Health Insurance Proposed Changes

Need for Health Insurance Reform

Without doubt, there is a growing need for Health Insurance Reform in the United States. Not only from the experts and politicians, but the general public have come to realize that something is broken. No matter which way you view it, the United States is lowest in the list of Developed Countries on various healthcare parameters.

For example, the average person spends more on healthcare in the United States than any other wealthy country. At the same time, fewer healthcare options are utilized by them. When it comes to quality of healthcare, the United States ranks 38th among the list of industrialized nations. Finally, it is the only country among its peers not to have a public health care system.

Image Reform: seiuhealthcare775nw

Reforms however, are difficult to implement. The thorny issues involved hide many vested interests and till now, it has been in the interests of every President to leave the system alone and to pass the buck onto the those who will come after. However, Obama has made no bones aobut the fact that he is here to implement radical health insurance reform.

Proposed Reforms

Most people do believe that too much is spent on health care. Obama has made his position clear - he wants to implement a universal health care system before the next president sits in the chair. In order to do this, he has made several proposals - some of them controversial.

For example, one of his proposals is to remove patent protection for pharmaceutical products. His website states that he believes in putting medical research above "ideology". Not surprisingly, this is strongly opposed by the pharmceutical industry. At the same time, there can be no doubt that such patents contribute greatly to the cost of healthcare.

Also under consideration are proposals to ensure that employers contribute to a national health care system, or provide feasible health insurance policies to their employees.

Implemented Reforms

The government has already implemented reforms such as the Child Insurance Program which ensures that all children - even those of immigrants must have compulsory health insurance - though the parents have to wait five years to be eligible for medicaid. The reforms also allow an employee to get substantial subsidies for a certain time period on the COBRA protection that is offered after losing one's job.

Summary

There is no doubt in anyone's mind that one way or the other, health insurance reform is going to take place. Whatever the direction, it must be sustainable politically, and financially. And finding those paths will be the most difficult of all.