Health Care for All Americans - Essay Example

Health Care for All Americans Currently, the efforts put in place aimed at reforming the existing of health care in America; Congress tries to ensure all the US citizens with easy access to quality health care services (Russell and Fellow 7), especially, these groups of citizens: American Indians, African Americans, Pacific Islanders, Alaska Natives, and Hispanics among others. These disparities happen not only because of lower socioeconomic circumstances but due to less than adequate health insurance coverage. They at some level appear to reflect the biases and stereotyping inherent in the health care system and individuals. A poll carried out from 12th to 16th of June 2009 reveal 64 percent of Americans articulate that health care should be a right to all American citizens (Jacobs and Skocpol 7-8). With this respect, this paper will critically expound on the basic reasons as to why health care should be to all Americans. Across America, there are many people from one side struggling to make both ends meet and on the other coping with a broken health care system. In addition, there are those who live completely without health care, others are striving to pay the hiking costs of Medicare, and more of them are joining the ranks of those uninsured. Agreeably, this is a shocking and terrible situation for super power like America! This growing health care crisis is not just a problem that should worry only the affected, but also places an endangering burden to the rest of the Americans as well. Furthermore, due to economic issues, small businesses are finding it difficult to insure their employees due to competitive and skyrocketing cost of insurance premiums. Most worrisome, much of the funds spend on health care services disappears through inefficiency and massive waste. Even United States tops the globe in health care expenditures (Collins 15). The administrative costs swallow 1 dollar out of every 4 dollars set aside for health care needs. That is not all, medical errors result to loss of lives of 100,000 Americans every year. With that follows a $100 billion dollar loss via drug prescription errors alone. Causes of Health Care Disparities in America Factors leading to health care disparities in the US vary and at the same time interrelate. Different groups have different underlying rates of illness due to environmental factors, generic predisposition, or lifestyle choices. They express different types of care-seeking behavior due to cultural beliefs, trust in the health care providers, and linguistic barriers (Herbage and Devanport 8). The ability of an individual to pay as well as his location and management of health care services influences all these factors. Race and ethnicity are significant factors determining whether an individual stands to receive care, whether an individual receives quality care, and assesses health care outcomes. Even after adjusting insurance income and status, racial and ethnic minorities tend to have limited access to heath care and receive lower quality of health care compared to non-minorities. Not surprisingly, the Americans’ top two concerns of healthcare are its increased costs and lack of access. Cognitively, today the cost of health care insurance is high and increasingly unaffordable even to working families. Documented evidence reveals that 6.2 percent of all US bankruptcies in 2007 related to medical expenses (Halvorson 7-8). People with medical insurance covers filed 78 percent of these bankruptcies whereas low-income uninsured majorities filled 38.3 percent of the same bankruptcies. In 2008, uninsured Americans were 46.3, a report released by the US Census Bureau. This figure represents 16.2 percent of the US economy, depicts that health care is the largest industry in the US, and employs more than 14 million people. Additionally, this impeding problem stretch to show that racial and ethnic disparities in health care persists even when comparing groups of similar socioeconomic status (Barr 87). For example, the rate of infant mortality for the babies of college educated black women is higher than that of white women with similar education. Institute of Medicine established that, the status of insurance is the primary factor in assessing the timeline and quality of health care. According to this agency’s research findings, among the nonelderly, 31 percent of Hispanics, 32 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives, 19 percent of African American decency, 18 percent of Asian and Pacific Islanders, and 11 percent of whites have no health care insurance coverage. The extent of medical care and location where delivery of that care takes place varies with the status of insurance. Medical survey associates lack of insurance with less care in all settings except the emergency department (Emmanuel 88). The uninsured receive less preventive care compared to those with insurance. In addition, they are less likely to have an early diagnosis of a disease, receive less care, and have higher mortality rates once diagnosed. Access to Primary Care and Having a Medical Home According to medical researchers, medical home is lacking all over the states, which shows that families are being affected with receiver lower rates of health care in all settings. This because, lack of a medical home entails that an individual cannot afford well organized health care provided on time. Presence of a medical home indicates reduced racial and ethnic disparities in access and quality of health care (Alcena 17). People without insurance, especially the minorities, lack quality health care, cannot obtain screening or proper management of their chronic conditions. As such, gaps in health insurance and lack of coverage make it difficult for people to get the health care they require (Gist 4). Americans disconnected from the health care system limits their ability to manage chronic conditions and get preventive screenings, raising the risk of more serious illness and potentially catastrophic medical expenses later