Political Science

Health care is classified as a basic necessity without which, life is almost impossible. Everyone, irrespective of their financial standing has a right of access to this precious service. It is against this background that virtually all countries have made efforts to provide health care services to its citizens at affordable cost.  For instance, the health care proposal by the United States President aims to provide a sustainable health care program that is affordable many households and one that ensures stability of the Federal budget and the economy as a whole. The proposal aims to give American households and small business owners power to manage their health care needs by reducing health care tax for these two groups. This move is expected to make health care services affordable to over 30 million households. In addition, the proposal ensures that the economy is stabilized by decreasing the federal budget deficit by over 90 billion in the next decade. This will be achieved by minimizing government expenditure programs and reducing wastages and incidences of fraud and deception. The success of the Presidents health care policy proposal must be accompanied by an efficient and transparent implementation of the program to ensure all parties involved benefit.

Health care reforms in many countries have been initiated with the sole aim of invigorating actors to choose economically sound decisions. There have been efforts to develop an integrated health care policy that aim to enhance efficiency in the provision of affordable health care to the masses. This paper will examine policy proposals put forward by the United States administration to achieve this goal. An examination of whether the shift towards an integrated healthcare system can achieve Pareto optimality will also be evaluated.

According to an article titled Integrated Health Care from an Economic point of view, authored by Aggie Paulus, Arno van Raak, Frits van Merode and Eddy Adang, the introduction of a comprehensive healthcare program can achieve the Pareto criterion over a prolonged period of time (2000, pp.200). This implies that healthcare providers, consumers and even informal care givers are certain to reap benefits from an integrated health care program in the long run.

For instance, the proposal by the United States President aims to provide a sustainable health care program that is not only friendly to family budget but also one that ensure the stability of the Federal budget and the economy as a whole. For example, the proposal aim to give American households and small business owners power to manage their health care needs by reducing health care tax for these two groups. This move is expected to make health care services affordable to over 30 million households. In addition, the proposal ensures that the economy is stabilized by decreasing the federal budget deficit by over 90 billion in the next decade. This will be achieved by minimizing government expenditure programs and reducing wastages and incidences of fraud and deception (The Presidents Proposal, 2010).  The proposal aims to achieve equality by providing majority of Americans the exact same insurance choices that members of Congress have (pp. 1).

The current health insurance program is too costly hence cannot be afforded by the majority leaving many Americans without any form of health insurance cover. The integrated health care proposal by the President aims to increase tax credits to Americans to enhance affordability. For instance, the plan reduces premiums for households whose income is below 43,000. In comparison to the House bill, the president proposes cheaper premiums for households with income ranging between 54,000 and  87,000 (The Presidents Proposal, 2010).

The Presidents plan also proposes a cost sharing assistance for households and individuals in comparison to the House bill. For example, households earning less than 55,000 per year receive additional help. The extra funding to insurers covers up to 93 of their costs. The same cost sharing scheme is available to households with high incomes ranging between 76,000 and  87,000 (The Presidents Proposal, 2010).  It is crystal clear that under this proposal, both low and high income earners are bound to benefit from health care services at a reasonable cost.

In many remote areas, community health care center play a significant role with regard to provision of health services to the masses. There are approximately 1200 such centers in the U.S serving over 19 million people. The Senate bill has set aside 8.5 billion to be utilized by these community centers in provision of health care to the rural population. The House bill has provided about 12 billion whereas the Presidents proposal pledges over 10 billion to these centers in an attempt to provide affordable healthcare services to all families in the rural areas (The Presidents Proposal, 2010).

An efficient health program must endeavor to strike a balance between the four major components of health care (cost, access, consumer quality) to achieve Pareto optimality (George, 2009). The existing health insurance program is straining the ability of many businesses to recruit workers and engage in investment plans due to high costs. To ensure that all stakeholders benefit from the new plan, the presidents plan proposes that all small businesses be granted about 38 billion in tax credit to assist them provide health care coverage for their workers (The Presidents Proposal, 2010).

Under this proposal, the employers are not obligated to avail health care insurance to their workers. They are however required to foot part of the bill if health insurance cost of their employees is covered by taxpayers (The Presidents Proposal, 2010). The Presidents proposal thus ensures that the burden of healthcare cost is significantly reduced to the benefit of both the workers and employers.

Conclusion
The success of the Presidents health care policy proposal must be accompanied by an efficient and transparent implementation of the program. To achieve this goal, over 900 million has been set aside as administration cost needed to implement the health care reforms (The Presidents Proposal, 2010).

Other than making health care affordable and accessible to individuals and households under different income brackets, the proposal provides tax credit to businesses to help them avail health care plan to their workers. It is therefore expected that the proposals by the president will ensure all stakeholders in the health care industry reap maximum benefits.