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Health Care Reform: A literature Review
Jon A. Leeah
3/25/11
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Abstract
In the following essay you will read a series of different articles, documents, and other literature genres, as well as primary research conducted by me, all pertaining to the subject of health care reform, . The purpose of this research paper is to find eight to ten different sources relating to the topic of health care reform and analyze each topic to get a better understanding of the different opinions out there.
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Reforming our current healthcare system has been a popular debate within our society. Many people believe that our healthcare system is flawed and a reform is needed in order to rectify the problem. However, choosing the solution is what is at the heart of the conflict. Republicans believe the issue should be resolved in a bipartisan matter, meaning both parties should cooperate together to resolve the situation, while Democrats are leaning towards Obama’s plan to reverse this conundrum. In order to thoroughly comprehend each person’s view on the issue, we must examine different opinions on the matter and ask ourselves three pertinent questions:
1). What problems make our current healthcare system such an issue?
2). If a healthcare reform did take place, who would benefit the most, and who would benefit the least?
3). What is a way to help minimize the cost of healthcare?
4). What knowledge and opinions do my peers have on health care?
By asking and answering these questions while reading and watching different types of media pertaining to the issue, you will develop a better understanding and viewpoint on the topic.
The health care reform survey was a non scientific survey conducted to see and better understand others’ opinions and knowledge on the topic. Health care reform survey is composed of several general questions asking the general public their opinion as well as determining their knowledge on the subject. The survey was created on a
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website called surveymonkey.com and was posted on a social networking site to receive a variety of respondents. A total of 46 respondents completed the survey. All
expressing similar and different views on the subject. The survey was taken
at random, so there was no information on any demographics pertaining to the respondents. The results can be seen below on the table.
Table 1:
Each number represented in the graph is in percentages
The questions asked on the survey correspond with the research; because, they deal with people’s opinions on the matter and their knowledge of other reform options like Obama’s Health Plan or the Affordable Care Act.
One genre I chose was an online article written by Dr. Howard Greene. Greene (2008) wrote this article expressing his view on the subject of healthcare and how he thinks it should be resolved. Greene (2008) first states that our current healthcare
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system is flawed due to privately owned insurance companies, such as, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, and Cigna. Greene proceeds with examples on how government
operated corporations, such as, public schools and government militaries prove to be more successful and considerably cheaper than privately owned corporations. For example, he states “Government regulated public school systems produce more CEO’s, doctors, lawyers, and accountants than any private school, and at a fraction of the cost (pnhp, 2008, para 1)”. He provides this information to the reader to help present his idea of reforming our healthcare system by closing down privately owned insurance companies and moving everyone over to Medicare, a government operated insurance company. He believes this action would benefit all; because, it would lower the cost of insurance and insure the 40 million citizens who do not have coverage. Greene also claims that not only would this benefit the people but the businesses as well. Business premiums would be less if paid to Medicare rather then privately owned corporations, since Medicare has a lower overhead cost. However, this reform would not be as beneficial to the privately owned insurance companies; because, it would close them down. This can be seen when Greene says the first step to his reform would be “Shut down the privately owned healthcare corporations (pnhp , 2008, para 3)”, which he claims is our problem with our current healthcare system. Greene believes that this reform would also help minimize the cost of insurance. Greene (2008) states that Medicare only uses 1-2% of the peoples’ dollar to attain their rates which is similar to privately owned insurance companies. However, private companies siphon billions of
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dollars from the people which used for doctors, hospitals, and patient care. That siphon done by the private insurance companies drives up the price of healthcare making it
unaffordable. Greene’s ideas presented in this online article can all be considered credible. Greene is a doctor making him very knowledgable on the subject.
Although many people have been pushing for a healthcare reform, Congress already has been making progress towards a new healthcare system. On March 2010, they passed the Affordable Care Act. This act was put into affect to improve our healthcare system. Before Congress implemented this act, many patients suffering from chronic illnesses and cancer were going without much needed treatment; because, insurance companies have a lifetime limit on their coverage. This act stopped the insurance companies from putting a lifetime limit on people’s coverage, ensuring the people that they will have the coverage needed. This shows the people that our healthcare system was even more imperfect than before the act; because, many people were not being able to get the necessary treatment when it was necessary. The Affordable Care Act will benefit all U.S. citizens, especially those who were going to hit their lifetime limits. The act states that “20,400 people who typical hit their lifetime limit will benefit from this provision (The Affordable Care Act, 2010, para 3)”, meaning that those 20,400 people won’t hit their lifetime limits; because, the act impedes the insurance companies from establishing those limits. The act, however, is not as beneficial as it is to those who would hit their lifetime limit but still helpful to the average insured consumer. The new law also reduces the cost of coverage while increasing the quality of healthcare to Americans. The congressional budget office proclaims that “The
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Affordable Care Act would save a 100 billion dollars over the next 10 years, and over 1 trillion dollars in the following decade. (Affordable Care Act, 2010, para 5)”. By being
able to reduce the cost of coverages and saving money, the act will make it easier for Americans to purchase insurance while benefiting our economy by lowering our debt.
