...Aspiration, Short on Detail Report on Universal Health Coverage Sujatha Rao The recommendations of the Planning Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Access to Universal Healthcare are significant because they make explicit the need to contextualise health within the rights. However, the problem with the report is that it does not ask why many of the same recommendations that were made by previous committees have not been implemented. The HLEG neither recognises the problems, constraints and compulsions at the national, state and district levels nor offers any solutions on how to deal with them. I The author is grateful to Sunil Nandraj for his insightful comments and suggestions which helped in writing this article. Sujatha Rao (ksujatharao@hotmail.com) is a former secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. n October 2010 the Planning Com mission constituted the High Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The group in its report submitted in late 2011 made sev eral recommendations pertaining to human resources for health, access to drugs, social determinants of health, governance, financing, and people’s par ticipation. A majority of the recommen dations find resonance in earlier expert committee reports. The recommendations made in earlier reports include universal health cover age as a right of every citizen (Bhore, 1946; constantly raised by civil society); increasing public health spending to 3% of GDP (National...
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... and health coverage wait time objections, the United States should enact universal health coverage because it would extend quality health coverage to all citizens, reduce employer labor costs, provide constant health coverage, and enable patients to practice preventative healthcare. 2. Topic Sentence for Advantage Section: Universal health coverage should be enacted within the United States because it would provide quality health coverage to all citizens, reduce the labor costs paid by employers, provide continuous health coverage, and allow patients to practice preventative healthcare. A. Advantage...
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...What role does early American history have to play in the quest for Universal Health Coverage in the U.S. during the 20th century? Fiona Nelson-Lafuse ENG122 Emily Fancy 18th February 2013 INTRODUCTION The topic question for this research paper is, “Most developed countries have universal health coverage. Why doesn’t the United States have universal health coverage? There have been repeated attempts by many different legislators over the past 150 years to introduce some form of universal health coverage to this country; and given the successive failures, it seems crucial to investigate early American history to uncover the origins of this steadfast resistance to universal health coverage; and gain an understanding of the impact those early citizens have had from the time of the Constitution on down through subsequent generations in their quest to keep universal health care off the legislative table. Despite the fact that the Constitution does not explicitly provide for universal healthcare, and there has been constant resistance to any attempts to bring it in, during the period 1900 - 1920, it seemed likely universal health coverage would pass into law – then at the last moment it failed. In the period between 1902 and 1965, 19 attempts were made to push universal health care coverage into legislation; and before this paper moves on to examine the role of social, political and commercial interests in these failures, it is important to consider...
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...Health Care Necessity for a Universal Health Care System in America Health care reform has recently become top priority for policy makers, and health administrators. The current health care system faces many costly problems for the uninsured/underinsured, employment-based insurance coverage, and financially burdened health service providers. Although policy makers have made many attempts to raise the number of insured, through programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, the number of uninsured Americans continues to rise. Currently 45 million American have no health insurance and children make up approximately 10 million of that number reported by the U.S. Census Bureau (8-10). The politicians and largely the medical societies, appear to be unable to decide what society’s responsibility in health care should be to those who are unable to purchase basic coverage. Surveys conducted by institutions like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation have noted that the proportion of people named the uninsured as the single most important domestic issue. Additionally, the Woods and Kaiser Foundation study concludes 55% of the participants expressed willingness to pay some level of taxes to cover the uninsured (1-4). The majority thought that the uninsured should be offered a federal funded health care package. Universal health can enhance health and well-being by promoting access to high-quality care that is cost effective, efficient, safe,...
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...Universal Health Coverage: A Possibility for the United States Brittannie DePew Eng 122 David Moskowitz 9/21/2013 Medical costs are getting too expensive. Ever fought with your insurance providers because they refused to pay for care, or struggle to find an “in-network” provider? I know a woman whose name I will change for her privacy and the struggles she is going through are a perfect example of an issue many people face when dealing with insurance; Nancy’s (name changed for privacy) story is a perfect example of how our healthcare system is no longer working for the people. Nancy is this woman whose husband recently passed away. Nancy used to work for county and county workers cannot receive social security; and Nancy is too young for Medicaid by six years. Unfortunately, when Nancy’s husband passed away her healthcare began to go with him. Unless Nancy can find a way to pay the provider over a thousand dollars a month Nancy will lose her health care, because it was healthcare provided through her husband. She has tried searching for other providers but she cannot get the same coverage for any less money, when she found a couple that were close to the same coverage they did not accept pre-existing medical conditions. As a matter in fact many companies do not accept pre-existing medical providers. There are no options for Nancy; and that is wrong. There are many reasons why the United States should seriously consider Universal healthcare. Universal healthcare should...
