Health legislative policy issues and reform

Health and Legislative Issues

All Americans have the desire of having a healthcare system which is capable of delivering world-class security together with financial security. The system in place should always be accessible and one that impacts the economy positively. Successful healthcare reforms will lead to a maximization of the choices available for consumers put a restrain to the ever increasing medical care costs and make healthcare accessible to more and more Americans. There are a number of organizations that have consistently urged the president and congress on building on the existing systems which strengths in order to achieve health reform solutions that are workable in a bipartisan manner. However, there are some healthcare legislative issues that come up and have effects on various stakeholders such as legislators, consumers and other healthcare professionals. This paper will look at one of the current health legislative issues, who is affected most by the issue, the current political, socioeconomic .cultural and ethical issues that surround the issue.it will also look at the stakeholders involved in the issue, the positions other healthcare organizations, major political parties and consumers hold on the issue and finally the implications this policy has on nursing.

The legislative issue

One of the current legislative issues in healthcare is the affordable healthcare Act which was a bill crafted in the United States House of Representatives but never became law the way it was drafted originally. There were many reforms that were made on the draft but in 2010 an alternative bill, Patient protection and Affordable Act was passed. Accessibility, coverage, cost accountability and quality healthcare are some of the things that the Obama administration claimed to be bringing reforms with this PPACA. Since its inception in 2010 there have been a lot of issues surrounding this act and various stakeholders are working to ensure that the goal of the laws of expanding healthcare insurance in order to cover millions of Americans can be achieved in a way that is affordable and does not in any way jeopardies the quality, choice or access to healthcare by the citizens in America. The proponents of the legislation praised how this policy would be successful when it comes to addressing the problems that are being faced by the healthcare system in America while the opponents claim that this Act would do more harm than good to the healthcare industry.

The impact of the law is being heavily debated based on four main arguments these include; individual mandate, the application of anti-injunction Act, lack of severability clause within the statute and Medicaid expansion hat is contained within this law.it is a requirement by law that citizens purchase health insurance deemed by the federal government or opt to be covered by programs that are sponsored by the government (Mears, 2012).. If anyone chooses not to take part in either of these two they will be liable to a tax penalty and employers too will be liable to these penalties if they fail to acquire these policy for their employees. The most pressing issue under this legislation is that the congress does not have any authority to enact individual mandate under commerce laws in that forcing citizens to take up health coverage or charging them a fine.

Who the law affects

This legislation affects many people but the ones who are most affected are the citizens. This is because there are so many new taxes for individuals as a result of this Act. This includes tax on earned income including wages and net earnings whereby the PPACA will impose an additional 0.9% on the current hospital insurance. Tax will also be imposed on unearned income which means investment income that is in excess of a threshold that has been set. On the other hand any individual who does not want to take part in either of the policies in the cat is liable to a tax penalty of 1% of their income (Goodman,2012). This means that either way if one chooses to go with the programs of the Act or chooses not to go with them they have to pay taxes. Therefore this PPACA affects the American citizens more than anyone else.

Socioeconomic, political, cultural, and ethical issues

There are also various socioeconomic and political context factors that surround this issue. These factors have led to the industrialization of the healthcare systems in the U.S. with provision of healthcare as a product being subjected to market forces. Competition from providers has led to the overuse of costly methods of treatment and a subsequent increase in medication cost and rise in insurance (Goodman, 2012). Most of the debates on the PPACA are now being politicized and the issue is slowly taking a political direction as opposed to looking at the needs of the citizens. The PPACA has brought about an important ethical issue under the individual mandate provision.it is quite unethical for individuals to be practically forced to purchase an insurance product which they might not want or even need.it is also quite unethical for immigrants to be excluded from adequate healthcare coverage such as Medicaid which is one of the provisions of this Act (ANA, 2010). There are also some cultural issues which surround this policy for instance the issue of the chip. The chip has faced a lot of criticism from various cultures since it is termed as unacceptable in nay of the cultural beliefs and practices.

Stakeholders

There are many stakeholders involved in this policy this include the Federal government, the congress, insurance agents, healthcare organizations and systems, individual citizens an employees. All these are termed as stakeholders since they are affected in one way or another by the PPACA as indicated by Wechseler Jill, (2012).