Health Care Legislative Bill Essay

Healthcare Legislative Bill

The expanded and improved Medicare for all Acts

The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act was introduced to the House of Representatives in 2009 and seeks to lobby for the implementation of a common single-payer health care system throughout the United States o0f America. The bill if enacted would require that all medical care costs be paid for automatically by the government instead of private insurances for the same. The move will significantly alter the role of private insurance companies as merely offering supplemental coverage especially when the kind of medical care sought is not all that essential (McCormick, 2009).

With the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Bill, the country's national system will be paid for through taxes and the monies that will replace the regular insurance premiums. Proponents of the bill argue that by eliminating the need for private insurance companies in the national medical care system, overall Medicare costs will be reduced significantly to the advantage of a vast majority of Americans who can't afford insurance premiums. Though yet to be enacted, the bill will have major impacts on the Medicare sector in the United States. In particular, the nursing sector will be impacted as it is the centre of all medical care practices.

The bill will also address perennial problems affecting provision of sound health ace services in America which include limited resource allocation by the state to the medical care system, geographical distribution of the population and prohibitive personal ethics and beliefs. Some other factors affecting delivery of health care services in the United States are unique to individual circumstances which include ability of doctors and their patients to communicate effectively in cases where medical resources are located according to one's ethnic background, gender and physical location.

Specific Benefits and Provisions of the Bill

The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act seeks to achieve the following objectives;

To prevent independent institutions from participating in provision of healthcare services unless such organizations are nonprofit or public institutions. The bill also seeks to allow not-for-profit health care organizations which have the capacity to offer health care services in their own facilities to participate in the new Medicare program.

The bill seeks to expand the current Medicare program so as to offer all residents of the United States free and prompt health care services. This will include not only primary care but also emergency care, prevention and prescriptive drugs, mental health care services, long-term care, vision care and dental services among others.

The bill makes provisions for the medical and nursing institutions to give their patients the freedom to decide which participating institution s and physicians will serve them. If the new national system is enacted, such participating institutions will primarily be any clinic or institution in the United States that receives any amount of funding from the state.

Make it illegal for private health insurers to sell insurance coverage to the general public that duplicates the social benefits provided under the act. The bill however allows the private health care insurers to sell health care benefits that are not necessary on medical grounds like the cosmetic surgery benefits.

Put in place mechanisms for paying institutional providers of healthcare for their services. This prevents cases of financial incentives between health care organizations and physicians.

To establish a national trust fund for financing the new Medicare program with finances deposited from various sources of government revenue for the purpose of health care. This will be achieved through increasing income taxes, by levying a progressive excise tax on both self-employed and pay-roll income and by instituting a nominal tax on bond and stock transactions.

To establish a nationwide program for assisting individuals whose jobs may get be eliminated especially those within the insurance companies through the simplified single- payer process.

In addition to the provisions discussed previously, the bill includes some healthcare-related provisions that will be enacted gradually including subsidizing individual contributions for people, expanding Medicare aid eligibility for special groups of people and providing special tax incentives for businesses to participate in the national Medicare program as well as prohibiting denial of claims or coverage based on…