Equitable Coverage And Access For Health Services

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Introduction
Equitable coverage and access to health services is a goal for states across the globe as healthcare is viewed by many major voices as a human right (UN, 1948; WHO, 2016a; NESRI, 2016; Obama, 2014). Many scholars reason that equitable coverage and access to health services is ethical (Aday, 1993; Putsch and Pololi, 2004; Kasule, 2012; Hurley, 2001). Specifically, Jeremiah Hurley (2001) argues that healthcare equity is ethically valuable because of its contribution to health and thus, “the ethically justified distribution of access to and utilization of needed health services is one which generates the desired level and distribution of health” (p. 235). From his argument, access is seen to be a central idea in the debate…show more content…
It argues that public financing is necessary to provide equitable coverage and access to health services demonstrated by the mounting inequity of the privately financed insurance scheme in the US. First, this paper provides a brief overview of the private finance system in the US. Second, it reveals a number of threats facing equitable coverage and access to health services in the US. Third, it shows how public financing remedies the problems presented by other insurance schemes and provides equitable access and coverage. Fourth, it discusses policy implications of this analysis for US healthcare policy. Finally, it concludes with a summary of the arguments and policy implications.

US – Private Financing System The US has a unique private insurance system (DEFINITION). It consists of three foundations: employer-sponsored insurance for Americans under age 65, a federal Medicare program for the elderly and disabled, and a state-administered Medicaid programs for low-income Americans who fit certain demographic categories (Marmor and Oberlander, 2011). The ACA, signed into law in 2010 and enacted in 2013, has the goal of ensuring private healthcare access for the almost 50 million uninsured Americans (Obamacare Facts, 2016; Marmor and Oberlander, 2011). It did not alter the current insurance structure in the US (Marmor and Oberlander, 2011; White, 2013). Instead, it introduced state insurance markets,
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