National Healthcare Reform the Cost

¶ … National Healthcare Reform

The cost of healthcare in the United States is increasing at a rate that cannot be sustained without imposing tremendous burdens on consumers. Approximately one-third of the $2 trillion spent on healthcare service in the U.S. annually represents the administrative costs of health insurance companies that actually provide no medical services at all (Kennedy, 2006). Despite being one of the wealthiest nations in the world, the U.S. healthcare system provides lower quality of service than many much poorer nations, including Canada and Cuba (Kennedy, 2006).

The most important issues are that the American healthcare model is based on fee-for-services instead of fee-for-results; preventative medicine plays a very small role in medical care; and special interest groups such as the health insurance industry have been able to corrupt the legislative process by contributing billions of dollars to the political campaigns of Washington legislators to defeat legislation against their interests (Kennedy, 2006). Meanwhile, the government-run Medicare program performs the same essential administrative services as for-profit health insurance companies at approximately one-tenth the cost as private health insurance companies (Kennedy, 2006; Reid, 2009).

The high cost of private health insurance has made health insurance unaffordable for large numbers of Americans and that lack of access to healthcare is considered to be directly responsible for approximately as many American deaths every year as were lost during the decade-long Vietnam War. Many of the uninsured rely on hospital emergency rooms for primary medical care, which only increases the cost of medical care for those who do pay for it because those costs are passed along to the government and to medical institutions.

The healthcare reforms passed by the Obama administration in early 2010 go a long way to improving the state of American healthcare. The most valid objection to those reforms is that they do not go far enough and they will take too long to implement for many of the intended beneficiaries. The first phase, implemented in 2010, provides immediate access to a high-risk insurance pools for individuals excluded from healthcare coverage because of pre-existing conditions; it also allows children to remain covered under their parents' insurance plans until the age of 26 and provides tax credits to small employers that give their employees health insurance (Tumulty, Pickert, & Park, 2010). The second phase begins in 2011 and will require private health insurance companies to spend at least 80% of premiums on healthcare services; in 2013, Medicare payroll taxes will increase on the wealthiest individuals and families to enable that program to overcome the Baby Boomer problem (Tumulty, Pickert, & Park, 2010). In 2014, most Americans will be required to obtain health insurance to reduce the collective cost of treating the uninsured (Tumulty, Pickert, & Park, 2010).