high. In addition, it will enforce the deficit in the country and hinder job creation. Many points of the law and their implementation need close attention and improvement.
References
Jost, T. S. (2010), “Health Insurance Exchanges and the Affordable Care Act: Key Policy Issues”. The Commonwealth Fund. Web.
Howard, P. “The Impact of the Affordable Care Act: On the Economy, Employers, and the Workforce”. Web.
“President Obama’s Health Care Plan”. Web.
Tailor, M. (2010). “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: An Overview of Its Potential Impact on State Health Programs”. Legislative Analyst. Web.