Along with acts being passed such as the Affordable Care Act for health care, the President is pushing further to pass the Health Care Reform Bill. The Health Care Reform Bill is a plan made to help make health insurance more affordable enabling everyone to attain coverage. This bill claims to mend our present healthcare system by making health care coverage affordable for all. The bill claims to “expand coverage to 32 million Americans who are currently uninsured (Health Care Reform Bill Summary, 2010, para 3)”. The bill also professes that it will help us, the people, save more money as a nation. Declaring that the bill will “reduce the deficit by 143 billion over the first 10 years (Health Care Reform Bill Summary, 2010, para 2)”, meaning that it could help lower our debt and excess expenditures, bettering our nation’s economy. The new bill will greatly benefit those people who fall under the Federal Poverty Level, which is any family who has an income of $22,050.00 or below; because, they will be able to purchase insurance through state based exchanges with subsidies. If you don’t fall in between those lines however, you will not be eligible for the subsidies, which is a sum of money granted to them for the public’s best interest. Also people who make over a certain amount of money yearly will not profit from this bill. The bill states that there will be a “3.8% percent tax on investment income for families making over $250,000.00 per year (Health Care Reform Bill Summary. 2010, para 5)”. This shows us that the people
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who make over a certain amount of money a year will not gain any benefits from this bill and will loose more money in the process to help pay for the plan. The taxation of the
more fortunate would also help minimize the cost of health insurance, all long with instating other taxes such as the Excise Tax and the Tanning Tax.
Although, the Health Care Reform is considered a good idea, it has proved itself to be a tedious task. A magazine article goes into detail about the complications involved with having to lower the cost of health coverage. The article starts off by showing how our present day health care system is flawed. The article states that we have a “health care system that cost more than any other country’s yet leaves 47 million people uninsured (Health care Reform: Tough task ahead, 2009, para 1)”.
Table 2:
This statement shows the reader that we are spending unnecessary amounts of money on a healthcare system that truly does not work in our favor. With that being said, the article is then followed into the complication of having to pay for a reform. President
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Obama suggested that they save over 295 billion dollars from Medicare and Medicaid for a period of 10 years to pay for the reform. In order to procure the money needed
from Medicare and Medicaid, they proposed several ideas such as “charging higher income seniors more for Medicare prescription drug coverage (Tough Task Ahead, 2009, para 7)” and “reducing Medicare overuse by reforming the Medigap (Tough Task Ahead, 2009, para 8)”. These actions would all be beneficial towards the lower income families but still would prove unfavorable to the wealthier seniors of the U.S. . The upper class seniors would be forced to pay higher prices for their prescription drugs rather than pay their normal rates for a period of ten years. Nevertheless, these revenues would help minimize the cost of health coverage, allowing the 47 million uninsured American’s to receive subsidies gaining access to health care. The article also suggested several other alternatives to funding the reform such as taxation. The article inputs its own suggestions for taxations recommending “A tax on soda, heavily sweetened sports drinks, and similar products would help both finance health reform and fight obesity (Tough task Ahead, 2009, para 14)”. The notions of taxations could play a role in lowering the cost of health coverage, as well as keeping our society healthier.
Even though many people believe a health care reform is needed in our society, some believe that it can not be done like David Mechanic, author of the book “The Truth about Health Care Reform: Why it Cant be Done”. David Mechanic was once the co-chairman of the Institute of Medicine Committee which specialized in pain, chronic illnesses, and disabilities. Working with this institution allowed him to work with experts
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on these issues giving him plenty of knowledge and information on health care and as to why he believes it can not work. Mechanic starts off his book by presenting his idea
as to why our health care system doesn’t work now and why it will not work if a reform is to take place. He claims this is because of the people working in the health care field. He states that “errors are made in many ways, from the most mundane, such as nurses unable to read a physician’s illegible writing, to the most shocking, as when the wrong patient under goes surgery (Mechanic, 2006, pg 210”. These mistakes he is citing shows that our system is not flawed; but, the people working in it are. The employees causes the problem. These little mistakes such as not being able to read a doctors hand writing properly, caused someone to go under a major surgical procedure which can be very expensive, causing the tax payers to have to pay up for that mistake. Mechanic (2006) believes that if we were to have a successful refoem, then they should focus more on the “bedside care” and “follow ups” to ensure these mistakes do not happen. Thus minimizing the cost of health care. He even says that “Success begins at communication, coordination, monitoring, and following up (Mechanic, 2006, pg 21)”, meaning that if the health care providers do these simple task health care will not only function properly, benefiting all, but lower unnecessary expenditures.