on. Recommendations In order to ensure health care for all Americans, this paper sought to give some recommendations towards attaining this goal. To begin with, the government should a policy that requires all American citizens to have health care insurance that provides a minimum set of benefits that offer a maximum of consumer empowerment and incentive for healthy lifestyles and include comprehensive coverage for catastrophic, unexpected medical expenses. This is because, cost shifting from those Americans who has no health insurance coverage through private insurers is a driving factor in the sky rocketing cost of health care for the American families (Teixeira 1-2). If America can set a national high-risk pool program that would provide coverage to hundreds of thousands of Americans with chronic, costly, and severe illnesses which otherwise make them uninsurable in the individual market. This paper projects that, this program can help support reducing the estimated nine million uninsured children by expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Plan, including the premium assistance provision that would allow application of the subsidies to coverage obtained through the private market. This would lead to leveraging employer contributions and reducing the cost of the program while allowing families to receive coverage together with a plan that fits their individual insurance needs. Furthermore, all Americans should receive equal treatment on taxation when with regard to their health insurance on a pre-tax basis by settings that are essential. This paper sets out that, every individual paying for their health premium should have a 100 percent tax deduction. This paper provides an option that America should support to increase the equity of the tax system for those Americans paying for their health insurance premiums by replacing the current income tax exclusion for employment-based health insurance with deduction and expand the eligibility for above the line tax deductions for all Americans who purchase their health insurance (Kotlikoff 73). This is because of the fact that, replacing the current income tax exclusion with a deduction would level the playing field for all Americans paying their health insurance. This paper proposes that, the private sector should be the principal deliverer of health care in America with the role of government being to create fairness for employers, individuals, insurers, and providers and to create incentives for local solutions and best practices (Nelson 5). America should seek to establish health care and health insurance programs that can administer and maintain the private sector with legislation and enact recommendations that can ensure that all Americans receive guarantee of minimum standard of health care and insurance at a reasonable cost, regardless of health or age (Turkson 211). Communicating for America believes that the private sector should be the primary provider of health care and the national standards should be able to reimburse all health care providers. To attain good health care for all Americans, the government should adopt the President’s Plan that emphasizes on stability as well as health security to all of the US citizens (Anonymous 1). Increased stability and security will lead to end of discrimination against people with existing conditions. Documented evidence reveals that, for a period of three years, 12 million Americans failed to receive insurance coverage due to their existing health conditions. However, under the presidential Plan, it will be illegal for insurance firms to deny coverage on basis of health reasons or risks. This means that, not even a single American will have to face hazardous health conditions due to high insurance premiums. Conclusion Ensuring quality health care to all America should be a priority to every concerned individual, group, and the authorities. The government should understand that, by providing policies that protect Medicare for all could encourage protections for Medicare beneficiaries that have the ability to improve quality and coordinate health care for all Americans. As such, these beneficiaries will end up extending the life of the Medicare Trust Fund making it possible for them to pay for care for future generations. There should be creation of new insurance policies in the marketplace that can allow people with no insurance cover to compare plans with small businesses where they can buy insurance cover at reasonable prices. This in turn will level the disparities associated with lack of insurance cover (Shi and Singh 111). To ad on that, there should be set strategies that such as one-stop shops where insurance buyers can assess the quality, price, and benefits offered by insurance company. This will enable them to get what they can afford and what can provide them with the best services that they require. Agreeably, health should be to all Americans, not just a particular clergy of people. Works Cited ---. The Obama Plan: Stability and Security for All Americans. n. d. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. http://www.novatv.nl/data/media/db_download/54_8df981.pdf Alcena, Valeriie. Health Care Disparity in the United States of America. Bloomington: iUniverse, 2011. Print. Barr, Donald. Introduction to U.S. Health Policy: The Organization, Financing, and Delivery of Health Care in America. Maryland: JHU Press, 2011. Print. Collins, Sara et al. Gaps in Health Insurance: An All-American Problem. Findings from the Commonwealth Fund Beneficial Health Insurance, 2006. Emmanuel, Ezekiel. Healthcare, Guaranteed: A Simple, Secure Solution for America. Public Affairs, 2008. Print. Gist, Raymond. Breaking Down Barrier to Oral Health for All Americans: The Role of Workforce. A Statement from the American Dental Association, 2011. Halvorson, George. Health Care Reform Now! A Prescription for Change. 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Save American Jobs: New Business Ideas to Retain Jobs in America. Bloomington: iUniverse, 2005. Print. Read More