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...Comparison of Health care Leadership Roles in the United States and Mexico Cheryl K. Haggerty University of Phoenix - Online Contemporary Leadership Issues DHA733 Dr. Patricia Thomas September 06, 2010 A Comparison of Health care Leadership Roles in the United States and Mexico Mexico and the United States have each adopted a goal to provide the best possible, health care for all citizens. With this in mind, each country has identified a different approach to reaching this goal. A discussion of similarities and differences are addressed in the following paragraphs as well as an explanation of why different approaches exist. Similarities in Leadership Roles in the Countries of Mexico and the United States Similarities can be seen in the manner Mexico and the United States governments plan to provide funding for a universal health care plan. Both countries plan to fund universal health care through taxation. The countries leaders have a goal to provide health care for all citizens, regardless level of income or ability to pay. Mexico is unsure how to reach those in remote areas, just as the United States has concerns regarding those who live on the street or in extreme remote locations and finally, both countries are unsure how they are going to provide enough health care providers. This is especially true in more remote settings. Additional similarities are a desire for both countries to have best outcomes as a part of the universal health...
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...topic Free Health Care topic Provide universal coverage represent a once in lifetime opportunity to improve the lives of everybody in the country. This simply means both the uninsured as well as the insured. For everybody in the country, health insurance represents peace of mind. Having a better insurance means no one worries for you or your family. However, with present day insurance, most families are just one major illness away from bankruptcy which is why changes need to be made in the current system and universal health is the best solution. As of October 2010, poll show that 24 million Americans are without coverage. Million more don’t have full coverage or the right type of insurance. This means far too many people in the country are not getting adequate care and treatment for medical problems. Recently polls shown that out of pockets costs for health cares are astronomical, causing many to simply go without. A universal health care system would close the gap, and give everyone access to preventative care as well as treatments for any medical problems. Americans access to health care under universal coverage is no longer dependent on people’s ability to pay high premium for private insurance company, instead the government and the taxpayers take care of the bills. Healthcare system equitable, will give everybody in the country choice and control over their health. It will no longer be an industry wide monopoly of controlled price and coverage designated...
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...RTT1 Task 3 Juanita Mortensen Western Governors University RTT1 Task 3 A1. Country comparison The healthcare systems of Switzerland and the United States are quite similar in some aspects and vastly different in others. In Switzerland, the healthcare is universal and available to all. It is provided by private individual insurance companies and subsidized by the government when needed. Basic health insurance is required to be purchased within 3 months of residency or after birth and is an individual’s choice as to what carrier they choose. Of course, there are exceptions to this mandate but they are very few.("Healthcare in Switzerland," “n.d.”, para. 1) Because of this requirement, 99.5% of the population in Switzerland has healthcare coverage.(Roy, 2011, para. 13) The basic health insurance is purchased by the consumer with the option of purchasing supplemental plans to the basic health plan. The supplemental plans are how the insurance companies make a profit.("Healthcare in Switzerland," “n.d.”, para. 12) A few commodities that are covered by the basic health plan are: outpatient and emergency treatment, medications that are on an official government list, maternity care including childbirth, and abortions up to 12weeks gestation. The supplemental plans have a wide range with some consisting of private or semi-private beds, dental care, and eye care.("The Swiss Healthcare System," “n.d.”, para. 7 & ll) The price and benefits of medical treatment, hospitalizations...
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...Health Care Utilization The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act otherwise known as “Obamacare”, was signed into law in 2010. It was implemented to make health insurance more affordable to people and to increase access to a more affordable health care insurance. Although it works through the existing health care industry, it is still a political target from both ends of the political spectrum. The conservatives prefer to remain silent and not have any involvement into the health care system. The liberals that do agree with the health care reform do not like the “Obamacare” because the for-profit insurance company model stays the same instead of a single payer system administered through the government. Implementation of Obamacare “Obamacare” was rolled out to be spread over several stages rather than being rolled out at once. After the signing of the law, certain parts of the law was implemented. A couple of those changes implemented as part of the law are children remaining on their parents insurance until age 26 and people not being denied insurance coverage due to pre-existing health conditions. The expansion of access to health care was also written into the law. This mainly referred to the younger adults whose income was too low to be able to afford health insurance and for those people with chronic health issues in which pre-existing caused them to be denied new insurance plans. The individual and business mandates and the state insurance...
