ACA and the Future
Our book states the need for Americans to “take responsibility for their own health-oriented behaviors” (Shi & Singh, 2019) and this same sentiment of empowering the patient-consumer is echoed in the blog post Improving Health and Healthcare: An Agenda for Reform. America’s healthcare should rest on the shoulders of individual Americans, not the government. The power over healthcare that the ACA gave to the federal government needs to be redirected to the states (that oversee it), the employers (who provide it) and most importantly, the consumers (who use it). The system would provide a higher quality of care at a cost-efficient price using market-based solutions. Antos et al., (2015) also brings up how Medicaid, the shared federal-state program, needs to be reformed and the confusion needs to be settled by appointmenting one political agency to be accountable without interference by the other. The blog post believes that whatever replaces the ACA should still continue to provide coverage to all Americans regardless if they have preexisting conditions (Antos et al., 2015). Our book is not as aggressive as the article, by stating that the ACA needs to be replaced but it does recognize the mindset of the American “belief in capitalism” and how “health care has largely been viewed as an economic good (or service), not as a public resource” (Shi & Singh, 2017, p.73). It is not a secret that America can not afford to keep providing healthcare the way it. It is also not a secret that America “promotes entrepreneurial spirit and self-determination” (Shi & Singh, 2017, p.73). And as those two facts continue to collide, the quicker some kind of major healthcare reform will be implemented.
I think looking into the reform suggestions is worthwhile… but I think there is a huge part of the American healthcare system that no one is addressing. Our book points out that the public’s “prevailing view of health emphasizes clinical diagnoses and medical interventions to treat disease or symptoms of disease, but fails to account for prevention of disease and health promotion. Therefore, when the term “health care delivery” is used, in reality it refers to medical care delivery” (Shi & Singh, 2017, p.46). I think the FDA should be held more accountable because it is the food that we consume everyday that affects our health. Market justice, social justice, individual responsibility and American values would all be touched upon if one of the reforms were taxing unhealthy foods that are known to cause preventable disease, if you can pay to develop a preventable disease then you should pay to treat it. Prices of unhealthy food goes up, making more people buy healthy foods driving prices down. Then offering equal access to medical services would be more achievable as there would be a growing number of healthy Americans needing less medical care and the money from the taxed food would help offset healthcare costs. The choice of eating/being healthy is an individual's responsibility, aligning with the American value of freedom of choice. Unless we address the main root of the problem, those suggestions would be feasible but would not be a solution.
References
Antos, J, Capretta, J, Chen, L, Gottlieb, S., Levin, Y., Miller, T, ... Wilson, D. (2015, December 9). Improving Health and Healthcare: An Agenda for Reform. In Health Affairs . Retrieved November 29, 2020, from https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20151209.052181/full/
Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2019). Delivering Health Care in America (7th ed., pp. 45-86). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
