Medicaid and Medicare cover the indigent as well as the elderly. On
the other hand, CHIP covers the children. However, there is a
pushback to universal health coverage in the United States. The main
goal of universal health coverage is to ensure that all people have
access to essential healthcare services without any kind of undue
financial struggle or hardship (Pearson et al., 2016). It can provide a
number of health, political, as well as economic benefits to the
people. It will enable the poor people to gain access to improved
quality health care services.
There are a number of reasons for the pushback to universal health
coverage in the United States. One of the important reasons is that
there would be significant upfront costs. The cost would include the
costs relating to the technological as well as physical infrastructural
changes in the healthcare system, expansion of various services
delivered, and treating or insuring the individuals who were
previously uninsured (Zieff et al., 2020). In addition to these, the high
federal taxes would further increase the overall cost of universal
health coverage in the United States.
Apart from the increased federal and individual costs, the argument
against universal health coverage in the United States is the potential
inefficiency of the system. It includes hampering medical innovation
and entrepreneurship and long waiting times for the patients (Zieff et
al., 2020). Increased waiting times of patients in the United States
will significantly increase the number of emergency as well as
primary care visits. It may even lead to disorganization in the
healthcare setting.
Another prominent reason for the pushback is that the interest
groups present in the United States are not interested in the
introduction of universal health coverage. Universal health care has
been on the national political plan for about a hundred years.
However, it has failed in being acted upon as the special interest
groups were blocking the reform by means of lobbying the
lawmakers (Mitra, 2018). The interest groups in the United States did
not want this reform to happen.
Another potential reason for the pushback to universal health
coverage in the United States is that the enactment process can be
hard for entitlement programs. The political organizations present in
the United States make it quite challenging for the entitlement
programs to e effectively enacted. The political structure of the
United States is inclined towards inactivity. Any broad reform in the
nation will have to pass through a complex process of budget
evaluations, congressional boards, and possible vetoes, thereby
making the enactment difficult (Mitra, 2018).
References
Pearson, M., Colombo, F., Murakami, Y., & James, C. (2016, July).
Universal health coverage and health outcomes. In Paris: InFinal
report for the G7 Health Ministerial Meeting.
Mitra, M. (2018). Free universal health care system in United
States. Open Acc J Pol Sci Int Rel, 1(1), 16-22.
Zieff, G., Kerr, Z. Y., Moore, J. B., & Stoner, L. (2020). Universal
healthcare in the United States of America: a healthy
debate. Medicina, 56(11), 580.
