Universal Healthcare: The Pros and Cons

Health care has been a controversial topic of discussion for all Americans since it was put in effect many years ago. Currently the biggest debate of Healthcare up to date is Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is a Health care Reform that is a governmental attempt to make basic health care easily obtainable. However, there are no benefits without cost in situations like this, and upon that are different viewpoints on the subject thus creating political debates discussing if it is ethically correct. The overall goal that Obamacare hopes to accomplish is that through specific changes through insurance companies, industry standards, and patient guarantees a healthier America will be produced. Obamacare has its ups and downs for both the generally agreeing democratic viewpoints and the opposing republican side. Both viewpoints have their own beliefs about how Health care works and Obamacare is somewhat in between on this. Most arguments on Obamacare deal with Medicaid being constitutional and if Obamacare truly reduces the total cost of health care for individuals and in the government.

“The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Implications for Public Health Policy and Practice.” Public Health Reports. Association of Schools of Public Health. n.d. Web. 14 July 2015. This paper claims that the PPACA will cut the number of uninsured Americans in half. The act attempts to provide nearly universal coverage and improve the quality and equity of said coverage through reforms to insurance standards and the marketplace. It also attempts to improve the quality of healthcare and the efficiency of its delivery by allowing consumers to edge the system into a more integrated state and measuring performance. It attempts to encourage preventive medicine by targeting chronic illnesses and funding community-based medicine. These changes will bring huge opportunities for improvement in the system, many of which are subtle and nuanced and will only be seen as the plan rolls into act over the next few

The question of Universal Healthcare in the United States has valid and non valid arguments with supporters on both sides of the issue. Millions of Americans do not have affordable health care insurance. The main question is who is responsible to provide this? Is it feasible for government to pay for the lack of health care by taxpayer’s dollars? Should you be responsible for yourselves or should you be compensated by the government?       Unemployment is at record high making health insurance less attainable or affordable than ever. In most cases, additional restrictions or

This paper discusses how the ACA has impacted the employer stakeholder group. Peer-reviewed journal articles will be examined to show how employers have been affected now and into the future, along with how employees are affected as well. Many mandates and changes have influenced and impacted employers in how they handle and deliver health care coverage, as well as impacting their business as well. Many changes affect large employers the most, but small to mid-size employers are also affected as well. This paper will also discuss commonly used strategies and their risks for employers to use in order to help lessen the impact of the ACA.

The subject matter of universal health care is important because the current system of health care in America is economically and morally wrong. The United States spends more than double on health care and still millions are left without coverage. During the Progressive Era, AALL (American Association of Labor Legislation) proposed a bill which provided coverage to those making less than $1200 and would be provided services such as physicians, hospitals, and nurse which would be shared between workers, employers, and the state. This system was opposed by the AFL (American Federation of Labor) because it felt this movement would weaken unions. Furthermore, Bill Clinton proposed a system of universal health care which would provide health coverage

           In a country where healthcare is a decision, many debate if our country should keep our health care system privatized. Health care is an essential need in society because individual health can change at any time without warning at any time. While there are both pros and cons of this system, the pros outway the cons. I believe that our nation should ensure basic health care to all legal citizens, no matter the class. Many Americans fall into circumstances where they are not able to pay the expensive bills that privatized insurance companies billhave so they do not have chose to not have insurance at all. Universal health care gives those people the means of financial support when they medically need

The goal of this paper is to explain the downfalls of Obamacare and share the stories of individuals affected negatively and directly by the approval of the policy. Although Obamacare set out with good intentions, many people are still left without health care coverage because of the constant revisions of the bill. There have been many taxes raised for the approval of this policy, and has caused problems for individuals who do not want coverage under Obamacare but would want coverage under a different company. Obamacare has helped some, but has caused other problems that would make it a bill that should be up for repeal.

Since the advent of health insurance in the 1950s, there have been many models of care that are come to the scene in an attempt to both control cost of care and improve quality of care. Insurance models came into being because the fee for service model used until then was proving to increase cost of healthcare without any measure of quality of services and care provided. Health insurance models have evolved from the basic hospital offered insurance to employer sponsored coverage plans. The US health system is broken both financially and quality wise with more than 20% of gross domestic product being spent on healthcare (Blackstone, 2016).

