United States Health Care System - 1128 Words

TITLE OF PAPER For many years the condition of the United States health care system has been a hot topic for debate. Some would like to believe that the U.S has the best health care system in the world, but unfortunately that may not be the truth. In 2000 The World Health Organization (WHO) released a world health report. The report ranked the overall health system performance of 191 countries; the United States was ranked at 37 out of the 191. â€Å"With out-of-control costs, highly inequitable coverage and comparatively low health outcomes, the US healthcare system has failed to provide efficient, dependable coverage for the population as a whole as compared to most European and developed Asian systems† (Blank, 2012). In other developed†¦show more content†¦citizens that a new plan to reform health care had to be devised. On March 23, 2010 congress approved and President Obama signed The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) into law. The PPACA is more commonly known as just the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or negatively as Obamacare. In order for the ACA to be passed, the President had to appease the different political parties. As a result, the ACA is not entirely an original idea. Some of the main provisions already had the support of various political parties, because they had been introduced by past presidents and political parties in their health reform plans over the past few decades. Some examples include: both Nixon and Carter had employer mandates; Bush had a version of the individual mandate, both Bush and Clinton proposed similar ideas to the insurance marketplace, among a few others. The ACA is similar to universal health care; the objective is to ensure that the US citizens have access to affordable quality healthcare, instead of a free market for all like in other countries it is still for profit. â€Å"The Affordable Care Act increases access to care, makes health insurance more affordable, strengthens Medicare and ensures that Americans have more rights and protections† (U.S. Department of