Summary:
Even though Obama compromised with the prescription drug industry and health insurance industry, Republicans and Democrats alike are displeased with the Affordable Care Act of 2013. In this article, Rosenthal highlights the major drawbacks of Obamacare– the limitations and the price. An interview with Moses, a customer of Obamacare, reveals how limited medical opportunities are, whether it be with who can be your doctor or how many facilities or specialists are available to you. Another issue faced by Obamacare customers are the prices, as in certain plans, out-of-pocket prescription costs can be nearly double that of the average employer offering. Overall, this article emphasizes the struggle of creating Obamacare and the frustration that followed.
Connection:
As we study health care, it is important to understand not just how the government implements reform, but the effects on and reactions of the public as well. Also, Obamacare is a real life example of how outside interest groups are able to influence the acts themselves.
Questions:
Would the public option have been received better?
What could be changed to the Affordable Care Act to make it better perceived?
Why is it that the majority of modern nations have single payer health care and the US doesn’t?
The public option is good in principle, but it would have been extremely hard to implement. First off, the US is a huge nation, in terms of both population and land, and therefore differs greatly from European nations that have public options for healthcare. This increase in size makes it harder for the government to provide healthcare for a larger population as well as over a larger space (were there are more doctors/hospitals). In addition implementing a public option would take time and a lot of money, which the US does not have at this time. Finally, doctors and hospitals fear the public option and therefore could jeopardize any type of public option program. Although the public option looks great in theory in principle it would be nearly impossible to achieve here in the US.
ReplyDeleteThis a very excellent point. The public option is extremely hard to implement in America due to its large sum. Many of the nonprofit "co-op" organizations created by the ACA have begun to fail. Out of the 23 created "two-thirds have already failed" due to a lack of reserves.
Deletehttp://washingtonmonthly.com/2016/08/02/would-a-public-option-improve-obamacare/
Throughout Obama's hard fought effort to pass a historical health reform bill, much of his initial reform ideas were mutated to achieve the end goal of getting a bill passed. With knowledge of past attempts to pass health reform and the pressure to pass a health reform bill, Obama was forced to compromise much of what made the health reform bill favorable to Americans to win support of companies. This in effect caused health insurance companies to prosper while everyone maintained a bitter impression of the bill. In order to change the Affordable Care Act to make it better perceived, one can simply reverse much of what was compromised. For instance, bringing back the loss of public option, no longer having health insurance as a forced requirement, and having the employer mandate as an option.
ReplyDeleteTo implement a single payer, universal healthcare system in the US would take an extreme amount of time, cost a lot of money, and most likely be a disaster, at least for a long time. In addition to this, lots of Americans do not want a single payer system. Lots of people are content with what they already have. If you compare the US to European nations such as Germany, or France, we can see that people in the US are far less connected to each other than in those places simply because the US is far larger, is more diverse, and has so many more people. Perhaps we will have a single payer system sometime in the future, it likely will not occur anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteWhile you claim that a single payer system is highly unlikely within the United States, Donald Trump has expressed some interest in this system, which could effect how he choses to reshape healthcare during his term. There is evidence that our future president approves of a healthcare system similar to what is in some European countries. While you are right that their exact system will likely not work well in the US because of the country's size and differing views, some aspects of this plan may be implemented into the American healthcare soon.
Deletehttp://ijr.com/2016/02/537107-5-times-donald-trump-praised-socialized-healthcare/
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ReplyDeleteObamacare has largely been ineffective in its implementation due to its lack of clarity for people who decide to utilize this option. On a similar note, the public option would also likely be hard to implement due to opposition from doctors and private practices that will not want to have to conform to the plans Obamacare will provide. Unless the system can effectively compromise user efficacy with support from the small healthcare offices, the public option is unlikely to be successful.
ReplyDeleteThe US is one of the most populated, varying countries in the world. (in terms of its population at least) Implementing a universal healthcare system would be incredible difficult to obtain due to the amount of money and time it would take to implement, and that if a single flaw opened up the entire US healthcare system could go down in flames. Our nation is significantly larger and politically different than many european nations, and it would be difficult to get more healthcare legislation passed
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