Discussion Questions #1
Health insurance has become an ongoing issue in America, in regards to accessibility, quality, and cost for Americans. Since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010 some of the issues have been alleviated. For example, a decrease in the amount of uninsured Americans. The percentage of uninsured Americans has fallen from 16% to 11%, concluding that the 10 million Americans who had no insurance prior to 2013 are now insured. A primary goal of the ACA was to reduce drastically the number of uninsured. To achieve this goal the act allows children to stay under their parents’ insurance plan until age 26, requires employers of 50 or more employees, as well as uninsured Americans to receive coverage or risk paying a penalty, and most importantly make health insurance more affordable for Americans. Having active roles as the payer, regulator, and healthcare provider I believe that government has always played a significant role in the funding of the uninsured, but with no control of prices and quality of goods, market forces should continue to steer this dimension of healthcare.
Each of the three levels of government owns and operates large numbers of healthcare institutions. (Jonas & Kovners, 2011). Providing funds for the uninsured falls under the job responsibility of the local government which they own and operate acute care hospitals and public health clinics. Medical treatment for the uninsured is often more expensive than for the insured, because the uninsured are more likely to delay or postpone treatment, or simply go to an emergency room. The uncompensated costs from the delayed treatments become a forced burden on taxpayers, providers, or the insured. Market forces play a major factor as to why the uninsured would rather go to an emergency room to receive treatment than a hospital. Market forces control on good and service