Media Analysis

Introduction

This paper presents analysis of healthcare issue that has taken the American political sphere by storm. Now, that President Obama has tabled his much-awaited healthcare reform, there have been both supporters and oppositions and the American media is projecting both views simultaneously to help people understand why President Obama's healthcare reform is a blessing or a nightmare for them.

During his presidential campaign, President Obama had promised the American public to finalize and put into law, his healthcare reform by the end of his first term in the White House. In the article titled, “Why Obama's Health Plan Is Better” written by David M. Cutler, J. Bradford Delong and Ann Marie Marciarille, the authors have highlighted the potential benefits the Obama healthcare plan will confer on the white-collar community in general and the federal employees in particular (online.wsj.com).

Discussion

Healthcare in the United States encompasses myriad activities, from basic research performed under the National Institutes of Health to Medicaid, which provides medical care to the very poor. Even though the federal government does not provide Americans with actual health insurance, it nonetheless funds over half of the nation's overall health expenditures. Because the United States does not have national health insurance, however, the discussion of healthcare in America tends to revolve around that issue. The fragmented nature of the U.S. healthcare system reflects the dominance of conservative, right-wing views that oppose government financing of medical care (online.wsj.com).

Previously, the economic policies of the administration, especially tax policies, did not help to alleviate poverty. Budget cuts and/or freezes in healthcare, education, and other social programs inevitably hurt the poor and other socially and economically disadvantaged groups and raised their vulnerability, pushing them further into poverty.

There was a backlash against President Bill Clin-ton's politics, which in two years had seen a tax increase, homosexuals admitted into ...