Issues That Affect Health Care Delivery, Essay Example

The system of healthcare delivery in the USA is a very controversial issue, so it is a subject of active discussion for many years already. The federal budget suffers great losses by providing support for such federal programs as Medicare and Medicaid, and sustaining adequate financing for the healthcare provision for children called CHIP. Under the conditions of budget holes and economic recession still evident in the majority of countries, the federal government seeks ways to reduce costs for healthcare delivery and to make the healthcare system more flexible, just, and sustainable for the US taxpayers.

One issue being actively discussed at the present period of time concerns withdrawal of the Medicaid healthcare system in the majority of states; the conservative members of Congress vote for the withdrawal of the program, stating that it should be fully transferred on state funding, enabling state governments to make adequate changes, cuts, and limitations on the local level to ensure optimal distribution of funds. The article dedicated to the present topic and topical for the present paper is the one published several days ago in The New York Times online source: it is the work of Ramshaw and Serafini (2010) on the withdrawal of Medicaid in Texas. The authors explore the argumentation used by officials voting for the withdrawal, and investigate the potential effects it may have on the quality of healthcare provision throughout the state of Texas.

November in Texas is marked by the popularity of the radical cost-saving proposal on withdrawal of Medicaid because of its dramatic effect on the federal and state budget. Officials voice various figures, but they may be summarized as follows: Medicaid in Texas gets 60% of federal funding for the biennial budget of $45 billion (Ramshaw & Serafini, 2010). However, even under these conditions the Medicaid program creates a $25 billion hole in the Texas budget, bankrupting the state. The reason for this is that about 3.6 million of Texans receive Medicaid, with about 70% of nursing home residents (Ramshaw & Serafini, 2010).

According to the federal law, only those jobless parents whose income falls more than 12% below the level of poverty, and working parents whose income is 26% below the level of poverty, are eligible for Medicaid. However, the criticism of the program lies not within the framework of providing healthcare for the underserved and poor people; officials voice the disagreement with provision of healthcare for drinking and smoking people, those leading the dissolute way of life. The reasonable doubts in their eligibility for healthcare raise further attempts to withdraw Medicaid provision on the federal level (Ramshaw & Serafini, 2010).

Discussion of the problem does not come to the full withdrawal of Medicaid and CHIP yet; however, the main point in debates nowadays is that Medicaid will be transferred to state funding, enabling the state to make more flexible decisions regarding the distribution of funds for the program. Nonetheless, in case the decision is adopted, there are at least two negative social and economic consequences from it. First of all, the withdrawal will leave millions of people beyond the level of getting healthcare and even being able to get federal subsidies for private insurance (only ‘applicable taxpayers’ can do that) (Ramshaw & Serafini, 2010). Secondly, the field will leave millions of people unemployed, since public healthcare is now giving employment for vast groups of specialists (Ramshaw & Serafini, 2010).

It is surely impossible to leave out the potential benefits that the introduction of a new law will bring to the state; federal funding will be a great loss for the Texan budget, but the nationwide cost-saving program will certainly succeed. In case of successful withdrawal of the Medicaid program in one state, the practice may be continued in other states, helping the country manage its healthcare costs. Nonetheless, the provision of that program seems impossible without effective search of the innovative funding and subsidizing programs for the vulnerable groups of population including the disabled, the poor and the unemployed. In case they are not taken proper care of, the problem of cost-saving attempts in the USA will not be solved; it will only be aggravated further.

References

Ramshaw, E., & Serafini, M. (2010). Battle Lines Drawn Over Medicaid in Texas. The New York Times Online (published November 11, 2010). Retrieved November 14, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/us/politics/12tt medicaid.html?ref=policy