Health Care Reform

The United States healthcare system has undergone a major overhaul in the past 10 yrs. The American population has dealt the health care system in the U.S. a serious blow. The consensus of the U.S. healthcare system today, is that many Americans feels that the healthcare system has failed to produce the desired results. The United States spends more per capita on health care than any other nation on earth, and yet ranks only 24th in life expectancy and lower still, 37th among the world's health systems. According to the 2010 Census Bureau Report, approximately 64% of the U.S. population is covered by private health insurance, 14.6% of the population was covered by Medicare and 15.8% was covered by Medicaid. This may be a slightly inflated figure as many of those may have been using both Medicaid and Medicare or one or the other along with some other type of insurance. That leaves about 16.3% of the population that was not covered by any healthcare coverage at all (Census Bureau, 2010). This amounts to approximately 46 million Americans without any of health insurance at all. These alarming numbers, coupled with the rising cost of health insurance for the American citizens, from $28 billion to $1.4 trillion in the last forty plus years, show the glaring need for immediate health care reform.

Following through with one of his main campaign promises, of the Affordable Care Act or Obama Care was signed into law by President Obama on 23rd March, 2010. Nothing this monumental or crucial has occurred since the largest regulatory overhaul on the U.S. healthcare since the passage of Medicaid and Medicare in the year 1965. The Affordable Care Act is hoped to decrease the large number of uninsured Americans, while at the same time, trying to work at reducing the total cost of health care in the United States. The bill presents several mechanisms of ensuring affordable health care to the citizens to include mandates, tax credits and subsidies to individuals and employers in increasing the coverage rate. The reforms will also improve the healthcare outcomes and streamline the health care delivery to American Citizens. This will require the insurance companies to offer the same insurance rates and cover all citizens regardless of gender or preexisting conditions (Gruber 601). The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act were created for families and individuals to enable American citizen the ability to obtain affordable and quality health care.

On any given day you will read in the news about the horrors of the PPACA a.k.a Obama Care, used by critics of the President's efforts to reform health care. Now that more and more information is coming out concerning the cost of the premiums, who you believe has your best interest at heart is whoever has the biggest voice it seems. This is a much heated debate arising from both those that are for Obama Care and those that are opposed to it. The same basic data is used for both sides to either down play or to defend PPACA. The biggest debate comes from whether or not it is actually affordable to those who cannot afford health insurance. The cost of the plan with the help of the new tax credits will allow for affordable premiums. For those who currently have health care coverage, premiums under Obama Care may not be competitive.

When reading an article about healthcare reform, not only can you be confused but also unaware of how this will actually affect yourself