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...Alternatives………………………………………………………………………………………………………10 Evaluation Criteria………………………………………………………………………………………………………10 Policy Recommendation……………………………………………………………………………………………..12 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..13 References………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….14 Introduction Recent health care reform legislation, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and Education Reconciliation Act, which is now being referred to simply as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. Since the 20th century, several United States presidents have faced challenges in passing national health reform into law. Before the ACA was enacted, national health reform proposals under different governments in the United States faced strong opposition from various stakeholders and multiple interest groups. Therefore, the enactment of the ACA is revolutionary healthcare reform in the history of the United States. Healthcare insurance is a program that assists in paying medical expenses through privately purchased insurance or social welfare programs. In other words, health insurance is a system that provides protection against health costs. This newly legislated healthcare reform offers health insurance for all Americans and legal residents in the United States. Furthermore, the law was enacted to control the constant increase of healthcare costs as well as improving the healthcare delivery system in the...
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...2012 Currently in America, there are very few Americans who have health insurance, and the number is becoming fewer and fewer every day. Statistic shows that there are more than 46 million Americans with no health insurance. This has become a major crisis due to the fact that employers have stopped insuring their employees because the cost is so high. The total cost in United States was more than 2.4 trillion dollars in 2007. Our President and congress agree that they system needs to be changed, however there is no solid agreement on what how it should be changed. The health care reform is a continuous debate, but there are has yet to be a solution found. Over recent years there have been major discussions about the health care reform. One of the major problems is that Health care is becoming more and more expensive, and no one seems to know why it continues to become more expensive. However, with such costly premiums fewer and fewer Americans are becoming not insured. Due to this, the United States is facing unprecedented crisis in access to health care. Since the beginning of the recession there have been growing numbers of Americans who can no longer depend on health care coverage from their employers. Because of the recession this number has continued to accelerate. There is an increasing demand for health care services, but there are not enough physicians or specialist to meet this type of demand. Health care cost is the most threatening thing to the United States. However...
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...The United States is known as one of the greatest, if not the greatest nation in the world. It is known for having the most productive economy, and the most powerful military in the world. So, my question is, why wouldn’t a superpower like the U.S. provide its citizens with a universal healthcare system? Of the 25 healthiest nations in the world it is the only one without it. With an estimated 45 million people in the U.S uninsured, it baffles my mind that the so called “greatest nation” still does not have this system. I personally all persons should have the right to be provided with health coverage, and that our nation should be obligated to provide it to us. During th (Thibodeaux, 2010)ese next few pages I will be discussing what a universal health care system entails, how it is provided, and its advantages and disadvantages....
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...The United States health care system is quite unique when compared to Canada’s health care system and those of other countries. Canada provides universal coverage, is privately run and is publicly funded through taxes. The U.S. is the only industrialized country that does not offer universal health coverage. The U.S. is said to be part of the developed world in terms of technology, well trained health professionals and job opportunities although when it comes to health outcomes it doesn’t do so well. Available studies suggest that the health outcomes in Canada were superior to those compared the U.S. The U.S. faces multiple barriers that have made their health care system inconsistent and so costly. In the past the system focused on revenue maximization instead of quality care at an affordable cost. The U.S. spends twice as much more per capita on health expenditures when compared to Canada (O'Neill & O'Neill, 2007). Canada spends much less on health care and yet performs better than the U.S. in health outcomes, infant mortality and life expectancy. A comparison of the U.S. health care system and Canada’s system performance will be evaluated along with the health outcomes that have resulted from each system. The U.S. has a multi-payer private health care system where Canada has a single payer and is mostly a publicly funded system. “In Canada in order to receive full funding for health insurance the provincial government must meet the following criteria: care available to all...
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...Health Care Utilization Danjerell Burks HCS/235 July 16, 2014 Joseph Chiappetta The Affordable Care Act started changing the country’s health-care system almost from the moment it was signed into law in March 2010. It has already expanded coverage of young adults by allowing them to stay on their parents’ plans until they turn 26, outlawed lifetime limits on what insurance will cover, lowered the cost of drugs for seniors on Medicare, caused 13 million consumers to get premium rebates totaling some $1.1 billion, and expanded access to free preventive care for patients of all ages. Last summer it survived a challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court. But all that is prelude to the transformation coming in 2014, when almost all Americans will have access to affordable health insurance that covers essential care. By Oct. 1, 2013, every state will have an insurance exchange—an organized marketplace where individuals and small-business owners can select from among the entire qualified private health plans available in their area. It’s expected that most consumers will shop on their state’s marketplace online, but they can also shop by phone, through brokers, or with the personal assistance of trained helpers called Navigators. There will also be help available for consumers who don't speak English. The health care law was intended to expand the government-run health program for low-income Americans to cover up to 16 million more people with household incomes up to 133 percent...
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