Health Insurance
Healthcare insurance has been a fundamental aspect of many individuals’ lives. Indeed, it would be hard to imagine how people lived over a century ago when health insurance did not exist. In addition, the question of how ordinary people could afford healthcare comes into being as well as the people that assisted medical practitioners and healthcare institutions in financing practicable practices that could help in the provision of care and the advancement of medical innovation. Indeed, an individual would also be interested to understand how the society functioned without the availability and accessibility to valuable medical care. In essence, the emergence of health insurance policies a century ago provided answers to these questions, which is a factor that influenced the enactment of insurance law.
Overview of Health Insurance Timeline
The establishment of organized medicine marked the early 1900. It was during this time that the American Medical Association gained overriding influence in the American arena and was voted the national union of state and federal associations. The law and policy-makers in the United States had started gaining the basic value of healthcare insurance, unlike other European states (McDonough & Milbank Memorial Fund., 2011). It was not until 1912 that social insurance that included health coverage gained public attention. A bill that promoted compulsory insurance was drafted and promoted. By 1929, Texas started a health insurance program, which is thought to be a draft of what the contemporary health insurance looks like.
Hard Economic Period
In 1930s, President Roosevelt’s headache shifted to the issue of old-age benefits and the insurance of the unemployed. He formed a committee to address the issues as well as insurance and medical care, but when the bill was passed as law, health insurance was not included. It was due to understanding that omitting health insurance would augment bureaucracy while interfering with the physician-patient associations, especially during this epoch that was characterized by hard economic times that the economic bill of rights was proposed, which saw Medicare being signed as law by President Lyndon in 1965.
Although the healthcare sector experienced a rapid increase in medical costs following the millions of citizens who were now insured, it was not until the last decade that states enacted reform laws to offer health insurance to all. However, a mutual responsibility from all sectors including individuals, companies, and the administration was required to finance and expand the coverage. Indeed, the signing of the health care legislation by President Obama in 2010 that required all individuals to be covered by 2010 has enabled individuals of diverse status to access quality health care (McDonough & Milbank Memorial Fund, 2011).
Impact
Health insurance has had a wide range of effect on the healthcare system. In these economic hard times, having a health insurance coverage is often the difference between living life with a sense of inner peace and security and tempting fate on an everyday basis. Through pooling together the resources of a community, every person gets the power to access quality care whenever needed. In addition to accessing quality care to all people irrespective of their social statuses, health conditions, and ethnicity backgrounds, health insurance reforms such as the Affordable Care Act also has impacted the manner in which health care services are delivered (Wang et al., 2012). With more people being insured, there is increased demand for medical practitioners and hospital services as well as health institutions. With the recent developments in the health insurance policy, healthcare professional are expected to face a critical shortage in the near future. Governments with the intentions of exploring the benefits of health insurance should redesign the medical workforce to meet the demand of the healthcare.
References
McDonough, J. E., & Milbank Memorial Fund. (2011). Inside national health reform. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Wang H, Switlick K, Ortiz C, Zurita B, Connor C. 2012. Health insurance handbook: how to make it work. Washington, DC: World Bank; Print.
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