Healthcare Cost Issues in the US

A dominating trend influencing party affiliations and electoral alignment has been the spread of healthcare costs in the United States. Capitalist economies encounter inequalities in the allocation of income, and health care programs need to guarantee that quality healthcare can be provided by most parts of the community. For the uninsured subgroup, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) offered options; however, most Americans also fail to deliver the cost-sharing estimates. The ACA works on the concept of developing a pool whereby high-cost users access services in a timely manner, supported by all parties, including low-cost users. The disparities in cost-sharing are extreme whereby 5% of the population caters for the healthcare costs of nearly half of the population through tax incentives and public systems (Jost 1). The ACA increased cost disparities by including adults and children whose income levels do not surpass 138% of the poverty level as defined by the federal government. However, 19 states were able to exclude the coverage after a Supreme Court verdict, indicating the rift between federal and state laws. Senator Bernie Sanders proposed a single-payer healthcare strategy that could save the average American household approximately $6,000 a year; however, the measure appears unfeasible since it would potentially disrupt most existing plans (Jost 1). Moreover, from a political standpoint, the pre-existing healthcare systems have a strong influence making Sander’s proposal unrealistic. Therefore, there exists a challenge within the ACA whereby the middle-class and higher-income segments opt not to subscribe to the healthcare pools that do not favor them, choosing to pay penalties that are less costly. Healthcare insurance is necessary for affordable healthcare; therefore, amendments to the ACA can provide potential solutions. Changes should target the middle- income population to encourage them to include their resources in the fund pools. Moreover, the federal government should own expansion care policies that target the adult population and low-income brackets such as children and pregnant women. The federal government caters to most of the funding in the expansion population; therefore the changes will not only ensure efficient re-distribution of costs but also a reduction in state interference.Works CitedJost, Timothy. “Affordability: The Most Urgent Health Reform Issue For Ordinary Americans.” Healthaffairs, 29 Feb. 2016. Web. 8 Feb 2017.