Blog # 5 - Motified Thesis and Additional Body Paragraphs.

Natalia Duarte

Eng 103

Dr. McCormick
Natalia.Duarte89@gmail.com
          

                                                Research Paper Draft # 3

           President Obama’s Poorly Designed Health Care Reform.

                 

             The making of President Obama’s long campaign trail explains how the politician who emerged in an extraordinary election, learned the personal and political skills necessary to make history in American Politics and worldwide. Throughout his candidacy, Obama campaigned for a better health care reform. However, after more than a year in office, he signed the new health care bill that has sparked tension and controversy between democrats and republicans. Despite the President’s good intention to aid those who cannot afford to buy private health insurance or to force employers to provide their employees health coverage even in the smallest of business by 2014, many Americans still doubt the real benefits behind this bill. Instead of creating a whole new health system, the law tries to upgrade the current one.  The gap between how much Americans spend on health care and what they get in return occurs because they are embedded in a confusing system that gives them low value for their money, which makes people demand more than they need.  I believe that president Obama’s health care bill was rushed, poorly designed and it should have been implemented in a more inclusive, publicly funded way.

        

     The New health Care law will cause a costly and continuous economical downturn nationwide. Peter Grier, author of Health Care Reform Bill 101; Who Will Pay For Reform? states,“ Change like that doesn't come cheap. More specifically, change like that would cost about $940 billion over its first 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.” The law doesn’t make a single change to achieve its goal of insuring nearly all Americans. Instead, it provides a loose safety net designed to attract people who do not receive health coverage

through employment and can't afford to buy their own, who are unemployed, and those who have been dependent on their insurance due to pre existing conditions. After the bill is enacted in 2014, insurance companies can no longer deny coverage for pre-existing conditions, with the exception of immigrants who will neither benefit from this law nor Medicaid even if they pay out of their own pockets. Moreover, everyone must purchase health insurance or face a “$695 annual fee”. According to Arthur B. Laffer, author of How to Fix the Health-Care

Wedge, “a one trillion increase in federal government health subsidies will accelerate health-care inflation, lead to continued growth in health-care expenditures, and diminish our economic growth even further.” The bill plans to overtax small businesses, large employers and the rich. If business owners cannot afford their employees, the health-care recipients will lose their jobs. With the rise in unemployment, more people will have to depend on the government (welfare) to make ends meet. Additionally, they won’t be able to pay for either health insurance or imposed fees.

            Initially, America has the world’s most expensive health care cost. According to William E. Lafferty, author of Healing, Medical Care, and Health Service Organizations, “the United States has by far the most expensive health care system in the world per capita (per person).” Many indices of health care effectiveness shows that the United States fares very poorly in comparison to other developed capitalist countries. Almost all the other developed capitalist countries have universal health care. All their citizens are insured and their per capita costs are much lower. Even communist Cuba and capitalist Denmark provides free health care for all of its citizens and both countries have a lower infant mortality rate than the U.S.  Indeed, many may argue that they rather have freedom then free health care but sometimes I wonder if I am really living in the land of the free. Canada also has a much lower infant and overall mortality rate than the U.S. Holly Dressel, author of Has Canada Got the Cure? states,“ Most Americans are unaware that the United States is the only country in the world that doesn’t already have a fundamentally public-that is, tax-supported-health care system.”  In other words, the U.S has been divided between private and public health care funding for the past 30 years or so. The difference is that Canada has a single-payer system. The government pays for almost all medical costs. In contrast, the United States rely on many competitive private insurance companies (non-profit as well as for- profit) and employment-based insurance plans, ignoring the fact that this type of funding leads to the fall in public health.  It is also unfortunate that about half of all reasons for bankruptcy in the United States are due to a serious health problems, coverage denial, and costly medical bills. Unlike the current system, single payer would let patients choose their own doctors and put an end to the bureaucratic policies of private insurances. Health care would be both affordable and universal, and the inequalities in health care would no longer contribute to the overall inequalities of U.S. society. Therefore single-payer would be a big step in the right direction.

         One of the biggest gaps in the new health care system occurs within employment-based insurance. The original plan was to help families keep their health costs to an estimated 10% of income, until  Congress realized they couldn’t afford to support everyone. Large companies are expected to continue to offer coverage to their employees but we can’t say the same about the smallest companies. For this matter, Congress imposed the fine, which is completely understandable because every employee, be the firm large or small, should be entitled to health coverage. Since this bill was rushed and not carefully analyzed, something had to go wrong. The penalty that companies will pay for failing to offer coverage is lower than the actual cost of the insurance. So basically, employers have the choice to either provide insurance or pay the fine since it’s cheaper. Nothing will count against them as long as they’re paying the fine, the government won’t interfere.  To be continued…

         The New health Care reform will cause a continuous economical downturn. According to Arthur B. Laffer, author of How to Fix the Health-Care Wedge, “a one trillion increase in federal government health subsidies will accelerate health-care inflation, lead to continued growth in health-care expenditures, and diminish our economic growth even further.” The bill’s plan is to overtax small businesses, large employers and the rich. If business owners cannot afford their employees, the health-care recipients will lose their jobs. With the rise in unemployment, more people will have to depend on the government (welfare) to make ends meet. Additionally, they won’t be able to pay for either health insurance or imposed fees. Thomas E. Getzen author of Health Economics and Financing also states, “ An economic boom feels so good that people may not realize that such high growth rates are abnormal, that another recession is bound to come eventually” (314-15).   To be continued…

Work Cited:

 Dressel, Holly.  “Has Canada Got the Cure?”   Yes Magazine  4 Aug.  2006.  30 Oct. 2010< http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/health-care-for-all/has-canada-got-the-cure>.

Getzen, Thomas E. “Health Economics and Finance.” Ed. Wiley, 4^th edition.  New Jersey,  2010.    314-15.  Print.       

Laffer B. Arthur.  “How to Fix the Health-Care Wedge.”  The Wall Street Journal

5  Aug. 2009.  19 Oct. 2010 SB1000124052970204619004574324361508092006.html>.

 Lafferty E. William. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

Healing, Medical Care, and Health Service Organizations. Washington: DOHS, 2004. PDF file.

Regnier Pat, Michelle Andrews, and Amanda Gengler. " The Truth About Health

Care Reform." Money 39.4 (2010): 70-80. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 19 Oct. 2010.