Fast Facts About Healthcare

Hello readers! I’m Alexis Greco, a freshman at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA. The team and I will be covering health care policy on this blog. I have a somewhat liberal bias. Personally, I was hoping for a public government healthcare option with a premium slightly higher than that of Medicaid’s to pass in Congress – my hopes have obviously been dashed as that proposal failed in the House! At the moment, it seems to me that the success of any healthcare bill in Congress is absolutely crucial to the health of the Democratic Party. Particularly with Mr. Brown’s election and the loss of a filibuster-proof majority, the ice seems to be getting thinner for the Democrats and President Obama’s image. I do feel that some sort of healthcare reform has to pass; healthcare is a patchwork system – unfortunately, one cannot realistically expect a comprehensive overhaul to come from Congress. Baby steps will need to be taken to reform health care. When looking at the hard facts, such as the rise in government health care spending and dip in health care efficacy, it is indisputable that health care needs to be reformed. It is vital to recognize that this bill may not reform all policies for the better; instead, it may simply change some for the worse.

At a very quick glance, there will be some sweeping reforms that will benefit the country as a whole:

1. Halt to the rise of health care spending, which has grown at alarming rates. Health care spending now eats up 16.2% of the USA’S GDP, in contrast to 13.7% of the GDP at the time of the last health care reform. Forbes
2. Up to 30 million people may be covered under the proposals (it’s important to mention that this will also create a new base of customers for insurance companies, depending on how many people choose to buy health care plans and how many choose to pay opt-out penalties.) NYT

And negatively:

1. The anti-trust exemption to private insurance companies was removed as a compromise between the parties and lobbyists.
2. Discrimination of lower-to-middle income citizens in abortion coverage. Both the House and Senate bills restrict these citizens' access to abortion coverage and government funding of the coverage itself, if retrieved. Regardless of one's views of abortion, this section of the bill blatantly targets lower-to-middle income citizens over higher-income citizens. NYT
3. Malpractice reform has not really been addressed in any proposed healthcare legislation.

This article from Breitbart, via the Drudge Report, describes President Obama's determination to pass some sort of healthcare bill through Congress.

Just some food for thought...