Clayton Smith
Professor Renato Ramirez
Government 2305.769
4 February 2015
Health Care
The United States of America has a long and rough history with quite a few domestic policies, ranging from Immigration, to environmentalism, and health care. Many of these policies have had countless revisions made to them and are even being revised now, as you’re reading this essay. The problem with passing domestic policies in the United States is that the different political parties don’t quite see eye to eye. What I mean by this generalization is that each party has different views on how the country should be run, and what is best for the US. The question of how the domestic policy of health care should be carried out in the United States has been one of the many victims that are suffering from the differences between these two parties. The idea of free, or universal, health care hasn’t been around very long. In fact, the first step towards a new and improved health care system happened in1945. When the Federal government approved the participation of the American Heart Association in veteran hospitals, this was the first time that the government had approved the participation of any federal hospital in a hospital association. In 1946 President Harry S. Truman signs the National Mental Health Act of 1946; the significance of this act is that it was the very first time in US history, a large amount of money was used for research into mental illnesses, and also led to the establishment of the National Institute of Mental Health in 1949. Then next giant step for health care reform came in the summer of 1965. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a bill that integrated Medicare and Medicaid into President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Social Security Act, which he signed nearly 30 years earlier. Next in 1982, congress created a system used for determining insurance payments, based on predetermined prices. This system was created was the prospective payment system. Eight years later, in 1990 the Prospective Payment system was introduced into Medicare. Congress implemented the PPS because health care costs were on the rise, and this would help citizens better manage the higher costs. When 1996 came around, a new program was enacted under the Social Security Act of 1935. It was the State Children Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The purpose of this act was to offer insurance to eligible children less than 19 years of age who wouldn’t qualify for coverage because their family’s income exceeds the Medicaid threshold level. Another act that was introduced in 1996 was the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. This act was enacted to make it easier for citizens to keep their health insurance, protect the confidentiality and security of healthcare information and help the healthcare industry control increasing costs. And most recently, signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) usually referred to as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or "Obama Care”. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), or Affordable Care Act (ACA) for short, is the new health care reform law in America and is often called by its nick-name Obamacare. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is made up of the Affordable Health Care for America Act, the Patient Protection Act, and the health care related sections of the the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act and the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. It also includes amendments to other laws like the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act and the Health and Public Services Act.
The PPACA contains a number of requirements to which insurers and individuals must adhere to. One of which would be that, Health insurers will no longer be able to deny coverage based on current or prior health. Depending on enrollment, premiums are likely to trend higher. This could also have a negative impact on the quality of the “risk