The Impact of Healthcare Costs on the Economy and Financial Security
The economy, the federal budget, and practically every American citizen's financial security are all impacted by healthcare costs. A strong healthcare system promotes academic success in children, professional productivity in adults, and overall longer, healthier lives for all Americans. Federal health care reform, however, has been a contentious issue in the US for more than 60 years. This is as a result of the numerous obstacles that the adoption of such a policy faces.
Obstacles to Healthcare Reform
One of the difficulties is that a measure needs the backing of the majority of Congress in order to pass, something that has been hard to achieve in the past since the president has to garner sufficient votes in the two houses of congress. Another challenge to passing the policy is that, the lobbies which represent special interests have a lot of influence in the nation and so they can oppose the passing of the policy. For instance, during the Clinton administration, he faced oppositions from the insurance industry and a lobby firm, and as a result, he was not successful in passing the policy. However, Obama, during his time, negotiated with the stakeholders and this saw him gain support for health reforms (Oberlander, 2010).
Complex Healthcare Structure and Legislative Factors
Moreover, the US has a complex healthcare structure such as the numerous payment programs (Medicare, Mayo Clinic and Medicaid among others) which poses challenges to the implementation of the healthcare reform policy. In addition, political and legislative factors can also hinder the passing of the policy. For instance, days later after Obama had signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, the matter was taken to court by the Conservative representatives arguing that the laws were not constitutional (Oberlander, 2010).
Ongoing Challenges
To cut a long story short, the challenges facing the passing of the health reform policy is far from over, given the fierce political battles, and the social and legislative challenges it faces.
Reference
Oberlander, J. (2010, June). Long Time Coming: Why Health Reform Finally Passed. Retrieved from Health Affairs: http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/29/6/1112.full
