health reform
Introduction
Today there are many Americans without health insurance. This is due to the lack of financial resources they have to pay for the insurance , perhaps due to the unemployment rate and also due to those (younger generation) who choose to opt out of paying for health insurance. Many Americans live day to day hoping they will not get sick. From the results of these rates, President Obama signed the US Health Care Reform into law. The health care reform law encases benefits such as affordability, accessibility, comfort and ease for low income families worrying about going broke if they get sick, health care cost will be capped, and insurance companies will not be able to deny applicants due to pre-existing conditions. Accessibility simply means that insurers would have to expand insurance coverage to all Americans. This means eliminating pre-existing conditions that prevented people from gaining insurance coverage, insuring portability across states, mandating the purchase of insurance coverage, standardizing claims to reduce paperwork and providing benefits and cost information to American people allowing them an opportunity to choose a plan that best fit their needs (Shortell, 2009) Affordability has left uninsured and low income families helpless due to high premiums. The public option is an idea that hopes to establish competition that will drive down insurance premium costs between private insurers (Shortell, 2009). Those who are uninsured or low in income would have their premiums subsidized up to 400% (Shortell, 2009). Employers with more than 50 employees will be forced to provide coverage for all, or they will have to pay fines. It will make health insurers more responsible. For example, health insurance carriers are forbidden from placing lifetime dollar limits on policies, from denying coverage to children because of pre-existing conditions, and from cancelling policies because someone gets sick. It will expand health coverage to all
Today there are many Americans without health insurance. This is due to the lack of financial resources they have to pay for the insurance , perhaps due to the unemployment rate and also due to those (younger generation) who choose to opt out of paying for health insurance. Many Americans live day to day hoping they will not get sick. From the results of these rates, President Obama signed the US Health Care Reform into law. The health care reform law encases benefits such as affordability, accessibility, comfort and ease for low income families worrying about going broke if they get sick, health care cost will be capped, and insurance companies will not be able to deny applicants due to pre-existing conditions. Accessibility simply means that insurers would have to expand insurance coverage to all Americans. This means eliminating pre-existing conditions that prevented people from gaining insurance coverage, insuring portability across states, mandating the purchase of insurance coverage, standardizing claims to reduce paperwork and providing benefits and cost information to American people allowing them an opportunity to choose a plan that best fit their needs (Shortell, 2009) Affordability has left uninsured and low income families helpless due to high premiums. The public option is an idea that hopes to establish competition that will drive down insurance premium costs between private insurers (Shortell, 2009). Those who are uninsured or low in income would have their premiums subsidized up to 400% (Shortell, 2009). Employers with more than 50 employees will be forced to provide coverage for all, or they will have to pay fines. It will make health insurers more responsible. For example, health insurance carriers are forbidden from placing lifetime dollar limits on policies, from denying coverage to children because of pre-existing conditions, and from cancelling policies because someone gets sick. It will expand health coverage to all
References: Anderson, Gerard and B. Frogner. “Health Spending in OECD Countries: Obtaining Value Per Dollar.” Health Affairs, 2008, 27(6): 1718 – 1727. Audet, Anne-Marie, M