SOLOMON BADDOO
WALDEN UNIVERSITY
LAW ETHICS HEALTHCARE ADMINISTRATION
PROF. BEASLEY
12/1/17
THE ETHICAL & LEGAL ISSUES SURROUNDING HEALTHCARE ACCESS
FAIRNESS & PENALTY DELAY ACT.
Some will say that we are a capitalist economy therefore why should we even look at healthcare
from the position of ethical and legal access, whiles others will say that we need to look at it
from the position of ethical and legal access due to the current position of healthcare in our
country. Whatever one position may be, there is always going to be an ethical and legal position
as to how healthcare affects our lives (Lipinski, et al., 2013).
Since the introduction of Medicaid and Medicare into our U.S healthcare system, it was brought
to the attention of our society that healthcare for all is necessary regardless of one economic,
social or religious standing in our country. Even though there were some opposition to this law
back in the 1960’s, it was overwhelmingly supported by the American people and provided the
platform towards a healthcare system for all. The ethical issues here are that, America just like
any country in the world also has poor people. These poor people who cannot afford healthcare
needs to be supported by those who are in the position to help. It is what some call the “trickle
down economics” however, it became evident that the people who are in the position to help are
not helping therefore, causing many people to die of preventative deaths. The government then
saw it as an opportunity to introduce a healthcare system to help children and the elderly who
cannot afford to pay for their own healthcare. This is ethical and should be supported as it was
supported back in the 1960’s (McDonough, et al., 2014).
In early 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was passed into law to
allow people who are uninsured due to underemployment or unemployment to gain access into
the healthcare pool (congress.gov/bill, n.d., 2013). The government decided it was ethical to take
care of our uninsured as a society rather than allowing insurance companies and hospitals to
decide if we should help our poor or not. The healthcare system as it currently stands is also
ensuring that all Americans gets a healthcare coverage for themselves and family members
which was not provided under the old healthcare system before the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
was pass (Hamel, et al., 2014).
The healthcare access fairness and penalty delay Act of 2013 was enacted to put pressure on all
American citizens to have some form of insurance for themselves and their families if they do
not have employment base insurance or private insurance. Some will argue that no one should be
penalize for not taken care of themselves, however, this idea of a penalty is to be a “watch dog”
for our fellow human being or citizens. It is ethical for our government and our people to support
each other especially to our poor and the vulnerable in society (Lipinski, healthcare coverage,
n.d., 2013)
The legal issues surrounding healthcare access fairness and penalty delay Act is that, it mandates
everyone to utilize our healthcare system regardless of whether you have money or not or in
many cases even if you want to be healthy or not. The law of the land requires the government to
send out email to all American to sign up into the healthcare.gov website just incase you to do
have employment base insurance or private insurance. This is a brilliant idea in my view,
however, our system is supposed to be a capitalist system therefore, some or maybe most
Americans do not want to be mandated by our government to do anything especially as it relates
to one own health. Most people also do not know how much of government intrusion is going to
continue if they should whole heartedly embrace the Obama Care law as the law of the land on
healthcare. On the other side of things, some people are also concern that if the government
doesn’t do anything soon, the insurance companies will continue to rob families with outrageous
healthcare cost which has currently render some Americans bankrupt. Where does the bus stop
with the insurance companies as to how much they will take from American citizens since we are
all witnessing inbreeded capitalism. Greed has become the order of the day and the poor is
suffering at the mercy of the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies. The law was
intending to help rescue Americans from this dilemma however, it is also reported that insurance
companies continue to make significant profits, and nothing has change in terms of healthcare
cost regardless of the law (Teitelbaum, et al., 2015).
Americans in general are torn between a social medicine route or a capitalist medicine route.
Most developed countries have accepted universal healthcare for all its citizens however, it is
also acknowledged that it does not promote competition like a free market healthcare system
would be able to create. Doctors and healthcare workers do not feel rewarded for their
outstanding performances when the system is more socially driven healthcare. The lines are
longer to see doctors and in some cases, you experience poor medical care overall. This
argument has also been challenged that people in places like Italy, Iceland and even the United
Kingdom has life expectancy that is equal to the United States or even higher. Why should we in
the U.S hold on to a law or economic system that is not evolving or helping everyone? The
answer is not easy, but it will require the government, health insurance companies and citizens to
seat together to find a compromise position for all to walk away with something to be proud of
(Levitt, et al., 2014). The insurance companies will have to think of ethical and compassionate
approach, the government must be fair by not supporting the insurance companies over its
citizens and vice versa, whiles the citizens also should be fair by allowing the market to make
some profit to encourage competition, creativity and innovation inside our healthcare systems.
All these will only happen when the three entities could compromise on their positions to allow
for a fair healthcare for all Americans (Levitt, n.d., 2014).
My two recommendations to Congressman Daniel Lipinski is that, Illinois and the rest of the
country is still looking forward to a debate on healthcare as to why our government wants to
provide healthcare for all? Isn’t the wealthy, family or churches in our communities are the ones
supposed to help the poor? The debate will help bring solutions to these questions and of which
there are no easy answers. Why should we also mandate everyone by law to register on the
healthcare.gov if that person doesn’t carry any of the insurance that the market provides? The
answer to this one will also come from the debate to help ease the tension among Americans, the
government and insurance companies.
My second recommendation will be to suggest a survey and a vote from all Americans as to
whether we should take care of everyone in our society who cannot afford healthcare and if it
should be a mandated healthcare law for everyone. We can now determine who our elected
official can be by voting. Our healthcare law and ethics can follow the same pattern by allowing
every American to vote individually on these two issues. It may not sound like ethics should be a
thing to be voted on, because we should know what is right and do it, but apparently our society
has change and therefore people do not do right or wrong only. What is legal is also not always
right or wrong however, a reason to vote will help ease the current tension facing our healthcare
system in America.
REFERENCE
www.lipinskihouse.gov
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/3425
Hamel, M. B., Blumenthal, D., & Collins, S. R. (2014). Health care coverage under the
Affordable Care Act—A progress report. The New England Journal of Medicine, 371(3), 275–
281. Retrieved from http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMhpr1405667
McDonough, J. E. (2014). Health system reform in the United States. International Journal of
Health Policy and Management, 2(1), 5–8.
Levitt, L. (2014, July 9). JAMA forum: How well is the Affordable Care Act working? Retrieved
from http://newsatjama.jama.com/2014/07/09/jama-forum-how-well-is-the-affordable-care-act-
working
Teitelbaum J., & Pozgar G. (2015). Law, ethics, and policy in healthcare administration (Custom
ed.). Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
