Thesis on "Health Care Debate"

Thesis 4 pages (1269 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Health Care Debate

As the summer's debate on health care reform stretches into autumn, many contentious issues still remain on the table. There are an estimated 46 million uninsured Americans (Carey, 2009). Among those who are insured, coverage is often inadequate, or is dropped by the insurance companies. This leads to a number of negative outcomes, including inferior health care, untimely death and financial distress. The cost of health care is rising, making it increasingly less affordable for Americans. To address these issues, many options have been proposed. These include a public option for insurance coverage, reforming the insurance industry with respect to dropping coverage and pre-existing condition discrimination, implementing malpractice reform and adding coverage for certain preventative measures such as mammograms (White House, 2009). This paper will examine the central issues of the debate on health care reform, with emphasis on controlling the rising cost of health care. It is hypothesized that controlling the rising cost of health care is essential for health care reform.

The public option is one of the most hotly-contested issues in the health care debate. The government would create a publicly-run insurance option that would compete with the private insurers. This would provide an insurance option for citizens with pre-existing conditions, and guarantee that they would not have their coverage dropped. The public option would be funded through savings that accrue from Medicare reform, much of which derives from reducing the overall cost of health care.

The second major issue is to reform the insurance industry. The public option will apply pressure to insurance companies by drawing customers away from them. If only those Americans who are otherwise unable to attain insurance adopt the public option, there will be little in the way of insurance reform. However, it is expected that health care reform will institute explicit changes in the ways that insurance companies deal with patients. They will be unable to drop coverage or decline on the basis of pre-existing conditions. These changes are contentious in the insurance industry because of the potential for profit reduction.

The third major issue is malpractice reform. At present, it is believed that many health care professionals practice what has been termed "defensive" medicine, whereby they seek to reduce the risk of malpractice suits, rather than maximize the quality of health care. This concept derives from the rising cost of malpractice insurance, which is one of the key drivers in the recent steep increases in health care costs, as these insurance costs are passed on by health care providers to patients and insurance companies. The precise form of malpractice reform, however, is not explicitly outlined in the health care reform plan (New York Times, 2009).

The fourth issue is with respect to preventative care. Health care reform seeks to provide better funding for preventative measures such as mammograms, flu shots, diabetes tests and other measures that will reduce overall health spending. The lack of such preventative measures is believed to be a key driver in health care spending -- Americans are simply not healthy enough because they do not engage in enough prevention. Unhealthy practices lead to higher health costs as the patient ages. Preventative measures taken throughout life will dramatically reduce the burdens on the health care system by reducing the need for expensive treatments.

Not addressed in the proposed health care reform is another significant contributor to rising health care costs, the cost of prescription drugs. Americans spend more on prescription drugs than do citizens of other countries, for a number of reasons. One is that the cost of drugs is not subject to caps, as it typically is in countries with more socialized medical systems. The other is that Americans are overprescribed, a function of malpractice issues and issues with respect to the way that drugs are marketed.… READ MORE

How to Reference "Health Care Debate" Thesis in a Bibliography

Related Thesis Papers:

Health Care Debate Essay

Health Care Debate

Over the last several years, the issue of universal health care has been continuously brought to the forefront. This is because the overall costs have been consistently… read more

Essay 4 pages (1442 words) Sources: 5 Topic: Healthcare / Health / Obamacare

---

Healthcare Programs Article Review

healthcare access, quality, and costs have been vocally addressed. This is because of the growing concerns by the consumers of these services. A number of scholars have conducted research on… read more

Article Review 4 pages (1233 words) Sources: 2 Topic: Healthcare / Health / Obamacare

---

Healthcare Reform Lowering Costs in Health Care Essay

Healthcare Reform

Lowering costs in Health Care

Changes in the Health Care Act have sought to lower the costs of health care for Americans. Reports made available indicate that the… read more

Essay 3 pages (918 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Healthcare / Health / Obamacare

---

Healthcare Debate Summer '09: The National Essay

Healthcare Debate

Summer '09: The National Healthcare Debate

Funding Disputes

Obama and others in his administration (and/or in the Democratic Party) had developed a somewhat complex and unclear plan for… read more

Essay 2 pages (558 words) Sources: 2 Topic: Healthcare / Health / Obamacare

---

Health Care Reform Has Been a Hot Research Paper

health care reform has been a hot button issue across the United States in the form of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) but in the State of Minnesota it has… read more

Research Paper 4 pages (1375 words) Sources: 4 Topic: Healthcare / Health / Obamacare

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>