Health Care Reform
Outline
Introduction/Thesis: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed by President Obama on March 23 in 2010 has both supporters and opponents (Ryan, n. d.). The battle over the necessity of the law and the tax imposed by the law on those Americans who refuse to buy (or simply cannot buy) one of health insurance plans (The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 2010) led to a hearing in the Supreme Court. Yet, on June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the law (Liptak, 2012). It is Obama’s victory and people’s defeat at the same time, since the US government strengthened its power to impose taxes and laws upon American citizens; furthermore, it did not solve the problem of health care unaffordability in the USA. Despite all the advantages of the Affordable Care Act (it surely has advantages listed below) it does not guarantee that all US citizens will be covered. America needs a universal single payer health care system, which has been enjoyed in all civilized countries for many decades, only then American people will feel truly protected and no one will ever die because of their incapability to pay for expensive treatment or a health care plan.
Historical background of Obama’s health care reform
A. All the way from a talk to the law of the land.
1. Obama’s ideas of universal health care (Obama on Single Payer, 2008) and his actual reform.
2. The Affordable care act is criticized.
3. The act is finally upheld by the Supreme Court (Liptak, 2012).
II. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.
A. Pluses of the law.
1. The law makes health care insurance plans, which people already have, more protected and cheaper (Sebelius, 2012).
2. Health insurance companies cannot reject health coverage whenever they want. Under the provisions of the law, they cannot refuse health coverage to patients with pre-existing conditions.
3. The law promises that the majority of Americans will have health insurance.
B. Minuses of the law
1. The law does not eradicate health insurance companies; they will exist and continue making American health care costly and risky, since as long as reimbursement for medical procedures depends on the decisions that insurance companies make, American citizens will not feel absolutely safe.
2. Under the Affordable Care Act, businesses become too expensive to have because of federal tax credits. “Many experts believe the law’s overall changes will result in lower costs for some businesses and higher costs for others (Ryan, n. d.).”
3. A great number of American people will remain uninsured, since to them it is less expensive to pay a fine for being without health insurance than to buy a still expensive health insurance plan. As a result, they will lose a certain amount of money, which will go to the state treasury, and stay without health insurance as before.
III. The need for a universal single payer health care system
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