Health care stakeholders in the USA

Stakeholder in U.S. Health Care System

Health care stakeholders in the U.S.A.

US Healthcare System consist of different stakeholders who have their role to play in making sure there is a smooth running and efficient provision of services. These stakeholders become involved within the healthcare system in different stages and perspective. Their aim is to shape the U.S. health care system to ensure more quality services are provided to the citizens.

One of the major stakeholders is patients who are involved in paying for the health care system and they are also the end-use of it. Patients always form a major factor to be considered whenever there is discussion concerning health care legislation and policies. Even though they are provided with limited opportunities for contributing to the policy-making and decision-making for the system for which they pay, as well as for assessing its performance or offering ideas for change, they always posses valuable knowledge based on their experience.

Patients as stakeholders are thriving since the introduction of the Affordable Care Act. As consumers they enjoy the dramatic improvement brought by (ACA) in terms of availability, affordability, and adequacy of private health insurance. Following the recent most significant reform in the law, many participants such as state insurance regulators, insurer, federal officials, state exchange officials, have began and are in the process of designing, reviewing, as well as approving new health insurance products that are making the reform reality. By doing so these insurers has to initiate new standards like incorporating new limits on cost sharing, cover a minimum set of essential health benefits, and make sure that the plans are meeting the new actuarial value requirements.

Apart from these standards, insurers have to comply with the ACA's extensive consumer protection in regard to non-discrimination. Before establishment of ACA, state and federal law embraced some non-discrimination protections, however they had a limited effect in making sure that coverage meets the needs of the entire consumers (patients), ( Katie Keith, 2013) . Following ACA's broad incorporation of these new standards, it has been designed to this existing gap by prohibiting discrimination in terms disability, health status, sexual orientation, age, gender, and race, among other factors. In preventing discrimination against the patients, the ACA have continued to take significant steps towards ensuring that private insurance meets the need of the most vulnerable.

Currently health care stakeholders have been engaged in activity such as understanding reforms the way health care reforms has been shaped, and the way it comes as far as it has. However, these stakeholders sometimes becomes apart whenever they defy the usual expectations and take positions that they don't easily fit into the corporate vs. consumer paradigm. These stakeholders are:

PhRMA

Since the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America is considered to have more funds, is has been seen as the most influential stakeholder in terms of the reforms. This forms the reason as to why the Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and White House handed PhRMA the best deal that could be given to any industry stakeholders. An agreement was made by drug manufacturers after embracing some regulatory changes of proving $80 billion over a period of 10 years to assist in covering the cost of reform legislation. As a return favor, the administration vowed never to return their hard won victories, like ban on drug re-importation as well as a promise by the government never to down the price of prescription drugs. Despite of this the deal became threatened after it was made public currently by PhRMA-Chief Billy Tauzin it survived the Senate's grueling legislation process.

America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)

It is commonly known as the health insurance lobby, and was known to have more to do with the failure of President Clinton's health care reforms efforts. It has had a fairly simple goal such as to support strong mandates, weak regulations, as well as demolish public competition; and incase of a failure then tank the project, (America's Health Insurance Plans, 2008). AHIP for months played such game mas-ter-fully, especially giving support to reform, turning down running Harry & Louise-type advertisements that proved to be very effective in the early 1990s, as well as enlisting citizens in order to raise concerns by organizing health care protests, and waging war against the public option. However, the strategy has not gone well with them recently when they commissioned deceitful study in order to scare voters to believe that reforms in health care could break their banks. This shows how they have lost their powers in the health care reforms.

AARP

Since the elderly do not believe much on the reforms, the republican took advantage of this like was evidenced during the summer when it was full of false warning concerning the death panels and cuts to Medicare. The elderly as well vote and their early and continued support of their main lobby is very important. There is likely for administration return to Medicare whenever attention is turned to pressing fiscal challenges where AARP will likely to play a greater role. As they do this they secured the closing of the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap thereby allowed the government to rein in Medicare Advantage overpayments, in addition to other reforms. Recently they even endorsed the House health care bill.

The American Hospital Association

This stakeholder has been an extensive and a bigger player in the reform fight in healthcare. They accepted a $155 billion in payment cuts over 10 years in order to assist in covering the cost of the overhaul. As a return they were to be provided with a new treatment landscape such as reduced bureaucracy, electronic records, limited number of uninsured patients, yet not taking a significant hitproft-wise. This is the reason they became concerned about a public option originally conceived as a main insurer who were responsible for paying Medicare rates to health care providers

The American Medical Association

Though their powers are reduced since they are not Washington's most influential lobby, the doctors tend to be fairly loved and in case they raise concerns regarding reform, but not the republican, where the ones who were involved in warning against government bureaucrats that came between them and the doctors, then democrats could have been having difficult time calming voters' fears. Generally, doctors never accept pay cuts, and would feel comfortable dealing with less bureaucracy. They are not in support of public option, and even became disappointed when the republican and part of the democrats did away with a bill that may have reformed Medicare's physical payment formula. However at the end, they managed to get what they wanted, and recently endorsed the House Health care bill.