Question

Healthcare Policy in the United States has been largely consumed over almost the past decade by Affordable Care Act. Why does universal access to healthcare continue to be debated in the United States, and in what ways is this discussion different from the healthcare discussion in other countries?

Answer 1

Universal Health Care:

Healthcare is the most basic needs which the government is obliged to fulfill. Most of the developed countries have already provided free healthcare for the citizens which are necessary for the holistic development of the humankind. In the current global scenario, people are being more and more aware of their rights and are participating more in the political processes directly or indirectly.

Access to free healthcare is no more a luxury for the individual but it originates from individual's 'right to life' which is the most basic fundamental right. American health system prior to the introduction of universal health care was very expensive, with one-fourth population without any health insurance policy. With spending on health per capita rising and most people not wanting to be “taxed more” for the refined health care for all the Americans, there was problem of health care for all Americans. Universal health care provides universal health coverage to all the citizens of United States without any discrimination on any ground.

Now with the introduction of Universal Health Care adequate measure has been taken by the government to make the health care system to be accessible to all irrespective of income, race or health cover.

The merits and demerits of universal health care are as follows.

Merits of Universal Health Care	Demerits of Universal Health Care
Equal right to better health care facilities by all without any discrimination	More imposed taxes to met subsidy expenditure
Less paper work	Will take time for implementation with increase in government expenditure.
No worries of medical bills	Chances of medical abuse.
Equal Human Rights approach.	Waiting time could be long to access the health care giver

The access under the Universal Health Care is different from other models of care such as IPA, PPO and POS in following ways.

IPA: list of independent physicians who are hired on negotiated rate to provide   to provide health care facilities in a given area with the sole purpose to invent and implement healthcare solution.

PPO: Under Preferred provider organizations model the insurer had the flexibility to visit ant physician or hospital not under the PPO network but the insurer had to pay the difference in the price of network and out-of-network physician as the insurance company has not negotiated discount rate with out of PPO network physicians.

POS: In point of service plan the individuals are required to designate an in-network physician to be his/her primary health care provider.

Universal health care system in other countries:

Germany has the world's oldest universal health care system, dating back to Otto von Bismarck's social legislation, which included the Health Insurance Bill of 1883. In the United Kingdom, the National Insurance Act 1911 marked the first steps there towards universal health care, covering most employed persons and their financial dependents and all persons who had been continuous contributors to the scheme for at least five years whether they were working or not. Most current universal health care systems were implemented in the period following the Second World War as a process of health care reform.