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After Barack Obama became the President of the U.S.A. in 2009, health care reform has become one of the key issues on the domestic political agenda. The administration’s plan includes creating a universal system of health care, which would cover the entire population of the country: many millions of Americans still have no health insurance. The reform has caused considerable debate: conservatives accuse the president of “socialism” and consider his policy unnecessarily wasteful. Despite the opposition of Republicans, on March, 21, 2010 the reform bill was finally approved in Congress, and two days later it was signed by the president. On March, 30 an additional law was signed, which included a compromise amendment to the plan of the reform. The general idea of implementing the reform consists in the fact that unless health care system is not changed, the U.S. can fail in managing crisis.
The American health care system is arranged as follows. Slightly more than 15% of the population, mostly people over 65, use Medicare program. 13% – or the poorest layers – use Medicaid. Both programs are funded by the state. 58% of citizens are insured by their employers. The economic crisis led to the fact that the number of Americans who cannot afford medical insurance rose in 2008 from 43,1 million up to 43,8 million people (about 14% of the population). According to forecasts, in 2010, up to 15% of the U.S. population can remain without health insurance (McWilliams 458).
At the same time, the U.S. spends more than $ 2 trillion on healthcare, which is 16% of GDP. This amount can rise to 20% of GDP by 2015. Health is also expensive for individuals. Despite huge spending, nearly 50 million U.S. citizens have no health insurance(Jain 63). The problem is that not all the uninsured U.S. citizens are poor and can use Medicaid free of charge.
The middle class people have the greatest difficulties – they have certain income, which does not allow them to rely on public assistance (Jain 65-67). However, they may not have insurance from an employer or have health problems, which are not covered by this insurance. The annual insurance for an adult without chronic diseases costs 2,5 thousand dollars. But, as a rule, the Americans have to spend extra money for treatment. Getting ill, an average American citizen can go bankrupt because of the bills from medical institutions. About 50% of all bankruptcies are linked to the need for expensive treatment. Thus, one becomes dependent on voluntary associations, if one is not poor enough to get into Medicaid program. Mortality among these people is 25% higher than the average national level (McWilliams 468-69).
President Barack Obama called the enormously fast growing medical expenses a time bomb that can bring the American economy to the bankruptcy. Healthcare system reform was one of Obama’s election program points. The reform initiated by Obama is the largest in American health care over the past 40 years. In accordance with the law, health insurance will cover additional 32-35 million Americans who are currently uninsured and change current situation with healthcare.
So, what will health care reform give the Americans? Above all, for the first time in the U.S. history, more than 90 % of the population will have access to medical services (Jain 72-73). For the first time all the Americans will be obliged to acquire insurance. Otherwise, they can be fined. Those citizens who are unable to buy insurance through private insurance companies, like most Americans do, need to be subsidized. Grants are to be provided by private companies and the state. Parents will be able to offset the costs of treatment of children through their health insurance policies until their children reach the age of 26 (Spigelman 46-49).
Insurance companies can no longer refuse to cover the cost of treatment for their customers under false pretenses and will be obliged to insure people with chronic diseases. Special federal agency will be called upon to deal with an unreasonable increase in insurance premiums, and other illegal practices of private companies, such as refusal to enter into insurance contracts with the already sick people. Competition in the market will allow every American to find affordable insurance. Companies and businesses will be encouraged to assist their employees in health insurance provision.