Health care current event

Presented by

Institution

Summary

The article relates to the issue of United States health insurance. The Obama administration wanted to terminate health insurance for about 115,000 people for failure to prove their identity as real U.S. citizens or legal immigrants. In addition, the administration wanted to stop financial aids for almost 363,000 people because they could not verify their incomes. According to the government records, 966,000 people had problems with citizenship and immigration records. By the end of May 2014, 310,000 people who never responded to the issue received letters demanding them to prove their identity. By September 5, 2014, 115,000 people had their health insurance coverage terminated for not responding. Some of the affected people through their lawyers claimed to have updated their immigration and citizenship papers through the government healthcare website, but the government did not take record of their submissions (Pear, 2014).

The article was selected because it focuses on the issues related to healthcare, finance, and funding. In addition, the article analyses a recent healthcare event because it was published on September 15, 2014. The issues addressed in the article demonstrated the reluctance of the government in keeping records of its citizens and immigrants. On the other hand, the article plays a significant role in exposing the lack of concentration on the government sector because they could not trace citizens and immigrants employment records because of an ineffective information technology department.

The information addressed in the article relates to the today’s healthcare environment in many aspects. Americans have in the past held demonstrations demanding the government to improve the quality of health care including reducing the cost of treatment. The introduction of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) by the U.S. President Barack Obama acted as a relief for citizens to access quality health care. The high cost of healthcare expenditures forced U.S. citizens to pay huge taxes to cater for healthcare services. For example, taxpayers contributed approximately 2.6 trillion U.S. dollars for healthcare services in 2010 (Winkfield, 2014). People had the right to demonstrate for their healthcare needs because they are deducted money for healthcare services, but faces threats on termination of their insurance.

U.S. financing has a strong relationship with the current economy. The high growth rate of health care spending in U.S. exceeds the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the population, and inflation rates. Lack of adequate financing because of the current economic status affects the provision of healthcare services. People are forced to pay for healthcare services using money from their pocket even with the availability of the affordable care act. The health care cost has raised because of the dramatic increase in health care spending bearing in mind only a small amount of GDP share is devoted to health care. Lack of health care finances because of increased care affects has a tremendous effect on the country’s GDP ().

Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 solves the problem of health care insurance presented in the article by expanding health insurance coverage, reducing cost of health care, and allowing more people to access health care services. ACA affects issues addressed in the article by ensuring full operation of the state-level exchanges that plays a significant role in sale and purchase of health insurance. In addition, the act offers care to both citizens and immigrants at a low rate compared to health insurance policies (Faguet, 2013).

Personal reflection on the issue

The issue addressed on the article carries a lot of weight especially when it comes to the improvement of the health care sector. The article shows how the government failed to protect its citizens’ rights and poor adaptation of technology. The state should implement the ACA to the letter in order to avoid such problems in the future.

References

Pear, R. (September 2014). U.S. to End Coverage Under Health Care Law for Tens of

Thousands. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/us/us-to-end-coverage-under-health-care-law-for-tens-of-thousands.html?_r=0

Winkfield, E. L. (September 2014). America’s Healthcare Crisis: Is There a Solution? Retrieved

from http://realtruth.org/articles/090203-005-health.html

Faguet, G. B. (2013). The Affordable Care Act: A missed opportunity, a better way forward.

New York: Algora Pub.