Impact of the US Healthcare Reform on various Levels

Academic Paper from the year 2016 in the subject Health - Public Health, grade: 2, Egerton University (Public Health), language: English, abstract: The healthcare reform was regarded to as the biggest in the history of the United States for over 40 years, and it ushered in a new phase of the U.S healthcare system. In a nutshell, the recent healthcare reforms aim at enhancing access to healthcare services by all U.S citizens by embarking on fundamental healthcare policy approaches that creates universal healthcare. They are also intended to reduce the cost of healthcare across the country. It is believed that the quest for the introduction of the healthcare reform was occasioned by the inefficiency of the old healthcare system in which access to healthcare services by the U.S citizens was somehow difficult. In the old healthcare system, only some few selected groups were able to access healthcare services under Government-funded healthcare programmes. Healthcare coverage involved the Medicare and the Medicaid, Government-funded healthcare programmes through which the aged and the low-income populations could access medical services in public healthcare institutions. Government-run schemes enabled military veterans to access medical services; whereas the State Children's Health Insurance Programmes catered for the children of the uninsured parents. In addition, the National Health Insurance Fund, which is an employer-funded health insurance, offered access to healthcare for the employed population on the basis of salary deductions from their monthly income.