Frasier 1

Schalee Frasier
English Comp. II
Professor Benjamin Ondieki
2 March 2016
Opposing Views: Healthcare Reform
A significant amount of evidence has been presented suggesting that the current
healthcare system with the United States is insufficient. High insurance premiums, an
inaccessibility to quality healthcare, in addition to exorbitant healthcare prices have resulted in
millions of Americans being unable to acquire the healthcare they require to maintain their wellbeing (Janicke et al. 1030). As such, the Obama Administration developed the Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act (healthcare reform) in an attempt to alleviate some of the health
disparities associated with contemporary healthcare (Gardner 841). With that being said, the
purpose of this paper is to present opposing positions in regards to the efficacy of the legislation.
This will be accomplished by reviewing relevant peer-reviewed literature that has been published
within the past five years. This will ensure that the most recent ideologies pertaining to the issue
are scrutinized.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST OF HEALTHCARE REFORM

According to Sturmberg et al. (832), the healthcare reform conveys a number of

advantages over the traditional options. Healthcare reform provides affordable health insurance
to uninsured Americans, it reduces the prevalence of uninsured health events, it eliminates a
health insurance providers ability to discriminate against individuals with pre-existing
conditions and most importantly, it requires large corporations to provide affordable healthcare to

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their employees at a discounted price. An economic analysis of the benefits of healthcare reform
was reviewed by Sturmberg et al. (833) and it was reported that the healthcare reform
significantly lowers a laymans cost of healthcare. Not only does the healthcare reform improve
the health care delivered to a patient, it decreases the amount of funds the government must
allocate to the public by requiring large health insurance institutions to reduce their excessive
premium costs. In summary, the data presented by Sturmberg et al. (853) does suggest that the
healthcare reform is beneficial to the public.
Furthermore, the healthcare form has resulted in increased patient satisfaction and
therefore, the improve delivery of quality healthcare. Gardner (846) indicated that the
stipulations of the healthcare reform require institutions to improve their patient satisfaction
scores if they want to receive compensation from the federal government. Healthcare institutions
who provide services to Medicaid and Medicare patients are reimbursed to the government, if
and only if, the services they provide are exemplary (Gardner 848). Patients who are covered
under these federal aid programs must complete patient satisfaction surveys that are then
forwarded to the Department of Public Health (Gardner 848). The novel legislation states that
any healthcare institution that continually generates unsatisfactory patient scores will no longer
be granted federal aid and their operating costs will need to be covered solely by their patient
population. Given that a large proportion of the United States is currently covered via Medicaid
and Medicare, losing the ability to provide services to these individuals could result in the
healthcare institutions closure (Gardner 850). Therefore, the healthcare reform has greatly
improved the level of healthcare that is delivered to patients.
In contrast, Wetherell et al. (43) suggested that the healthcare reform requires middleclass Americans to pay higher premiums, forces employers to cover the cost of health insurance,

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increases the healthcare expense individuals with higher incomes must pay, in addition to
increasing the national debt of America. Wetherell et al. (43) reported that the healthcare reform
is only beneficial if all uninsured individuals seek coverage. The economic analysis by
Sturmberg et al. (833) suggested that the healthcare reform will only be financially viable if all
individuals seek healthcare via private or federally subsidized health insurance companies. If the
entire population does not possess health insurance; Wetherell et al. (45) suggests that the United
States will incur greater debt and this debt will be passed along to middle-class and upper-class
citizens. Although one could argue that the socio-economic classes should be required to pay
more, this notion goes against the concept of capitalism and has potential to stifle innovation
(Wetherell et al. 63). Hence, the opposing views of the healthcare reform do suggest that it is
detrimental to the positive progression of society.
CONCLUSIONS

Convincing arguments were presented in favor and in opposition of the healthcare

reform. The author is currently a full-time student and is provided a healthcare coverage through
the University. This healthcare coverage is provided at a minimal cost, which is the result of the
large size of the institution. The University has a large employee base, in addition to a large
student population, which allows the higher education facility to acquire cheaper healthcare
premiums by signing up a higher number of individuals. As such, the author has only been
presented with the positive aspects of the healthcare reform; yet, they are in complete
understanding of the detriments associated with the legislation. All-in-all, the author was unable
to determine whether or not the healthcare reform is advantageous for all Americans, given that
they have limited experience in terms of the legislations detriments. The author will continue to
review the concepts of healthcare reform to make a more informed decision moving forward.

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Works Cited
Gardner, William. "Policy capacity in the learning healthcare system: Comment on" health
reform requires policy capacity"." International Journal of Health Policy and
Management 4.12 (2015): 841-852.
Janicke, David M., Alyssa M. Fritz, and Ronald H. Rozensky. "Healthcare Reform and preparing
the future clinical child and adolescent psychology workforce." Journal of Clinical Child
& Adolescent Psychology 44.6 (2015): 1030-1039.
Sturmberg, Joachim P., Di M. OHalloran, and Carmel M. Martin. "Healthcare reform: the need
for a complex adaptive systems approach." Handbook of Systems and Complexity in
Health. Springer New York, 2013. 827-853.
Wetherell, Geoffrey, Christine Reyna, and Melody Sadler. "Public option versus the market:
Perceived value violations drive opposition to healthcare reform." Political
Psychology 34.1 (2013): 43-66.