A argumentative essay on health care
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Over the recent years the numbers of uninsured Americans has significantly increased. The 2.2 million recent growth of uninsured is mainly due to age and income changes. At that, most Americans believe that insurance coverage and access to healthcare system are the issues that should be prioritized, and it is the direct responsibility of the federal government to ensure medical care for those citizens that lack insurance, even through raising taxes.
Today, the US society faces the ongoing dilemma of “whether the government should make a major or a limited effort to provide health insurance to the uninsured” (The Henry J. Keiser Family Foundation 1). However, no option has yet got overwhelming support. This indicates that the issue is rather challenging to the society and solid national program is required to present an appropriate solution. There is a high percentage of adolescents that seem not to care about their futures.
Earning and depositing good cash now is a discouraging factor affecting their decisions on federal or state insurance programs. Such strive for immortality is reasonable to a certain extent, however upon retirement the times may change and health problems worsen. Indeed, we are divided almost by half, while there are more co-citizens that would rather not pay additional insurance premiums or taxes to benefit those uninsured. Consequently, uninsured face more problems with an access to healthcare options, and overall risk their lives in the long run (The Henry J. Keiser Family Foundation 2). For instance, in accordance with The American Cancer Society’s New Advertising Campaign (2007), “When it comes to dealing with cancer, any delay in detection or treatment, as is common among the uninsured or poorly insured, can be fatal” (as cited in NY Times Editorial 1).
Medicare, as nationwide single-payer health care system, is referred to a social insurance program managed by the US government, which aims to provide health insurance coverage to everyone aged 65 and above, or people that comply with special criteria. In addition, Medicare covers many residency training programs intended for the US physicians. Medicare operates. The core Act in the US Social Security legislation, - US Social Security Act, was passed by Congress in 1965 (Booske et al., 2005).
As a branch of the (HHS) Department of Health and Human Services, Medicare and Medicaid Centers (CMS) administer Medicare, (SCHIP) the State Children's Health Insurance Program, Medicaid, and (CLIA) the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments. In close cooperation with the Treasury and Labor Departments, CMS implements provisions on the insurance reform with regard to the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (Booske et al., 2005).
The Social Security Administration is in charge of determination of Medicare eligibility and Medicare premium payments. The Chief CMS Actuary is in charge of providing cost-projections and accounting information to the Medicare Board of Trustees while assisting them in the assessment of the finances distributed for the health part of the program. On annual basis, the Board issues reports providing relevant data on the financial state of affairs of the Medicare Trust Funds (Booske et al., 2005).
The Medicare program initially presupposes that CMS should contracted with private companies to act as intermediaries between the government and medical companies in the matters, involving payment and claims processing, clinician enrollment, call center services, fraud investigation etc.
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