American Literature

Then current president of the United States of America, president Barrack Obama argues that through the reformation of the health care, the American economy will strengthen. I do concur with him on the matter. Rising costs of healthcare are stifling Americas small businesses, and the president believes that by reforming the health care system, these businesses and the economy in general will be strengthened. It is clear that these small businesses are the ones creating half of the new jobs in the America, but they also pay up to 18 more for the very same insurance plans as any other large businesses (Mike, 2009). Health insurance reform is integral to laying a new foundation for our economy so that small businesses can grow and create new jobs.
All Americans have expressed concerns about the cost of health insurance and other medical expenses. The United States spends about 16 percent of the countries gross domestic product on health care, significantly more per capita than any other nation in the world. America is the only industrialized country that does not mandate access to health insurance for all citizens.

Most Americans receive health insurance at a subsidized cost through their employers, and many Americans like the insurance they receive through this way. However, in an economic environment in which some of the Americans are concerned that they may lose their jobs, many of these people may also have worries of loosing their health insurance cover. Moreover, small companies do not provide insurance for their employees, and insurance purchased independently can be significantly more costly to individuals than that provided by their employer. The US government provides assistance through Medicare for those aged 65 and above in age and Medicaid for those with low incomes. In addition to all these, about fifteen percent of the US population does not have insurance (Robinson, 3). However, some of the uninsured are temporary and others who can afford insurance choose not to purchase it.

The president argues that by reforming the health care, the country would have been saving a lot in terms of expenses and this will therefore strengthen the economy. He further says that he needs a health care system in which all the people can have insurance coverage, whether young or old, poor or rich, but he does not mean that the united states will switch to a system that is being used many countries in Europe and in Canada in which citizens are automatically given taxpayer-supported insurance. He proposes that every American can have a health care cover and this can be achieved in so many ways. It is crystal clear that the American economy can be strengthened by employing the best health care system. Huge health expenditures account for a high percentage of medical expenses for private insurers (Herlinger, 22).  The Obama plan would compensate the employer health plans for a portion of the catastrophic costs they incur above a threshold if they guarantee such savings are used to reduce the cost of workers premiums.

The president suggestion of reforming the health care system will also help a lot of patients in America through supporting disease management programs. It is clear that 75 of the total health care money is spent on patients ailing from one or more chronic conditions for instance diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. It would be required that providers that participate in the new public plan, Medicare or the Federal Employ Health Benefits Program utilize proven disease management programs (Kluchin, 7). This will improve quality care, give doctors better information and most importantly lower the costs. This lowering of costs in health care will mean expenses are lowered and thus strengthening the economy as there will be more money to do other projects.

Over 133 million Americans suffer from at east ore chronic disease. Aggregately, this will cost approximately 1.7 trillion dollars yearly. In the reform of health care agenda, the president offers to support implementation of programs and encourage team care that will improve coordination and integration of care of those with chronic conditions. This will require full transparency about quality and costs (Babbin, 15). The reform would require hospitals and providers to collect and publicly report measures of health care costs and quality, including data on preventable medical errors, nurses staffing ratios, hospital-acquired infections and other disparities in care. Health plans will also be required to disclose the percentage of premiums that go to patient care as opposed to administrative costs.

The new reform of health care would reduce costs through electronic health info system. Most medical records are still stored on paper. This makes it hard to coordinate care, measure quality or reduce medical errors and which costs twice as much as electronic claims. In the health care reform, the president will invest  10 billion a year over the next five years to move the US health care system to broad adoption of standards-based electronic health information systems, including the electronic health records, and will phase in requirements for full implementation of health information technology (The Daily Mail, 10). Further in the reform, the patients privacy will be protected.

The new health care reform will reduce costs in the insurance and drug markets. The insurance business today is dominated by a small group of large companies that has been gobbling up their rivals. These changes were supposed to make the industry more efficient, but instead premiums have skyrocketed by more than 87 . In the new health care reform, companies will be stopped from abusing their monopoly power through unjustified price increases. This plan will force insurers to pay out a reasonable share of premiums for patient care instead of keeping exorbitant amount for profits and administration (Umang, 56). This will promote wealth distribution as the rich will pay more premiums and the poor little premiums thus making the economy grow stronger.

Finally, the reform on health care would ensure lower prescriptions to drugs. This is the second growing type of health expenses Americans spend a lot of money to buy drugs. This is because pharmaceuticals companies in America are dominating other companies in the world. The new reform will allow Americans to buy their medicine from other developed countries if the drugs are safe and the prices lower outside the U.S. it will also be repealed to the ban that prevents the government  from negotiating with drug companies, which could result in saving as high as  30 billion in a year (John, 39). Finally, the president will work to increase the use of generic drugs in Medicare, Medicaid, and prohibit big name drug companies from keeping generics out of markets. All these programs will ensure cutting of expenses on health care that will finally make the American economy strong.

Health reform legislation now before the congress would begin to slow healthcare cost growth, the outcome employers need most. It would do so by conveying that business as usual and by directly changing incentives for higher quality and more efficient care. In addition, investments in health information infrastructure and data on what treatment work best for what patients will benefit all payers, private and public. And in the long run, it is the America that will benefit, by having its economy stronger than ever.