Washington Health Policy - Essay Example

"Washington Health Policy" is a great example of a paper on the health system. A major challenge to the health-reform act was that the government bestowed upon itself massive powers to control and affect personal care decisions (Bettelheim, 2010). The enactment of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 led to many suits that challenged the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act of 2010. The contention in the act was that the framers of the act stated that purchasing healthcare insurance cover amounted to an interstate economic transaction. Considering that Congress has a mandate to regulate such transactions under the Constitutional Commerce Clause, this suggested that congress had the powers to regulate how individuals bought health insurance plans (Dorn, Garrett & Holahan, 2014). The major challenge was that the opponents of the act vehemently opposed any attempt by Congress to regulate how individuals bought their health insurance, as buying such insurance was way beyond the limits of the Commerce Clause. Consequently, the opponents argued the congress did not have any powers to regulate such health insurance plans.

 The republicans vehemently opposed the redistribution of resources policy. On one hand, the republican congress representative Lamar Alexander argued that the plan would lead to an increase in insurance premiums, an assertion that President Obama vehemently denied (Bettelheim, 2010). Considering that the country was nearing an election, the Republicans planned to sway the wealthy Americans by asserting claiming that the Democrats intended to make their life difficult by increased insurance costs. On the other hand, the Democrats appealed to the middle class and the poor Americans by promising affordable healthcare services. Similarly, regarding the constitutionality of the health-reform act, the Republicans were more interested in having the government control the rising medical costs while leaving the health sector intact. On the other hand,  the Democrats favored an overhaul of the entire health sector to ensure the poor Americans benefited from lower health costs through redistribution of wealth from the rich healthcare industry to the poor (Dorn, Garrett & Holahan, 2014). Politically, the republicans supported the industry holders to maintain the status quo in exchange for support in the nearing elections. On the contrary, the Democrats appealed to the masses burdened by insurance companies and other players in the health industries by redistributing the vast wealth, which made democrats more popular among the masses than among the industry players.

Read More