Health Insurance for All, Coursework Example

Introduction

Employer-sponsored health insurance is a responsibility for all employers to consider. As a proposed mandate by the President, employers must consider the wellbeing of their employees and how health insurance benefits will secure this premise. Most importantly, employers are likely to provide their employees a sense of security and strength by offering them insurance coverage with a reasonable out-of-pocket expense. Organizations have experienced conflicting feelings regarding a mandate for employer-sponsored health coverage and are likely to experience resistance to this practice, particularly if they must pay any type of penalty if they do not provide insurance coverage. Consumers must be protected by their employers with these plans and must have a level of coverage that will support their needs. From a political perspective, a mandate for employers to provide health insurance coverage for their employees may be a difficult sell with numerous consequences.

Body

Healthcare reform includes the continued growth of options for individuals and families across different demographic and income groups (Oberlander, 2012). Promoting this type of coverage may make some employers nervous because it could take away some of their competitive advantage and resources that are allocated for other projects; therefore, this creates a difficult scenario for many employers to accept and has been largely influential in the widespread resistance against this mandate and its impact on an employer’s bottom line (Starr, 2013). This tug-of-war makes employers on edge over their responsibility to their employees and the cost of managing the health insurance requirement that may impact their revenue streams. It is difficult for many employers to buy into this mandate because they might believe that they are experiencing this requirement under duress rather than as an option.

For employers, it is also necessary to consider how this mandate may be prohibitive in encouraging entrepreneurship due to the responsibilities of an organization to provide insurance coverage (Fairlie, Kapur, & Gates, 2011). This process also represents a challenge because it limits the ability of an organization to develop and grow with already limited resources if they are required to provide health insurance for their employees in this regard (Fairlie et.al, 2011). Finally, organizations may not be able to limit their costs effectively with a health insurance mandate, thereby creating discord among teams regarding the effective allocation of resources in this manner (Channick, 2012). These findings make it difficult for organizations to develop plans over the long term if they are responsible for developing strategies to accommodate health insurance mandates for their employees. It is also difficult for an organization to evaluate its real value to the outside world and to prospective employees if it is unable to achieve the intended results in providing the coverage that employees require for their livelihood.

Commercial Transcript

The proposed transcript of the political commercial regarding health insurance is proposed as follows:

Narrator: Does your employer provide sponsored health insurance coverage? If the answer is no, you are not alone. There are millions of Americans without access to employer-sponsored health coverage to manage the flu, to receive physical exams, and to obtain simple blood tests. If companies were to provide health insurance coverage for these services at a low out-of-pocket cost, it would ease the burden of needing to go see your doctor. (Still photos would include pictures of children and families, both of whom require healthcare services and who would benefit from the alternatives available through employer-sponsored health coverage).

Narrator: What if I were to tell you that you could hire and retain the best employees by offering them health insurance coverage? This is an attractive idea with many benefits that could improve productivity and motivation. Providing this coverage will also save your business money over the long term by reducing costs associated with lost productivity and other issues. You could also improve value within your organization by offering employees a chance to improve their health. (A video of a child laughing and smiling with his mom and dad would be provided in the background).

Narrator: The President is considering a mandate to require employers to sponsor health insurance coverage for their employees. Don’t be afraid; this is a good thing and will help your business grow and thrive. Don’t shy away; it will make your business better. (A background video includes a doctor treating a child in his office).

Conclusion

Employer-sponsored health insurance provides a means of understanding the dynamics of the healthcare industry and the overall development of new perspectives to accommodate patient care needs and expectations for consumers. A new mandate to require employers to provide health insurance benefits to their employees may be a daunting task, but it also represents an opportunity to examine the different areas whereby healthcare practices are limited by the ability to access them and to take the steps that are required to facilitate a successful outcome that includes improved health and wellbeing. This reflects a need to further examine the constructs of employee benefits and to determine what is required to ensure that employees receive the protections and engagement that are required to facilitate a productive level of effort on a continuous basis, and to prevent an organization from further harm by its own lack of support for its employees in this regard.

References

Channick, S.A. (2012). Health care cost containment: no longer an option but a mandate. Nevada Law Journal, 13, 792.Fairlie, R.W., Kapur, K., & Gates, S. (2011). Is employer-based health insurance a barrier to entrepreneurship? Journal of Health Economics, 30(1), 146-162.

Oberlander, J. (2012). Unfinished journey – a century of health care reform in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 367(7), 585-590.

Starr, P. (2013). Remedy and reaction: the peculiar American struggle over health care reform. Yale University Press, 2013.