Healthcare Reform controversy

The article that I read was titled “Health Compromise Floated before Obama Speech”. The article talked about the public option, which we have discussed in class, and the money factor of the proposed Health Care Reform. This controversy is preventing the bill from being passed, which has been long overdue. The bottom line is that it is very hard to pass this bill because everyone can not come to an agreement.
First, the article spoke of the controversy of public option or not. Republicans oppose public option because they do not want a healthcare system ran by the government, which they have figured can endanger the participation of private insurance, as discussed in class. The purpose of the public option is to “keep insurance companies honest (Calmes, Pear, p.1)”. In my mind this means private heath insurance providers are trying to charge people too much money. So, maybe the public option will control the power of the private insurers in terms of fairness. The public option is also said to have better coverage at a lower cost, “improve quality and bring down costs (Calmes, Pear, p.1)”, and will not affect most Americans because of the fact that they already have health insurance as a result of their employers. Therefore, why is public option such a big deal if it will not change the current health insurance situation? From my understanding, the public option will help the people who do not have insurance and make sure the people who have private insurance does not get ripped off in addition to the private health insurance not getting hurt. What is the big deal? The government is supposed to be for the people and by the people, so why are government officials contradicting the government that is for the people. I do not think this is really a problem between public option or not, instead a fight between money and financial factors.
The other point that I took from the article is the money factor. The authors wrote that the new bill will “impose fees of $6 billion a year on insurance companies, $4 billion a year on manufacturers of medical devices, and $750 million a year on clinical laboratories (Calmes, Pear, pg.2)”, which will supposedly not directly increase costs of beneficiaries. I do not know much about beneficiaries, but I agree that the corporations and others dealing with healthcare should become more responsible with the costs with consideration to the public.
Also, the bill is going to address lower costs on insurance for people 25 years and younger. This is a great idea because I know many young adults who do not have health insurance, because they are not covered by their parents anymore. One of the main reasons why they do not have any is because it is too expensive. This is very dangerous and consideration is not drawn with these cases. For example, a friend of mine injured his finger while he was working on a car at his job. His job did not have health benefits, he did not have any, and he could not afford any. His finger ended up being injured badly and he had to go to the hospital. The hospital charged him for the cost, which turned out being very high because he had no insurance. Because of that, he was expected to pay the bill. Luckily he had a job to pay the bill over time, but this outcome could be worse for people who do not have health insurance or a job to pay their bill in the case of injury.
Other benefits in regards to cost are Medicaid will be channeled to different population groups and the government will decrease spending waste because reports will have to be done on the proportion of premium dollars spent on things other than medical care. The control over money spent and consideration of who should pay and not pay sounds beneficial. In majority, the plan is evenly distributed and the factors considered are on track.
The Healthcare Reform bill has been controversial for a long time period. There is a solution in progress, everyone is involved, and it is very important. Now, all there is to do is hope and wait.



Website: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/health/policy/08health.html?pagewanted=2