Question

What are your thoughts on the ACA as a plan to provide health benefits? Should it be repealed? Is it helping people? Is it affordable? Most importantly, how does this heath care plan compare to other countries? Are there changes you would recommend after what you have learned so far in this course?

Answer 1

Health care is very important to the US economy and the primary target of health policy is to promote and protect the health of individuals and the community. Today, the healthcare industry is an important part of the United States economy. Although the goal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is to extend health care coverage to majority of the Americans, however could still leave 10 million people uninsured. The foremost main reason they lack health insurance is because of the high premium that can’t afford it. The young and healthy avoided the high costs, and when the young and healthy drop out of insurance pools, it further drove up the costs for others. Furthermore most Americans either remain confused or completely unaware of the implications of the benefits of law. These lack enough information on the understanding of how the PPACA will affect their family. It is higher among the two groups the law is likely to benefit most — low-income households and the uninsured.

A single-payer healthcare system refers to the system that allows countries to budget their health care spending. It also permits the country to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs and medical devices by using the bulk purchasing power. Canada and the United Kingdom healthcare system allows universal coverage and a single payer. In the United States, equity and fairness goals tend to be defined in terms of minimum standards rather than in terms of equal treatment for equal requirement, or equality of access.

Numerous factors are vital for developing sound health strategy and policies; and my recommendation will be increasing the competition, reducing regulation, and creating pricing transparency. A little healthy competition is always a great thing; elimination of redundancies or ineffective regulatory practices is a vital step to control the costs and ensuring the best experience for both sides of the equation and creating the transparency in pricing for avoidance of the inadequate explanation for the cost and the feeling that hospitals seem to charge at random. Thus these three steps can certainly take to improve the current state of affairs by "fixing" the health care system and reducing health care costs