RIDGE POLITICAL REVIEW
  • Home
  • Domestic
  • International
  • Opinions
  • Economics
  • Local
  • About
  • Contact
  • All Articles

All Articles

Health Care Mandate, or Not?

5/30/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture

By Alison Shim

​Anita Pereira of the Connecticut Law Journal explains that “Healthcare has become a commodity in the United States. The affluent have absolute access to health; the disadvantaged are denied this necessary access.”  With a significant size of the population remaining uninsured, the issue of health care coverage has become one of the most polarizing issues in our modern day society.  While some hold the belief that an individual mandate guaranteeing health care for all citizens would be an efficient solution, many fail to recognize the economic and societal cost at stake.  In a real world scenario, an insurance mandate would actually counteract its goal of improving health while damaging the economy.
​
The Mississippi Center for Health Workforce finds that “a health insurance mandate would increase demand for health care access.”  Even though more residents would technically be covered, “associated issues with access to physicians might result in increases in spatial rationing of care.”  Because there would be increased demand among newly insured citizens, longer wait times would ensue and actually prevent more citizens from receiving care.  The Cato Institute notes that after implementation of the Massachusetts mandate, wait times in Massachusetts were over twice as long as other U.S. metro areas because the limited number of doctors were unable to treat the increased demand from patients. An article by Objective Standard Press furthered that the new patients now have to wait up to 3 months for an appointment. In Britain, similar wait times forced hospitals to cancel as many as 100,000 operations each year. The Health Services Research Journal identifies the devastating impact to health, finding that wait times of over a month increase the likelihood of death by an astounding 21%.

In fact, individuals who were insured even before the mandate have reported that they experienced increased difficulties in accessing care after the mandate was implemented.  The Massachusetts Medical Society found that the percentage of residents having difficulty getting care rose 8% over 1 year. Furthermore, the same report by the Objective Standard Press found that the “the state reimbursement rates for adult patients cover only half their costs”, meaning that half the patients that go unchecked receive no care for their money, leaving patients financially disadvantaged and without care.

The increased demand resulting from an individual mandate would not only induce longer wait times, but a shortage of doctors as well.  The Association of American Medical Colleges reports that increased demand will result in a shortage of 46,000 medical specialists by 2020. The Massachusetts Medical Society also explains that a mandate caused physicians’ overbearing work load and a massive administrative bureaucracy, leading to struggles when recruiting and retaining doctors. In actuality, about three-quarters of medical group directors say that their ability to retain physicians has become more difficult in the last three years. Even more astonishingly, an article by the Wall Street Journal notes that the passage of an individual mandate would exacerbate the doctor shortage by around 25%.

Moreover, the economic toll of the individual mandate is not one to be underestimated as well.  The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the implied expansion of Medicare and Medicaid that follows an individual mandate would have a net cost of $1.1 trillion on GDP over the next ten years.  With an insurance mandate, less healthy, more costly individuals would enroll in coverage, driving up premiums. The Cato Institute holistically finds that existing mandates have increased premiums by an estimated 20 to 50 percent.

While the individual mandate may seem like an ideal solution on the surface, when examining the real world consequences of implementation, American public health as well as financial stability would only be put at stake.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    June 2015
    May 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    August 2013
    May 2013
    March 2013
    November 2012
    September 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    June 2011

    Categories

    All
    Aadhavaarasan Raviarasan
    Adam Smith
    Albert Wu
    Alex Liao
    Alex Timoney
    Alicia Jen
    Alison Shim
    Andrea Lan
    Andrew Falduto
    Anvi Mahagaokar
    Atreya Misra
    Ayla D'Silva
    Bardia Vaseghi
    Benny Sun
    Bharat Sanka
    Brandon Lu
    Brian Wen
    Brinda Gurumoorthy
    Caitlin Schiffer
    Camille Shen
    Caroline Margiotta
    Caroline Sha
    Catherine Chen
    Cathy Chen
    Chloe Yang
    Christine Wang
    Daniel Pittaro
    Daniel Zhang
    Davis George
    Deeptanshu Singhvi
    Dilara Shahani
    Ellee Tomaru
    Emily Pan
    Emily Wang
    Erin Flaherty
    Felix Zheng
    Hitha Santosh
    Howard Wei
    Injae Lee
    Jacob Clott
    James Gao
    Jasmine Xie
    Jedson Boyle
    Jennifer Huang
    Joey Walter
    Jonathan Nemetz
    Jon Jen
    Julia Roos
    Kaitlin Smalling
    Katherine Wang
    Katie Kleinle
    Kevin Tang
    Kevin Yang
    Kishan Gandham
    Kunal Damaraju
    Kyanna Ouyang
    Logan Aviles
    Lucas Canteros-Paz
    Maggie Hsu
    Mariam Khan
    Mark Stachowski
    Mason Krohn
    Meghan Mangini
    Michael Shaw
    Mimi Petric
    Namita Kalghatgi
    Noah Smith
    Oliver Tang
    Omar Bekdash
    Pasha Saidi
    Priya Mullassaril
    Raheel Abubakar
    Ranen Miao
    Rayhan Murad
    Robert Johnson
    Ryan Walsh
    Saamia Khan
    Saloni Singhvi
    Sam Klein
    Sarah Ouyang
    Shaina Spector
    Shaurya Ganjoo
    Shiam Kannan
    Sunjay Melkote
    Tim O'Shea
    Tim Tang
    Vicki Liu
    Victoria Lu
    Vivek Gurumoorthy
    Wei Wen
    Willa Yu
    Zayna Kutty

rpr

About
Home
Read All
​
Contact

Sections

International
Domestic
Economics
​Opinions
Local
​
Search Site
© COPYRIGHT 2018 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • Domestic
  • International
  • Opinions
  • Economics
  • Local
  • About
  • Contact
  • All Articles