According to the Princeton Dictonary, healthcare is the preservation of mental and physical health by preventing or treating illness through services offered by the health profession. Furhermore, there has been much debate among health care ehticists and physicians, if health care is a right or a privelege.
“The Founding Fathers declared that we are “endowed with unalienable rights, among them are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” There is no question that in order to have life we must have health. Yet there has been only limited constitutional language specific to this right(Taft, 2009) .”
Irrespecitve of this analysis, without health and healthcare respectively, there is no productivity…which ultimately impacts Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the US.
After a year of political posturing, fear tactics and maneuvering;The House has passed Health Care Reform. This is probably the most important bill to pass the house since Civil Rights legislation. For those who have opposed the bill and do not understand the complexity of health care economics as it relates to productivity and growth domestic product, will hopefully get on board in the near future.
The primary goals of this bill:
Significant investment in preventive care
Elimination of pre-existing conditions
Increase affordability and choice in health insurance products
Increase affordablity and sustainability of health care insurance products for small business owners
Decreasing disparities in health care
Expanding and improving Medicare infrastructure over ten years
According to The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), the economic case for health care reform was profound. “The report provides an overview of current economic impacts of health care in the United States and a forecast of where we are headed in the absence of reform; an analysis of inefficiencies and market failures in the current health care system; a discussion of the key components of health care reform; and an analysis of the economic effects of slowing health care cost growth and expanding coverage (CEA)
•Slowing the growth rate of health care costs will prevent disastrous increases in the Federal budget deficit.
•Slowing cost growth would lower the unemployment rate consistent with steady inflation by approximately one-quarter of a percentage point for a number of years. The beneficial impact on employment in the short and medium run (relative to the no-reform baseline) is estimated to be approximately 500,000 each year that the effect is felt.
•Expanding health insurance coverage to the uninsured would increase net economic well-being by roughly $100 billion a year, which is roughly two-thirds of a percent of GDP.
•Reform would likely increase labor supply, remove unnecessary barriers to job mobility, and help to “level the playing field” between large and small businesses
References
Health Care Reform. [Online]. Health Care Reform and the Case for your State. Retrieved from http://www.healthreform.gov/ on March 21, 2010.
Taft, R. (2009). Is Health Care a Right or Privelege? Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0843/is_1_29/ai_96500897/ on March 21, 2010.
Health Care Reform. [Online]. The Secretary’s Corner. Retrieved from http://www.healthreform.gov/forums/secretaryscorner.html on March 21, 2010.
The White House. [Online]. Economic Case for Health Care Reform. Retrive from http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cea/TheEconomicCaseforHealthCareReform on March 21, 2010.
