Essay on "Universal Health Care - Literature"

Essay 6 pages (2158 words) Sources: 6

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Many of the features of those two bills were similar, and compromises could have been made on the areas that were less similar. Having both a private and a public option is important, according to Pauly (2008), and lower-income households need to have a generous credit system. Most of them currently do not have insurance because they cannot afford it, not because they do not want it. If they could afford good insurance they would likely be purchasing it, but forcing them to purchase an insurance plan that they may not be able to afford will only make their economic issues worse (Pauly, 2008).

With strong credits for lower-income households and incentive-neutral public subsidies, a universal health care option may be effective in allowing everyone to get proper medical care without going bankrupt. Having their renewability guaranteed and using targeted high-risk pools were also proposed by Pauly (2008), as these things would make the bill more focused and more able to actually address the needs of the citizens who would be using the bill and looking for ways in which they could get better care for less money. With fewer people going to the emergency room for minor ailments, it has been proposed that medical costs in the United States might actually decrease with passage of a good universal health care bill that worked properly and benefited everyone (Pauly, 2008).

These issues were being addressed by Pauly (2008) before President Obama put forth his health care reform bill and before it passed and was signed into law. When the heath care reform vote came up, public opinion was divided sharply according to many of the polls that were taken at the time. Blendon and Benson (2010) also took a careful look at the issue of public opinion during that historic time. They found that the sharp division between the two sides was mostly down party lines. In other words few republicans favored the bill, but many democrats thought that the bill was the right choice for the country. Upon closer examination, however, there was more at stake than just party affiliation and what people thought about the bill was a bit more complex.

Blendon and Benson (2010) found that there was a divide not just between people who were opposed to the bill and people who were not, but also between people who were opposed to some of the bill and not all of it. Some people supported the bill overall but had problems with a few elements, and other people did not support the bill overall but agreed with a few of the elements. On either side of those individuals were the people who either completely opposed everything about the bill or who completely supposed the bill and had no misgivings at all about what it offered to the American public. It was not expected that there would be agreement between the parties, but it was also unexpected that there were many more categories into which people fell than simply whether they supported or opposed the universal health care bill (Blendon & Benson, 2010). As another Presidential election looms, it is also possible that the law will be repealed or drastically changed before parts of it ever take effect.

Bibliography

Asch, Steven M., Kerr, Eve A., Keesey, Joan, Adams, John L., Setodji, Claude M., Malik, Shaista, & McGlynn, Elizabeth A. "Who is at greatest risk for receiving poor-quality health care?" New England Journal of Medicine, 354 (2006): 1147-1156.

Blendon R.J. & Benson J.M. "Public opinion at the time of the vote on health care reform," New England Journal of Medicine, 362 no. 16 (2010): e55.

Lu, Jui-Fen Rachel & Hsaio, William C. "Does universal health insurance make health care unaffordable? Lessons from Taiwan," Health Affairs, 22 no. 3 (2003): 77-88.

Pauly, M.V. "Blending better ingredients for health reform," Health Affairs, 27 no. 6 (2008): w482-w491.

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