"Universal healthcare refers to a healthcare system that provides benefits to all persons in a particular country." (Definition of "Universal Healthcare Coverage", Investopedia.com). This form of healthcare is used among the richest countries, Ex. Canada and France. Other rich countries that use the Universal Healthcare system spend far less than the United States does. Although the U.S spends more on healthcare, “The U.S ranks 28th below almost all other rich countries, when it comes to the quality of its healthcare assessed by UN parameters (pdf, p.13)"(Annalisa Merreli, A history of why the US is the only rich country without universal healthcare, qz.com). These statistics call for a change. The United States should adopt universal healthcare because it would benefit business, provide equal access to healthcare, and is a human right.

A series of events has recently occurred to cause the passage of PPACA. Economics are explicitly linked to health care. In the United States, health care coverage is provided primarily through an employer-based system. This system began in the depression era when pay was federally frozen. Companies, in an attempt to lure scarce workers, used benefits packages including health care as bait. Described as a “uniquely American” “private social security” health care system, the employer-sponsored system is the “cornerstone” of United States health care system (Blumenthal, 2006). This system has left many un- or under-insured. Blumenthal states (2006), “The United States’ dependence on employer-sponsored insurance means that the protection of its citizens against the costs of illness depends directly on the ability of private businesses to manage and absorb health care expenses that have defied all efforts to contain them.” Recently, economic downturn and the need to reduce expenses to better compete on the global market has caused many companies to both reduce their insurance benefits package and their work force causing many to lose their health care coverage. The employer-based system merged with the economic downturn, unaffordable health care costs for businesses, and

On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Healthcare Act into law. It had been estimated that 30 million people would sign up for the new healthcare act. As of April 15, 2015 the actual number of people that have signed up is 11,776,046 which is a far cry from what was predicted. Within the healthcare system all across the United States things are changing. How will the Affordable Healthcare Act impact the healthcare system within the United States? This paper will address what the Affordable Healthcare Act is first and then

One of our nation’s most controversial topics since the year 2009, and still continues to affect our country, is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) also known as Obamacare. The Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The Law was designed to extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans and protect patients from abuse or discrimination. The Affordable Care Act affects, all Americans, either in a positive or negative way. It is an issue that has come to separated our congress, it has divided the republican and democratic parties, to the point where the Government was shut down.

The Affordable Care Act, also called Healthcare Reform, or Obamacare, is a decision that Obama administration was planning for long time to fix some problems. Many people live in this country without health insurance, and they can’t go to hospital when they become sick. Book (n page) wrote that 40 million of Americans were either permanently or occasionally without health insurance. The ACA was signed by President Obama on March 23, 2010 and became law. The idea of the President Obama is to make more people have insurance, control healthcare costs, and to make the healthcare delivery system better. Six years after Americans start ACA, many people like it, and some people don’t like it. However, the effects of this reform on the healthcare workforce are not always positive, because people who work in the medical field will now have more people to take care of. People say for long time ago that they need more staff in the hospital. Now, it is more because more people who don’t have insurance before, have it now and they go to the clinics or hospitals. The shortage of healthcare professionals, their maldistribution in the country, stress from the more new patient, the more paperwork, the penalty to reduce reimbursement, a change of reward, and the staff anger, are some problems created by the ACA on healthcare workers.

There are Currently 32 million people without health insurance in the United States. This means that roughly 83 per cent of citizens have to live day by day hoping they won’t get sick. For this reason, President Obama signed the U.S health reform bill into law. The health reform will make health care more affordable for citizens. Employers with more than 50 employees will be forced to provide coverage for all, or they will have to pay a fine. It will also make health insures more responsible. For example, health insurance carriers are forbidden from placing lifetime dollar limits on policies, from denying coverage to children because of pre-existing conditions, and from canceling policies because someone gets sick. It will also expand

Sanders argue that employers will save thousands of dollars per year if universal health care is implemented. As a result, employers will pay a 6.2% tax levy (Ehrenfreund & Tankersley, 2016). This new tax will raise 630 billion dollars per year (Ehrenfreund & Tankersley, 2016).