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Health Care Reform Bill

Introduciton

Medical impoverishment is almost unheard of in wealthy countries other than the US. The United States spends a greater portion of total yearly income in the nation on health care than any United Nations member state except for East Timor (Timor-Leste), although the actual use of health care services in the U.S., by most measures of health services use, is below the median among the world's developed countries.

According to the Institute of Medicine of the United States National Academies, the United States is the "only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage". (Igel, 12) Americans are divided along party lines in their views regarding the role of government in the health economy and especially whether a new public health plan should be created and administered by the federal government. Those in favor of universal health care argue that the large number of uninsured Americans creates direct and hidden costs shared by all, and that extending coverage to all would lower costs and improve quality. Opponents of laws requiring people to have health insurance argue that this impinges on their personal freedom and that other ways to reduce health care costs should be considered. Both sides of the political spectrum have also looked to more philosophical arguments, debating whether people have a fundamental right to have health care which needs to be protected by their government. (Igel, 12)

Recent reform efforts under the Democratic-controlled 111th Congress and President Barack Obama have focused on two bills: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (known as the "Senate bill"), which became law on March 23, 2010 and was shortly thereafter amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (H.R. 4872) (which became law on March 30). No Republicans supported either bill. Reuters and CNN summarized the March 2010 reforms and the year in which they take effect.

Current figures estimate that spending on health care in the U.S. is about 16% of its GDP. In 2007, an estimated $2.26 trillion was spent on health care in the United States, or $7,439 per capita. Health care costs are rising faster than wages or inflation, and the health share of GDP is expected to continue its upward trend, reaching 19.5% of GDP by 2017.

In fact, government health care spending in the United States is consistently greater, as a portion of GDP, than in Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom and Japan (countries that have predominantly public health care). And an even larger portion is paid by private insurance and individuals themselves. A recent study found that medical expenditure was a significant contributing factor in 62% of personal bankruptcies in the United States during 2007. (Igel, 12)

The U.S. spends more on health care per capita than any other UN member nation. It also spends a greater fraction of its national budget on health care than Canada, Japan, Germany or France. In 2004, the U.S. spent $6,102 per capita on health care, 92.7% more than any other G7 ...