Like David Mechanic, Stephen H. Gorin author of the journal “Health Care Reform and Older Adults” has his own opinion on the topic. Gorin (2010) believes that the current problem with our health care system is the high cost of our health care goods and services, “health care Inflation (Gorin, 2010, para 3)”. He states that government funded insurance companies like Medicare and Medicaid consume up to
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“70% of the nations wealth (Gorin, 2010, para 3)”, which was quoted from the congressional budget office. Gorin makes a point of stating that in his journal; because,
he sees that many people are pointing fingers at the elderly which he believes is not the case. Gorin even states that “although the aging population do contribute to the growth of health care spending, it’s by no means the critical factor (Gorin, 2010, para 4)”. He proceeds on with his idea on how the situation should be handled, which is “bending the curve (Gorin, 2010, para 5)”. What Gorin (2010) means by this phrase is that they would have to flatten out cost of health care in all aspect. If this were to be accomplished, Gorin insists that it would “provide affordable health care for all (Gorin, 2010, para 5)”.
Another genre chosen was a video that was uploaded from healhealthcarenow.org. The video presents several doctors advocating why our health care system is flawed and how a reform would benefit us. The video starts off by describing how our current health care system prevents us from getting proper care. For instance, Dr. Jim king (2009) states that he spends “40% of his time away from his patients because of all the barriers”. Dr. Strohem (2009) states that “medicine now, is more about the insurance companies and rules that are not fair instead about the patient and doctor”, meaning her patients are not number one priority anymore like they should be. The video then follows to tell the people how a reform would benefit them. Dr. Strohem tells the viewers that “A reform would bring an increase in quality, affordability, and access”, showing the reader that a reform would help lower the cost of health care, provide easier access to health care, and better the patient’s experience
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with health care . Dr. Linder (2009) claims “it will help provide more preventive care, helping people before they get sick”. This video presented 450,000 doctors names, all
showing that they too agreed that a health care reform would not only benefit them but mainly benefit the country.
Another option to health care reform was proposed by the Republican party which claims that it would help lower the nation’s deficit by 54 billion dollars over ten years without having to raise coverage to pay for the reform. Author Jennifer Haberkorn, from the Washington Post, goes into detail about the proposal in a newspaper article. In her article, she states several key points from the Republicans’ proposal such as, why our health care system is so expensive, what they plan to do to cut cost, and how it will benefit the nation. The Republicans proposed that they cut cost by “limiting the use of diagnostic tests and other services health care providers and doctors use to reduce exposure to lawsuits (Haberkorn, 2009, para 2)”. Through the limitations of these services, health care providers would be able to save a lot more money, helping to lower the cost of health care rates. Not only would the Republican’s reform limit health care services but also limit “pain and suffering awards, punitive damage awards, and implementing a one to three year statute of limitation (Haberkorn, 2009, para 6)”. These limitations as well would help lower the cost of health coverage; because, the government would have more money to fund health care rather than handing out money in less important aspect of life.
It’s obvious to tell that health care has been a much debated issue within our country for some time now. There are many opinions on the subject, and opinions on
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how it should be handled. Thus giving you many options for possible reform. It can be over whelming; but, through careful examination of each article, document, and video
on the subject you will be able to better choose the opinion you think will benefit you best.
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Reference Page
The Affordable Care Act. (2010, March). In The White House. Retrieved March 25, 2011, from http://www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform/healthcare-overview#healthcare-menu
Epperly, T. (Actor). (2009). Health Care Reform: 450,000 doctors [Online video]. heal Health care Now. Retrieved March 25, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkGGDOp4uUg
Gorin, S. H. (2010). Health Care Reform and Older Adults. Health Care and Social Work, 35(1), 3. Retrieved March 25, 2011, from Questia.
Jackson, J., & Nolan, J. (2010, March 21). Health Care Reform Bill Summary: a look at whats inside. In Cbs News. Retrieved March 25, 2011, from http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20000846-503544.html
Haberkorn, J. (2009, October 10). Health Care Tort Reform a Savings; GOP seeks to cut deficit [Electronic version]. The Washington Times, p. A1.
Tanner, M. (2009, July). Obamacare: seven bad ideas for health care reform. USA today, 138(2770), 1
Mechanic, D. (2006). The Truth about Health Care: Why reform is not working in america (pp. 20-25). News Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University
Greene, H. A. (2008, February 7). What Government Does Better: Health Care [Electronic version]. Physicians A National Health Program, 1
