The Future of Healthcare
History of Healthcare
Healthcare in the USA dates back to the late 1800s when industrial revolution gave birth to steel mill jobs that involved a number of injuries and death for various reasons. With this revolution occurred the growth of unions that worked on the creation of sickness and injury protection rights for their workforce.
Later, with the turn of the century came organized medicine that triggered the growth of organizations like American Association of Labor Legislation (AALL) that played an important role in healthcare. Through the 1900s, several US presidents took healthcare legislation under their wings, resulting in the passing of several acts, including War Risk Insurance Act (1914), Social Security Act (1935), Health Maintenance Organization Act (1973), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (1996), and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (1997).
Healthcare in the 2000s
The decade 2000s saw a complete revolution of the healthcare system. During his term, President George W. Bush made changes to the Medicare bill that included prescription drugs coverage through the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (2003). When President Barack Obama took office in 2009, he signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which was referred to as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) in 2015.
The new act mandated that all Americans should be covered through an open insurance marketplace, regardless of their pre-existing medical conditions. Additionally, employers of large companies were required to provide health covers to all staff and subsidies for all citizens. Although there are many oppositions and objections, the open market ACA has provided affordable healthcare coverage to over 11 million Americans annually in the past 6 years.
The Future of Healthcare
The future of healthcare in America can be said to be bleak at this point in time. This is because the current President, Donald Trump, ran an aggressive campaign against the ACA open marketplace system, citing its inefficiency and costly maintenance. This aggressive campaign continued after winning the election with the President calling for a total abolishment and replacement of the act. Repealing the act has not proved an easy task for the congress though.
The calls to repeal and replace ACA have not addressed how the current subscribers of the system will be accommodated, what kind of plan the new government will put in place to replace the currently functional ACA, or if insurance companies will still be expected to cover individuals with pre-existing conditions. The number of questions and possibilities regarding the future of America’s healthcare is endless but necessary.
When MACRA was enacted, it provided clear guidelines as to how and when Medicaid and Medicare services could be paid for. With the repeal and replace movement in high pitch and the repeated proclamation that every American citizen must have access to health insurance, experts worry that the latter may not be achievable if ACA is repealed. By repealing and replacing the ACA, the congress will ideally be required to make the necessary adjustments to the MACRA.
On the other hand, the idealistic premise of the ACA that plans to create a 100% healthcare coverage for America’s citizenry could be referred to as unrealistic, unachievable and impractical. This is because, since its inception, this socialized form of medicine known as ACA has been marred with high cost of medication and services, reduced access to quality healthcare facilities, negative external influence from medical professionals, fewer treatment options, and reduced quality of service. If the socialized medicine model is pushed any further, the healthcare system would undeniably crush and burn.
In conclusion, it is fair to say that the future of the American healthcare system is unclear for now. One thing we are certain of is that it may take a few more years for the new administration to completely abolish the current healthcare plan and put in place a foolproof, functional, affordable, and acceptable healthcare plan in place.
