Assessment Of The Legislative Roles Of Health Policy

The concept of providing basic healthcare services to individuals in need has undergone an agonizing transition, from a luxury once only afforded by the affluent to a basic human right granted to citizens of every economic station, and the recently enacted Affordable Care Act (ACA) was designed to finalize this ethical evolution. Reflecting perhaps the bitter political enmity currently consuming the nation's once cherished democratic process, Republican legislatures in states throughout the union have bristled at the ACA's primary provisions, threatening all manner of procedural protestation as they attempt to delay and derail the bill's eventual implementation. One of the most intriguing aspects of the sprawling, thousand page law, however, has been the stipulation that individual states will be given a choice to either accept federal funding to expand their statewide Medicaid roster, or to forfeit all federal funding for that program in perpetuity. The role of government in monitoring and regulating the healthcare industry has been long debated, and the bitterly contested passage of President Obama's ACA, a law aimed at revising the country's health insurance system through the creating of a federal health insurance exchange to facilitate increased competition among insurers, has rekindled the debate over who holds the ultimate responsibility for regulating the care provided by hospitals, community clinics, and private practices.

Although division is seen between the political parties of the Republicans and Democrats, points exist to where lawmakers agree on the reform of healthcare. Lawmakers do, however, have three major points they agree. These points are the banning of underwriting by private insurance companies, providing federal funding to assistance low income families with securing insurance, and by accessing Medicare’s funding to its full advantage to reduce patients billing (Times Topics, 2009). While lawmakers have managed to agree on some points, by drafting a complete healthcare reform that is ethical. This will call for Congress to agree on a bill that fits President Obama’s views, requiring substantial research and planning.

In today’s day and age, American households can all agree that health insurance is not a luxury, but a necessity. Without it, costs of emergency room visits and prescription medicines can be financially devastating. However, in the past many families and individuals have taken the risk of not being insured due to the high cost of the insurance itself. To attempt to reform this unfair system, the Obama administration signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010. The law, coined “Obamacare,” has received much opposition due to its expansion government programs and increase in spending. It brings to question how much the government should be involved in an area that for the majority of America’s history, has been

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also referred to as the "Affordable Care Act" or "ACA" or "Obama Care") is the major health care reform bill passed into law on March 23, 2010. The debates surrounding the PPACA have been volatile at times, and continue to be the most intense public examinations of any piece of legislation in our recent history. The affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is ripe for repeal. For the American public, there are ample reasons for dissatisfaction: higher costs; arbitrary and sometimes absurd rule-making; bureaucratization of an already overly bureaucratized sector of the economy; incompatibility with personal freedom and religious liberty; enormous spending and heavy taxation; and widely acknowledged design flaws, evident in the ACA’s hopelessly complex and unworkable subsidy schemes, boondoggle bailouts, and collapsing co-ops. Nonetheless, other ACA legal challenges were still facing the healthcare law. In December 2015, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court arguing against the constitutionality of the employer insurance mandate within the Affordable Care Act. The law contains a number of experiments designed to drive down health costs, such as Accountable Care Organizations. The whole idea is to move the system away from paying for volume and toward paying for value. We still don't know whether that will happen. But it's fair to say that reducing the cost of health care will make it easier to expand coverage. The nation’s gains in health care coverage and delivery system design over the last several years have made measurable differences in the lives of millions of Americans. There are many ways to achieve a high-performing health system. But it’s critical that the nation remain committed to this goal.

The question of whether or not Congress has the power to force people to buy health insurance has been highly advocated by the supporters, and highly scrutinized by the opposition. The constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 has thus been defended on both sides. Advocates argues why it is constitutional by providing reason and benefits of the Act, and the opposition argues why it is not constitutional by providing reason, and stating the drawbacks of the Act. The debate about the Constitutionality of the Act boils down to whether has Congress violated its powers as outlined in Article I of the Constitution.

