Health Insurance Defined

Broadly speaking health insurance is a type of insurance against acute illness, temporary sickness, or injury to the body. Insurance for health care can deliver various provisions according to the health insurance provider; typically it can cover medical expenses, visits to the doctor, a stay in hospital, visits to the local accident and emergency unit, and the purchase of medicines.

Medical insurance in America can be acquired in many ways sometimes the individual purchases family health insurnace packages or individual insurance, it can also be provided by your employer. Specifically what the policy covers depends on the size of the monthly payment but in general the more you pay for your health insurance the better the level of cover.

The major providers of private health insurance include the companies Blue Cross United healthcare, or Aetna. President Obama overhauled private medical insurance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 2010 which was intended to provide a better standard of health insurance for the disabled, the elderly, those with genetic or chronic diseases and those people who cannot afford health insurance.

Health insurance Reform

American representatives have been debating for some time whether individuals should have a fundamental entitlement healthcare, they cannot agree who should have access to medical insurance and healthcare and under what circumstances. The major stumbling block is the fact that health care is provided almost entirely by the private sector. The debate as to who should be responsible for the costs of providing health care for all has been bitter. Many Americans have resisted the idea that they should be forced to contradict to a health tax or buy insurance, or whether the federal government has a right to implement health care changes. Historically the largest single numbers of bankruptcies in the United States have directly resulted from a medical emergency.

For the first time in American history the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act affirms the right of all Americans to healthcare but the provisions of this act will take four years to implement. Medicaid will be able to provide greater cover. The government will provide discounts or incentives to businesses to provide health care for their employees. It is intended to prevent insurance companies from denying healthcare to their customers who have a pre-existing medical condition. America is the only developed country in the world that does not have a health care accessible to all.

PricewaterhouseCoopers an American audit company has reported that in the USA as in the rest of the developed world people are living longer and the number of elderly people requiring health care is far greater than the number of the young and healthy population. Technological advances such as better screening procedures, better diagnostic tests and wider consumer awareness and driven up the cost of health insurance. At the same time incorrect lifestyle choices have increased the number of people suffering from alcohol abuse, obesity, drug abuse and lack of exercise.

In 2007 and Independent survey conducted by the Commonwealth fund reported that despite the fact that the USA has the most expensive health system in the world the healthcare system consistently under delivers.

The Objectives of the Act

The Democrats believe in comprehensive Healthcare accessible to all Americans within the basic benefit package no economic group should be denied access as a result of poverty, no healthcare provider will be able to exclude people because they have a pre-existing condition and there should be protection to all against escalating and calamitous costs. All Americans should be empty choose between private health plans and public health option because the choice will act as a regulator it will make insurance companies more honest and accountable and ultimately reduce the cost of healthcare expanding the provisions of that care to meet 21st-century objectives. Interestingly not one Republican supported either of the two health care bills passed in 2010 even though the cost of health care provision has risen faster than both wages and inflation.