First things first. I’m the type of person who marches to the beat of my own drum and pays little attention to what’s going on around me, if it’s not concerning myself or immediate friends and family. This is something I’m definitely in the progress of working on, especially with the career I’m presently pursuing. So if you can imagine, for me to watch Frontline’s Sick Around America and Sick Around the World I was filled with an array of emotions. I was enlightened, stunned, distressed, and confused with the stories my country is facing in regards to healthcare. These emotions made me feel the U.S. to be filled with greedy money hungry people, who can care less about the overall well-being and health of others, because it takes money out of the pockets of the rich and powerful.
According to Obama Care Facts, the Affordable Care Act is designed to improve the U.S. healthcare system with affordable quality coverage, new benefits, rights and protections, rules for insurance companies, taxes, tax breaks, funding, spending, creation of committees, education, new job creation plus more (2014). From what I’ve watched in Sick Around America, the current Affordable Care Act has proven it can make changes in the lives of people today.
In the video, there was a lady who told her story on how she use to have cancer back in the 90’s but is currently healthy and cancer free. At the time she had to go through the individual market to find a company that will approve her for health insurance. She found an insurance company and passed their physical exam before she was approved to start her new policy. Soon, this same lady learned of a new cancer diagnosis and had to undergo some major surgeries. This latest information startled her new insurance company and they found the smallest reason to drop her, avoiding the possibility of having to pay her doctor bills. Even though she passed her physical exams proving she was healthy, they told her she committed fraud by not mentioning she have been spotting on her application. Her new insurance policy was rescinded and backdated effective before the policy became active.
The Obama Care Facts website summarizes how the Affordable Care Act changes this story by prohibiting rescissions of health insurance policies (2014). Insurance companies can no longer find honest mistakes on applications and deem members uninsurable, unless it’s a proven use of fraud (2014). No one can also be charged more money due to his or her health status or from being dropped from coverage due to pre-existing conditions (2014). The severity of this lady’s situation, gave her the right to pursue a lawsuit. The Affordable Care Act now guarantees people assistance with a new rapid and effective appeal process to reclaim their coverage (Obama Care Facts, 2014).
All in all, the U.S. still has some ways to go to perfect our healthcare policy. To get there, we must force ourselves to not be concerned on how much the doctor fees, administrative cost, lab fees, technology fees, and any other fees are going cost us. Basically, we shouldn’t be reinventing the wheel, but looking into best strategies used by other countries and shape them to best match our own. Putting the 3 limits into practice mentioned in Sick Around the World can be a start:
- Insurance companies must accept everyone and can’t make a profit on basic care
- Everyone’s mandated to buy insurance and the government pays the premium for the poor
- Doctor’s and hospitals must accept one standard of fixed prices
I agree with your point that we should not be reinventing the wheel. Our country is way too complicated. I like your idea about looking into the policies of other countries. I think looking inward is also a good way to find the right policy. Why not create a panel of doctors, nurses, technicians, administrators etc. who can talk efficiency and need? We never hear of that happening. I feel as if our government and men with fancy degrees are telling us what we need. What about asking the people that actually deliver the care?
I’m glad you are finally realizing that money is the guiding force in all this. Lets use that to our advantage and re-channel the money in the right direction so we are able to help as many as we can.
This was a good post. It’s important for all of us to realize that the ACA was created by a panel of doctors, nurses, patients and insurance company execs and that the political process both during and after has had a tremendous effect – both on the resulting ACA and on it’s implementation.
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