“In 2010, Congress enacted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in order to increase the number of Americans covered by health insurance and decrease the cost of health care” (Supreme Court Opinion, 1). In America, it is a basic necessity to possess health care, logically, Congress would like to make such a necessity more accessible to Americans. Due to a divided government, there are variant views on whether this is necessary and just. Health care benefits all Americans; it is just a matter of if the policy of a required national health care is beneficial.

When U.S. President Barrack Obama signed the health care reform bill into law in March 2010, opposing political pundits were quick to brand the initiative as government takeover of the healthcare system and pejoratively described it as socialized medicine. I considered it my civic duty to look a little deeper into the pros and cons of the issue as earlier research findings had reported 45,000 Americans died annually for lack of health care coverage (Robertson, 2009).

Healthcare Exchange is probably one of the most popular discussions within the United States. With the new Health Care proposal laws are rapidly changing. As I analyzed the video I sought out several similarities and differences of opinions between the House and the Senate in regards to Healthcare Exchange.

Health care has become an integral component in the lives of modern Americans. In recent history, President Barack Obama introduced a new health reform legislation known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This act is detrimental to the social well-being and economic success of the American people as it raises insurance premiums, significantly increases taxes, and harms businesses. It damages the quality of health care, stunts economic growth, and causes decreased wages and unemployment. The reform is a hindrance to the advancement of the health care industry, and thus Obama’s policy position of health care is unacceptable and unsound.

Healthcare policy analysis has been a debate for citizens and government officials. The policy was initiated as a start to healthcare reform in the U.S. Initiated in 2010, by President Barack Obama the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was on its way to redeveloping the function of the healthcare field. The ACA puts people, families, and businesses in charge of their healthcare. All three branches (Legislative, Judicial, and Executive) had a part of the creation of the law and experienced a fair share of issues in the development. Outcries from the public and lobbyists a method of seeking a favored result has influenced the development of this law. In this paper, addressing all elements involved in

U.S. health care reform is currently one of the most heavily discussed topics in health discourse and politics. After former President Clinton’s failed attempt at health care reform in the mid-1990s, the Bush administration showed no serious efforts at achieving universal health coverage for the millions of uninsured Americans. With Barack Obama as the current U.S. President, health care reform is once again a top priority. President Obama has made a promise to “provide affordable, comprehensive, and portable health coverage for all Americans…” by the end of his first term (Barackobama.com). The heated debate between the two major political parties over health care reform revolves around how to pay for it and more importantly, whether it

On March 23, 2010 the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed by President Obama, raising the question for many of whether this new law was going to be more helpful or hurtful. With universal healthcare, healthcare coverage would be increased tremendously, costs would be reduced, jobs would be created, and consumers would be protected. Conversely, it will also raise taxes and wait times, lead to a smaller number of doctors, and infringe on some employers’ 1st amendment rights. Presenting both arguments for and against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act allows one to draw a conclusion on whether the new program will benefit or hinder the citizens of the United States.

The most important stakeholder in the healthcare policymaking is probably the patient. In Massachusetts, the Act provided “nearly universal health insurance coverage” (case study). In 2009 the

Health care is a topic that has been extremely politicized over the past decade and will continue to be a political issue in decades to come. Research and scientific data helps identity solutions to the current problems within health care; however, only politics can turn those solutions into reality and define the problems (Oliver, 2006). Since the majority of our health care issues and its solutions lie in the hands of politics, this can become toxic to our system by costing the nation, paralyzing the legislative process, and preventing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the development of progressive health policy.

Health policies are referred to as plans, decisions or laws that pertains to the achievement of specific health care goals within a society. The federal, state or local government constantly reviews and uses health policies to improve the healthcare systems. It is therefore vital for one to understanding the process of how healthcare policies are proposed, drafted and signed into law, and how it affects the entire populace on every day living. The art of drafting legislative proposals requires substantial skill, technical know how, and vast experience. Any member of the House of Representatives or Senate can draft bills and often receives assistance from the Office of Legislative Counsel. Only members of Congress can actually