Policy Paper on American Healthcare

Policy Paper

Healthcare in America is a current debated topic. Many Americans are lacking healthcare insurance as of now. One of the issues with healthcare in the U.S. is that its outline is simple. This lack of complexity causes the exclusion of many people from obtaining affordable health care. The needs of people differ by many factors; therefore, a rigid mold will not satisfy all. Our current system doesn’t allow people access to insurance because of high costs. The United States’ economy is in a fragile situation and ergo so is that of many American’s. Although many argue that having healthcare is a privilege and not a right, everyone should be able to have access to medical and health services.

The cost of healthcare services through Medicaid is partially distributed based on one’s income.(Medicaid Eligibility,n.d.) People who are in most need , usually qualify for insurance while others who are more financially stable do not but are able to afford to pay for their own insurance. However there is a part of the population that does not fit into either category. Some of the groups that suffer the most from lack of insurance are middle class citizens, minorities and men. (Kaiser Family Foundation 2013) (Sanborn and Kurk 2013). Taking a closer look at the men group, it can be noted that men in the United States are more likely to have a higher obesity rate, cardiovascular diseases, and Diabetes than women do. (KFF 2013)When looking at the percent of men that have not had routine check-ups in more than two years versus the women, the men again had a higher percentage. It is likely that the reason these men are not going to visit the doctor is because of lack of insurance. Statistics from KFF have shown that only 17.9% of wom...

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...argue in “Expand Medicaid? Only if you want a state tax Increase” that ObamaCare would add some 50-60,000 individuals to the program” but would result in “higher taxes for the middle class, who will be charged with paying for the expansion.” This is another view to consider, does monetary exchange end up balancing out to be the same? Another option for insurance will be buying insurance through the New Health Insurance Marketplaces. Because several private companies will be competing for the customer’s attention, choices might be cheaper. Additionally the government will provide tax credits for most “poor” people (Gibson 2013) .Lastly, men and women will pay the same price for health insurance, hopefully encouraging more men to obtain insurance. Even after the reform 30 million will still not be insured (Gibson) but that will be 16 million less than the number now.