The American Health Care System and the Different Levels of Government
Regarding medical care, Americans have access to the best resources and services in the entire globe. Despite the fact that Americans profit from health care, it is severely lacking in terms of financing and delivery. (Wilson & Yoshikawa, 2007).
Challenges with the American Health Care System
Although millions of Americans live healthy lives and outlive other countries, the health and medical care systems are consistently very expensive, ineffective, and confusing. Many Americans are unable to access patient-centered care that is sufficient due to the inconsistent outcomes and healthcare quality in America. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which is mostly referred to as "Obamacare" has failed to bring solutions to the fundamental challenges that face American health care and it has ended up worsening the health care of American people. The Obamacare has imposed more problems on Americans than it has ever been in the past. For instance, it has led to increased cost, inefficiency and complexity through the application of a system of centralized, federal government mismanagement of top-down mechanism. The federal government has been unfair, unpopular unaffordable and unworkable (Wilson & Yoshikawa, 2007). The president has repeatedly promised American people to the contrary but instead, the law has led to the payment of higher premiums, private coverage loss by Americans and they are left with very few real choices.
Finding Solutions
Rather than repealing Obamacare which is one of the solutions to the healthcare of Americans, it would be better if the ownership of healthcare was encouraged to be personal through reformed tax treatment of Healthcare. There have been a lot of problems with tax exclusion because the tax exclusion is always unlimited and it usually does not reveal the actual cost of health care and in the long run increases the consumption. The benefits from the tax exclusion are not proportional since the workers with higher wages benefit more than those workers with low income (Hall, 2013). The reform of tax treatment as much as health insurance is concerned would provide the individuals a tax relief to their families as they purchase the health insurance plans they wish to have. This would make the health care system more affordable, simpler, neutral and fairer with regard to the way an individual obtains the health care coverage.
The Role of Government in Healthcare
Each level of American government has its unique roles and responsibilities as far as health care is concerned. It’s the role of the government to protect and ensure that the interests 0f its citizens are advanced including the provision of health care of high quality (Hall, 2013). The healthcare characterized by high quality is achieved through the culmination and strong partnership of the local, state and federal governments and the inclusion of private sector. For the best health care system to be achieved, there is need of combined efforts from both private and public sectors.
Local Government
The American Local government in one year spends about $85 billion on health care. This in other words translate that in every eight dollars one dollar is spent on health-related issues that include, protection of health in the community, provision of medical care to the individuals who are not insured and earn a low income, provision of health benefits to the retirees and the employees and assisting the states to finance Medicaid.
Federal Government
Under the federal government, President Donald Trump together with the congressional Republicans has declared to repeal Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) quickly. They are planning to commence with the supply that has an impact on revenues and spending -- including the taxes, Medicaid expansion, federal subsidies, and mandates that every person gets coverage and many employers supply it (Hall 2013). That will be effective if it only gets a majority of votes in the Senate.
References
Hall, M. A. (2013). Evaluating the Affordable Care Act: The Eye of the Beholder. Hous. L. Rev., 51, 1029.
Wilson, P. A., & Yoshikawa, H. (2007). Improving access to health care among African-American, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Latino lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations. The health of sexual minorities, 607-637.
