The Obama Care Assignment Paper: Overview of the Policy (Essay Sample)

The Obamacare
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Overview of the Policy
The campaign that made way for the coming up with the Affordable Care commenced in January22nd, 2003 when the Mr. Obama who was the agitator was a senator in Illinois .He introduced the bill as the Hospital Report Card Act and was signed into law in May 28th, 2003.The law required hospitals in Illinois to provide quarterly information about their operations to the public so that consumers and patients could make good decisions about the hospitals and the services they provide. While Mr. Obama was campaigning he promised the Americans that his government was determined to provide the Americans with affordable and universal healthcare. In 2010 March 23rd he signed into law a legislation whose aim was to provide an affordable and universal health care services to all the Americans. The law came to be known as ObamaCare; however, the actual piece of the legislation is Patient Protection and Affordable Act (Rickard, 2014).
Historical Analysis
For a long period of time the health provision has been a problem in the whole world. Several countries have always made attempts to assist their citizens by providing them with means through which they could survive adverse health conditions. There has always been need to reduce death rates among citizens of countries both in Europe ,Africa, America and other continents of the world .All this time North America has been perceived to be the country that could provide affordable healthcare. Consequently several citizens of other countries and even senior citizens made numerous trips to USA so as to be provided with medical services. Among them were dignitaries such as Danny Williams who was the premier of Canada’s Newfoundland. The premier went to the North American country in 2010 so as to be treated of heart valve problem .Earlier in 2007 a former Liberal member of parliament called Belinda Stronach went to the USA(California) to undergo surgery for late stages cancer of the breast. Every year thousands of Canadians visit America to be cured of various ailments. Not only have the Americans next door neighbors sought medical attention from the world’s perceived superpower but also citizens and dignitaries from as far as Europe. For instance the prime minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi in 2006 travelled to America to be treated of heart problem. The Italian premier sought medical assistance from America in spite of the high quality and free medical services he would have been accorded in his country, Italy (Pipe, 2010)
In the earlier years America used a mixed system in the provision of subsidized medical care to her citizens. For example it used a mixture of employer based coverage with state socialized medicine for instance the use of Medicare and Medicaid. Contrary to the USA mixed method several states of the world used pure methods .In most cases they capitalized on the employer based coverage to provide affordable healthcare to their citizens. However the employer based method had some shortcomings. One of the disadvantages of the method was that it excludes the unemployed. Consequently the unemployed people continued to languish in the problem of footing the large bills that resulted from the services they had received. To solve the problem, there was need to need to come up with legislations that would aid in the provision of quality and affordable healthcare to all the citizens of America. As a result several presidents of the USA came up with recommendations that were aimed at providing the medical services to their citizens. For example Bill Clinton, in 1992, distinguished himself as the one who could solve the social problem of Medicare provision in the USA .He then appointed the then First Lady Hilary Clinton to head a team that was tasked with coming up with recommendations on how Medicare was to be provided. The main goal was to provide universal healthcare. The recommendation of the commission was that all the Americans were to buy medical insurance. Employers were also to provide Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) to their employees. The recommendation however did not pass as a whole except for one provision in it .The only provision that got the consent of the congress was that of the State Children Health Insurance Program. The recommendation aimed at providing free or affordable healthcare services to the children living in the poor estates only (Tate, 2012)
According to mymasterseed.com, there are two objectives for the ObamaCare .The major goal for which the law was to meet is wealth distribution. The law compels everybody, whether rich or poor to take insurance. As a result the wealth of the rich people will trickle down to cover even the poor. The deductions are made progressively. As a result taxpayers’ monies are deducted on the basis of the incomes they receive. The system of deduction implies that the rich would pay more than the poor and this will help cushion the less fortunate in obtaining medical attention despite their weak financial status. The Administrator for Centers of Medicaid and Medicare, Donald Berwick reiterated that any health cover that is equitable and humane should distribute wealth from the rich to the poor and even to the unfortunate members of the society. The other objective of the program was to reduce the cost of healthcare provision, which was perceived to be so high. Most of the Americans with low income would lose a lot when they became ill or resorted to take their kinsmen to the hospital for medication. In order to cushion the less fortunate members of the society from the high cost of medication there arose the need to come up with Medicare plan. As a result, the ObamaCare was implemented (mymustardseed.com, n.d)
It cannot go without saying that the Obamas also wanted to extend their rule after the end of his first term in office. Consequently he looked for a better way in which he could make himself popular with the citizens. Chances are that he was using the ObamaCare as a campaign tool for his second term bid to the Whitehouse.
Social Analysis
The ObamaCare has had far reaching impacts on the lives of the Americans since its inception in 2010.The impacts are eminent all over the USA. The first impact is that children are no longer denied insurance due to the preexisting conditions. Preexisting condition refer to the state whereby someone’s child is denied of insurance cover in case the person changes the insurance cover provider. After the bill came into law children are covered by their parents’ new insurer regardless of the parents’ initial insurance conditions. As a result parents have been relieved of the burden of covering their children’s medical expenses in case they have changed their insurance providers.
Another impact was that people were never denied access to health services due to technical error that could be found on the patients’ documents .Initially, insurance firms would deny their clients cover owing to the mistakes that could have been found on their contract documents .After the implementation of the bill all the clients were to be provided with cover services despite the errors that could be eminent on their documents.
The other impact was the removal of the lifetime limit. In the previous terms the clients were bogged down with lifetime limits whereby after having used a certain amount of dollar the insurance company would refuse to offer subsidies to their clients although they were to continue paying the premiums. As a result patients who were suffering from long lasting ailments such as cancer were finding it as unjust as they could not be offered insurance assistance from their insurers’ .However, lifetime limits were eradicated by the ObamCare provisions. Insurance providers are no longer allowed to deny their clients services on the basis of hitting the lifetime limit.
The other social impact of the ObamaCare is that a patient who has been denied of insurance coverage could lodge an appeal with an external source. Contrary to the new provision of the ObamaCare, the insurance firms could deny their clients coverage and the only way to go about the problem was that the patient was to request the insurance firm to review its condition. As a result, insurance firms would use their privileges to frustrate or thwart the efforts of patients whose bills were so high.
There is the provision of preventative care coverage. Previously insurance companies would decline to cover one for conducting services or checkups that could id prevention of some diseases .For example conducting mammogram and this exposed them to serious life threatening diseases that lowered their life terms. After the enactment and the implementation of the ObamaCare firms had no option but to cover people to undergo the screenings that would help increase their lifespan.
Another impact is that the Medicare which provides cover to the older people of 65 year and above .It also provides coverage to people with disabilities .Prior to the ObamaCare Medicare had some limitations. For instance the program’s part D which concerned the provision of medicine to the seniors spelt that they could be given drugs only up to a certain level .When the maximum cost was reached the insurance firms started charging the elderly huge amounts of money on the drugs the drugs they purchased .However with the enactment of ObamaCare and its implementation in 2014, the provisions changed and the elderly members of the society do not have much restrictions when accessing drugs.
The last impact of the ObamaCare on the citizens is that patients are now assured of special attention. The patients are greatly cared for under the Community Care Transitions Plan which was enacted under the ObamCare and came into effect in 2011spels that the patients are to be coordinate...