The Health Care Bill Should Be Passed

In defending President Obama’s health care reform policies and the inclusion of a Public Option, I will be focusing on the following: problems we as a nation are facing in the status quo, how reform can solve these problems, and why as a nation it is our moral responsibility to provide health care to every American citizen.

First, let me define the status quo:
Currently in the United States, due to rising health care costs and the economic downturn, it is estimated that 45 million Americans are left uninsured.

According to the Physicians for National Health Care Program, "Based on the Institute of Medicine methodology and subsequent Census Bureau estimates of insurance coverage, 137,000 people died from 2000 through 2006 because they lacked health insurance, including 22,000 people in 2006."

These numbers have increased drastically in the current economic state. "A Harvard study, in 2009, found that 45,000 excess deaths annually are linked to lack of health coverage." This study also found that uninsured working aged Americans have a 40% higher risk of death than there privately insured counterparts.

According to Peter R. Orszag, Director of Committee on the Budget of the Senate in 2007, "If health care costs continued growing at the same rate over the next four decades as they did over the past four decades, federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid alone would rise to about 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050, roughly the share of the economy now accounted for by the entire federal budget. Further- more, controlling those federal costs over the long term will be very difficult without addressing the underlying forces that are also causing private costs for health care to rise."

As Orszag explains, without change in the status quo the rising costs of privatized health care will not only place a heavy burden on individual Americans, but will also create extreme budgetary difficulties for the American Government.

Now we will discuss how Obama's Reform bill with the public option can improve the nation's current situation:

What is the Health Care bill? The health care bill in Congress now, is expected to cost 1 trillion dollars over the next 10 years. It involves two major changes to the current health care system.

The first is the health care exchange, which is characterized in a CQ Researcher article by Marcia Clemmitt as "a one-stop shopping market for health care. Any private insurance company could offer a plan in the Exchange, but they would have to adhere to certain standards:
• There would be a minimum set of benefits for all plans, no one could be turned down on the basis of pre-existing conditions.
• There would be guaranteed renewal of policies (no dumping a customer because they got sick.
• You would not be charged a different price because of gender, health status or type of employment.
• You would be charged a different rate for age, but it would be more restricted than the Wild West of premium rates today.
• If you couldn’t afford the full premium and you made less than 400% of the federal poverty line (about $43,000 for an individual or $88,000 for a family of 4), you’d get a subsidy so your premium would be pegged to a fixed percentage of your income.
• Everyone would have a cap on out-of-pocket expenses. And finally
• All of the information and presentation would be transparent -- you would be able to compare standard benefits across companies to find the one that works for you.


The health Care exchange would be established to not only regulate the large insurance companies, but also keep prices affordable so that every American can be covered.

By including a public option into this exchange, the government would be setting a benchmark for private insurers, who would then respond by shaping their own plans to be competitive. In a speech to supporters brought together by Organizing for America at DNC headquarters, President Obama claimed that “Were going to have a marketplace. The overwhelming majority of those [marketplace options] will be private plans. The public option is just one option. It will be voluntary. The only thing we’re talking about is expanding consumer choice.”

So what is this Public Option? Most simply it is a government run insurance plan.
This plan will follow the guidelines created by the insurance exchange. Unlike the private health care companies, its main objective is to provide care to Americans in need and to increase access to health care. Because of this they are able to set premiums based on the market as opposed to the private companies' unnecessarily high premiums based solely on profit. By following market prices, the public option will create a competitive health insurance field without any artificially low premiums.

Benefits to this outlined Reform include:
Most obviously, lower cost of health insurance policies. As described by the aforementioned Marcie Clemmitt, "Higher premiums discourage people-especially those who have lower income and who perceive themselves as healthy-from purchasing insurance." An insurance exchange would open the door to these individuals to purchase insurance at a more reasonable price due to market competition created by the public option.

The preservation of human lives because as we previously discussed, uninsured Americans have a 40% higher risk of death, and a public option would enable more Americans to receive coverage.

It would also lessen the burden placed on hospitals due to the increased Preventive Health Care which in turn lead to lower premiums and less need for federal funding

Finally, It is a nation's moral obligation to protect the lives of its citizens.

Uwe Reinhardt, a Princeton University Professor and one of the world's preeminent health-care economists declared that "The fundamental truth about health care in every country, is that national values, national character, determine how each system works." Considering the status quo, this means that either the American health care system needs a drastic change, or that the American society is morally corrupt.
According to Valerie E. Dixon, "That health care is a human right is the consensus of the world. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that medical care is a human right. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health."

If health care is considered to be a human right around the world, shouldn't the American Government take responsibility to ensure that it is protected for every citizen of the United States?