HEALTH CARE REFORM

HEALTH CARE REFORM

Health Care Reform and its Impact on Immigrants

Introduction

While recognized that the United States can offer the world's most sophisticated health care, there is also agreement that there are significant shortcomings in safety, quality, access and value. Independent of politics, the complexity and the sheer number of various governmental bodies with roles determining health care financing, policy, regulation and delivery of services are itself a formidable barrier to transformation. With the overlay, of partisan politics and the interests of specific stakeholder, one can appreciate that transformation is magnificently more difficult: by definition, transformation dislocates established interests.

The US medical system is highly segmented with the complex set of rules and a combination of public and private systems that decided what treatment should be given to which patients. For this, American doctor needs to have complete knowledge about the rule and regulations for taking care or treating each of the patients such that he does not give a chance to insurance companies and others of questioning him. Americans are observed to be more comfortable with the fragmentation system than nations. For the individual in America, they have very strong cultural preferences at a higher price (Adamini, 2009).

Majority of the individuals in US is not happy with the health care system. They think that the US healthcare system is broken. Individuals are spending more than 50 percent on their health care which they think is broken completely and needs a lot improvement.

The individuals who have employ-based insurance have the fear that if they lose their job, and then they will have to buy the insurance on their own. According to American healthcare system, individuals are supposed to have health insurance unless they are eligible for acquiring government programs like Medicaid, Medicare or Veteran Military services.

The capability of immigrants to access the health care facilities differ enormously, depending on their origin of country, cultural barriers, ability to follow the national language and immigration status. For, example, the refugees automatically get the Medical Assistance or Medicaid for around eight months, which is included in their asylum, but the remaining immigrants do not get such facilities initially. Immigrants are not as much likely to have private or public health insurance as compare to those who are born in America. The people who are born in United States are twice as likely to get insurance as the US-born people. The rate of uninsured immigrants varies depending on their employment, salary and their country of origin. Since 1996, the Congress put a ban on legal immigrants who entered America that after August 1996 from getting enrolled for the federally funded Medicare or Medicaid for around five years least after they get into United States. The immigrants that were undocumented could get Medicaid on an emergency basis (Beauchamp, 2008).

Significance/Prevalence of Problem or Issue

Health coverage has been a difficult issue for USA since there is no a real health care system that covers all citizens providing them with a comprehensive health care that includes prevention, promotion ...