President Obama signed a healthcare reform bill in March 2010 that stated that the federal government has an obligation to fund Medicare. Therefore, millions of uninsured American citizens would access healthcare services at affordable rates. The bill affected the American hospital systems in one way or another. With the ease of access to Medicare, the hospitals expected an increase in Medicaid enrolment, and this factor would affect the healthcare givers. The direct patient care services would decline because the nurse-to-patient ratio would increase with the increased enrolment of patients. With the tightened work schedules, healthcare givers are likely to have a reduced workforce, and thus, they would eliminate some services. The hospital CEOs feel that funding Medicare would overburden the government to the extent of being unable to replace capital pieces of equipment in hospitals. This fact would lead to aged healthcare infrastructure. Therefore, high-class individuals would turn to private physicians for healthcare services.
The above-mentioned allegations are somewhat true, and they may occur in the short run. However, the PPACA of 2010 has shown some recommendable changes to date, and in the end, its advantages would outweigh the disadvantages. Currently, all citizens, regardless of their race, age, class, or gender, can readily access the medical insurance covers at subsidized costs. If unemployed, individuals can access the subsidized private insurance covers. In essence, the American government has done as much as possible to ensure that low-income earners have access to quality healthcare services. Physicians would think that the government is overburdened, but that is not the case because the government intends to use the Prospective Payment Systems (PPS). The government will fund the payments to hospitals in a progressive manner, 1% in 2013, 1.25% in 2014, 1.5% in 2015, and so on. Therefore, the PPACA may not be a burden to the government and citizens as anticipated; otherwise, the reform will benefit all American citizens.
