Decades of U.S. Healthcare: Cost Reduction, Accessibility, and Legislative Initiatives - Free Paper

The last five decades marked the Americans’ suffering related to higher costs of healthcare. Tennessean (2018) provided that the American population pays more for this specific care than anyone worldwide. As a result, the United States of America initiated several measures to reduce healthcare costs. Reformed healthcare policies and enactments have led to a cost reduction, though unsatisfying (Shi & Singh, 2014).

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Several proposals that aimed at reducing the pricing of healthcare were presented. Though the proposals represented a significant shift in healthcare, they could lead the United States of America to have affordable healthcare. As a result, hospitals were required to post healthcare-related costs while Medicare was permitted to negotiate drug prices (Tennessean, 2018). The healthcare policies have regulated the prices of healthcare to Americans.

To expand health insurance coverage and address healthcare expenditure and costs, the United States of America enacted the Affordable Care Act (2010). Scholars argued that the reform greatly impacted the industry of insurance. Despite this, the reform remained controversial. Proponents argued that such reforms could improve Americans' access to healthcare while reducing the related costs, a different view from its opponents.

Major legislations of the healthcare policy were taken by the federal government (Ballotpedia, 2020). Legislators, therefore, took an increasing role in reducing the industry of healthcare. As a result, the National Institute of Health and disease control centers were established. Additionally, administrations related to food and drugs were developed. Several legislations were later enacted at the last stages of expanding the coverage of insurance and cost control.

These legislations included the Social Security Amendment (1965)- which established both Medicaid and Medicare and the organizational act of health maintenance (1973), which provided health maintenance organizations as the alternative to the service fee plans. Other legislations embodied the act(s), permitting employees to continue their healthcare insurance coverage if they lost it due to losing jobs. Another act limited the extent to exclude people having conditions termed 'pre-existing' by insurance companies. Obamacare (2010) further established health insurance exchanges while all Americans were required to acquire health insurance.

References

Ballotpedia. (2020). Major legislations. Healthcare policy in the United States. https://ballotpedia.org/Healthcare_policy_in_the_United_States

Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2014). Delivering health care in America. Jones & Bartlett Learning. https://books.google.co.ke/books/about/Delivering_Health_Care_in_America.html?id=d-U1DwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=yTennessean, N. (2018). Three ways Congress could reduce health care costs in the U.S. https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/03/11/three-ways-congress-could-reduce-health-care-costs-u-s/411391002/