External Influences on Health Care
Healthcare today is changing dramatically. The entire structure of healthcare here in the United States completely changed on January 1, 2014. With the completion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act, the old way of healthcare went through a drastic evolution. This was called for by both the people and the government, as previous methods of distributing healthcare were just becoming infeasible. As such, it is clear that there are a wide number of political, legislative, and economic factors that have influenced this dramatic change and will continue to make evolutions in the health care field.
There are definitely political forces at play in regards to the recent healthcare changes, as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was a highly controversial law that was deeply opposed by the majority of the Republican Party. Members of Congress who opposed the law so much claimed it was a step towards socialism,...
On the other hand, the Democrats, led by President Obama saw the abuses of the healthcare industry and the millions of Americans unable to afford health care as a gross abuse of the system. They demanded reform and were willing to start a political war over the passing of the bill. There was a bitter debate about the
budget of all the proposed changes that lasted for months in Congress. Even after the bill was past, the Republicans tried everything in their
power to stop it, including the stalemate about the budget that eventually led to the government shut down in late 2013 when political rivals would not budge on issues of
government spending that primarily revolved around the huge costs of Osama's Reform bill (ABC, 2013). Clearly, the issue of healthcare in the United States has had some serious political ramifications in that it has deepened the divide between the Republican and Democratic Parties.
From a legislative perspective, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act dramatically changes the way the government is involved with health care here in the United States. It took a long hard fight in Congress to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed. For a long while, there was a complete stalemate in Congress, with Republicans refusing to back the bill, which essentially stalled its progress into becoming…
