ADMINISTRATION OF HEALTHCARE DELIVERY SYSTEM
The Implications of New Healthcare Insurance Law
In the article “Healthcare law could leave families with high-insurance costs”, Pecquet (2011) observes that a major provision in the healthcare law reform works to restrict business corporations from stopping to provide for health insurance coverage for their employees. This will undoubtedly leave most families in the United States without access to health insurance policies that are sufficiently subsidized. Specifically, at issue is what Pesquet (2011) refers to as a “firewall in the law that denies subsidies to workers whose employers offer quality and affordable coverage of health insurance.” This constitutional provision applies on plans costing below 9.5 per cent of an employee’s earnings. The situation is so helpless that workers in this category have no choice but to dole out more money than ever from their income in order to pay for the coverage. This is because the insurance coverage by the employer is unaffordable, thus making the employee responsible for their own healthcare bills to be brought about by the new policies.
The vitality of this issue is emphasized by the author’s consideration of a study by the Employment Policies Institute that approximated that tax payers in the United States would have to pay even higher taxes amounting to 50 billion U.S. dollars every year once the policy on health insurance coverage is changed (Pecquet, 2011). On the other hand, the study indicated that leaving the policy as it is would lead to millions of families lacking affordable health insurance coverage by their employers or Medicare. Thus, the change of the health insurance policy into the said provisions that prevent employers from dropping the insurance coverage for their staff members will result in far-reaching consequences of leaving most American families with immense difficulty in paying their bills for healthcare.
Debt Default Casing Medicare and Medicaid Uncertainty
Feder (2011) analyzed the looming uncertainty of the Medicare and Medicaid services of the United States government in his article “For Medicare and Medicare, debt default means uncertainty.” Americans are continuously becoming nervous and worried about the future of their health care. This is because anticipate the turning point in the health care insurance industry in August when the government gives a verdict on the future of future of Medicare and Medicaid as a result of the current enormous deficit caused by debt defaulting. The issue here is whether Medicare will carry on paying the healthcare bills of its beneficiaries, whether Medicare premiums will be withheld if checks from Social Security continue to go out and whether all the states will continue to receive their shares of the Medicare funds (Feder, 2011).
The threat to stop most of the coverage provided for by Medicare and Medicaid came to the scene in March. This was when the government, through the relevant agencies in all states, ordered that preparations and plans be laid down to enforce the stoppage of funding of healthcare for American nationals by Medicare (Feder, 2011). Given that this funding crisis could happen in August, the questions to be asked are not about what kind of expenditure on healthcare is permissible, but rather what healthcare expenditure is possible with the current fiscal crisis. The dilemma in this situation, is that implementation of the policy blocking government expenditure on healthcare will mean that the administration will not have authority to spend money on healthcare even if it had the funds. On the other hand, striking the alternative deal that will allow the government to continue spending money on healthcare will mean that the administration will be obliged to spend money it could not be having. All Americans can do for now is hope for the best, which is the continuation of Medicare funding, or prepare for the worst, which is to dig deeper into their wallets to cover their increased healthcare expenses.
Conclusion
The two articles reviewed in this paper show the looming difficulty in the coverage of healthcare bills for Americans. This will especially affect the low-income earners whose healthcare insurance not well catered for even by the current Medicare policies. It is the worry of most Americans that the costs of healthcare are increasing as the funding by the government and coverage by employers continue to be minimized. Pecquet (2011) concentrates on the impact that the prevention of employers from dropping healthcare insurance coverage for their staff members while Feder (2011) focuses on the uncertainty of Medicare and Medicaid caused by debt defaulting. In consideration of the issues raised here, it is pertinent that healthcare policy-makers consider the impacts of these policies on the average- and low-income-earners, and the consequential repercussions that the policies will have on the productivity of Americans. Policies need to be made while keeping in mind the health and economic productivity of those it will affect.
References
Feder, J. L. (2011). “For Medicare and Medicaid, debt default means uncertainty.” Politico. Retrieved on July 24, 2011 from https://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/59607.html
Pecquet, J. (2011). “Healthcare law could leave families with high insurance costs.” Healthwatch. The Hill Healthcare Blog. Retrieved on July 24, 2011 from https://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/172765-healthcare-law-may-leave-families-with-high-insurance-costs
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). (2011). Health policy: Daily news digest. RWJF. Retrieved on July 24, 2011 from https://rwjf.org/healthpolicy/digestlist.jsp
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