Healthcare Economics Policies for America

Question: Discuss about the Healthcare Economics of Policies for America. Answer: Healthcare policies for America have been a major subject of concern not only for the US politicians but also for the citizens who subscribe to these services. Health insurance firms and institutions are also the directly affected entities that thus need to ensure that the policies put in place by the federal government are not only appropriate but have a long term efficiency for the all players in this sector (Chiodo, 2015). The following aspects consists of items that should be considered as an alternative health care policy in America with an intention to positively impact insurance coverage and financing the delivery of healthcare in this country. Insurance companies should be allowed to charge older individuals more premiums than younger individuals Unlike the Obamacare policy which allows insurance firms to charge a maximum of three times for older people of the charges paid by young people as per Romney (2012, p. 1377-1381), insurance firms should charge older people five times, the charges paid by the young people. This will attract the youth to enroll on health insurance earlier and will be a fair approach as the older people have the highest probability of acquiring health complications. The costliest patients should have their premiums subsidized by the government The Obamacare policy mandates every American to be subscribed to a health insurance plan. In case this was not the case, the healthy Americans would not opt to do so making the insurance firms to hike premiums for the sickest citizens (Tanne, 2012). There is need for a policy that will oblige the government to subsidize insurance premiums for the sickest patients rather than mandating healthy people to participate in the insurance market. According to the proposal by Republicans as shown in the article by Debonis(2016), the government should provide a $ 25 billion subsidy, which will cover this group for over 10 years for all states. Provision of refundable tax credit to citizens that lack employer-provided insurance cover The Obamacare provides subsidees that are similar to this alternative policy. However, it requires people to meet certain income limits before being subsidized (Williams, 2011). There is thus need for the government to remove limits and allow individuals to access the huge variety of insurance options some of which are low-cost but affordable to them. The mini-medical insurance plans that have been phased out by the introduction of the Obamacare according to Debonis (2016), need to be brought back to cover individuals who do not meet the minimum income limits set by the federal government for one to be enrolled on refundable tax credit, when they have no employer provided insurance cover. References Chiodo, C. (2015). Obamacare and Lessons Learned From the Massachusetts Experience With Healthcare Reform. Foot Ankle International, 36(9), 1123-1124. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1071100715600725 Romney, M. (2012). Replacing Obamacare with Real Health Care Reform. New England Journal Of Medicine, 367(15), 1377-1381. https://dx.doi.org/10.1056/nejmp1211516 Tanne, J. (2012). Republicans call for changes in US healthcare and gun laws. BMJ, 345(sep03 2), e5920-e5920. https://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e5920 Mike Debonis (2016, June 22). Republicans Have a Plan to Replace Obamacare, and its Costs are Unclear. Washington Post. Retrieved 30 July 2016, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/06/22/republicans-have-a-plan-to-replace-obamacare-and-its-costs-are-unclear/