end up having to pay for healthcare anyway, and at a significantly higher cost since those without insurance typically do not seek treatment at an early stage when costs are lower.
businesses, while limits have been placed on the ability of insurers to increase their premiums, with the view of making health insurance more affordable and thus increase insurance coverage. Those who can afford insurance but choose not to purchase insurance have to pay a tax, so as to prevent cost-shifting (i.e. where the insured pay for the health costs of the uninsured). Coupled with these is a “grandfather� policy, where people who wish to keep their existing insurance plans get to do so but with new consumer protections added in - for instance, exclusions due to pre-existing conditions have been prohibited.
Thus a perverse cycle is at work- the high healthcare costs drive people away from seeking health insurance, but this drives up healthcare costs even further! The second area of concern is the high health care costs in the US. In particular, Medicare is particularly costly, with 16% of the federal budget spent on it. Finally, a significant amount of fraud and waste exists within the system, mostly because of the complexity of the system which requires private and public insurers to interact with The reform bill tackles the problem hospitals, doctors and patients. of fraud and waste with a slew of regulations. The majority of these The healthcare reform bill proposed regulations are designed to cut down by Obama separately addresses on excessive billing by healthcare each of these areas of concern. To providers through increased address lack of coverage, tax credit oversight and stronger sanctions for insurance premiums have been for fraud. Finally, policies to contain increased for individuals and small costs include imposing an excise
tax on high-cost insurance plans (to persuade insurers to offer lowercost plans), and increasing fees from brand-name pharmaceuticals. In addition, there are policies to reform Medicare; for instance, Medicare beneficiaries currently have the option of receiving their benefits through private health insurance plans, but Medicare typically overpays private insurers by 14%. The reform bill tackles this by linking Medicare payments to private insurers to local fee-for-service costs.
How should we assess the proposed reform bill? In terms of equity and fairness, the reform bill scores well. There are numerous policies that try to make health insurance more affordable and accessible to consumers, which should increase the number of people with effective access to health care. In addition the policies designed to contain fraud and waste shift the balance of power from healthcare
President Barack Obama speaks to a joint session of Congress regarding health care reform
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