4). Cooper and castle feel that the universal aims of the program, coupled with the program's redistributive intent, will prevent congressional fence-sitters from voting against a plan that is so obviously in the best interests of the vast majority of working Americans. Ultimately, the bill's appeal to social justice will bridge the partisan divide, and provide President Barack Obama with a firm foundation on which to build future change. Of course, change, especially necessary change, is in the eye of the beholder, as are partisanship and bipartisanship. Cooper and Castle call their piece a "bipartisan view," but appear to spell out a largely Democratic approach to healthcare reform, one that seems specifically designed to entrench President Obama's position, and guarantee his reelection. They laud the expected, intended, or proposed actions of a man who has not yet taken office. Many of the authors' supporting arguments have already been rendered moot: Senator Daschle was knocked out of the running almost immediately, and higher taxes are already included in current bills. Further, the authors take much for granted in their positions on healthcare reform supposing, from the outset, that virtually all Americans seek a drastic overhaul of the current system. They speak of the enormous costs involved in providing adequate medical care, and address waste within the industry and federal programs, like Medicare and Medicaid (Cooper and Castle, 2009, p. 3), but do not look into the underlying issue of why healthcare costs have risen so dramatically in recent decades. They seem to infer overbilling and mismanagement, but do not examine why doctors and hospitals charge such exorbitant fees even when not employing high-tech equipment or cutting edge methods. Nor, do the authors of the article address fundamental assumptions about American society from any point-of-view other than their own. They take it as a given that all thinking Americans seek redistribution of wealth; the movement of funds from private...
4). Neither do Cooper and Castle address the underlying concerns over what constitutes a true democratic "reform" of a major sector of American life. At the time of the writing of the article, the Democratic majority in Congress was not filibuster-proof, and has become only barely so today. Sixty votes for out of a total of one hundred, equal forty percent against. Forty percent is a sizable share of the American electorate. To compel forty percent of the population to adopt radical changes with which they may not, or do not, agree is tantamount to forcing scores of millions of Americans to adopt changes they do not desire. A private club or organization with one hundred members that permits sixty members to institute radical changes against the wishes of the other forty members would soon be a club or organization with only forty members. Government policymakers, from the President to members of Congress, must remember that they represent all Americans. Working toward "best" policies is often a good idea, as it indicates compromise, and an attempt to reach actual consensus.
Health Reforms Health Rearms For a long time, the Health Care concern has been a centre of discussion in the society as well as among the representatives in a bid to find out which would be the best way to cushion Americans from the ever increasing burden of having to take care of themselves medically. Efforts have been made but still there is no single solution to the issue hence a combined
What this means is that the lifetime limits on most benefits are barred for all latest health insurance plans. Another interesting thing is the reviews premium increase (Wakefield, 2010). This is saying that insurance companies must now openly defend any type of unreasonable rate hikes. The last thing is that it helps a person get the most from all of their premium dollars. In other words, a person's premium
Health Care Changes and Trends The healthcare industry in currently undergoing a highly necessary phase of reform. Following the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), hospitals, physicians, patients and economists are working to determine what the legislation could mean for them. The reality though is that the myriad changes on the horizon are difficult to predict because they are determined by the intercession of a wide variance of independent forces.
6% of GDP in 2002; in America, they were 14.6%, or almost double Britain's expenditure" (Klein 2005). However, this frugality means that bypass surgery, dialysis, and medications in general are much more rarely prescribed in the U.S. than in the UK. While there is frequent criticism that the U.S. is overmedicated as a society, the opposite is likely true in the UK. In other words, is unlikely that people are
Health Care Reform Federal Deficit The American Health Care Crisis and the Federal Deficit The United States spends more than any other country on medical care. In 2006, U.S. health care spending was $2.1 trillion, or 16% of our gross domestic product. At the same time, more than 45 million Americans lack health insurance and our health outcomes (life expectancy, infant mortality, and mortality amenable to health care) are mediocre compared with
There are a number of issues involved in health care including taxation, the fear of socialized medicine and the budget. Many Americans are opposed to higher taxes for the wealthy due to the fact that they will be the ones paying for most government spending including the proposed heath care bill. These people also argue that it's the wealthy that create jobs through investing and if their taxes are
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