One vital policy that the U.S. Government can not seem to get right is health care. All of the presidents of the United States have failed in their attempts to provide affordable healthcare for every American. Obama tried his hardest and made great strides forward with Obamacare but it is under attack by new President Donald Trump who has already tried to shut it down but was not able to get the support needed.
Healthcare costs in the USA have continued to rise and now it is one of the most expensive countries in the world. It is estimated that premium policies could rise by as much as 24% next year which will hit some of the poorest hard. With wages not increasing, households have less money and are taking a risk with their lives by not taking out inadequate insurance.
There are many different factors that have affected the price of health insurance. One of the main reasons why it is going up by so much is that the so called experts got their predictions wrong. They heavily underestimated a number of people that would take up Obamacare in the individual policy market and as a result, it is estimated that insurances companies made around $2.7 billion in losses. As a result of this, they are now in a position where they need to make up for lost profits and are going to increase the costs dramatically.
More and more advanced technology is been used to treat patients and the costs of keeping up to date with the latest equipment are getting more expensive each year. On average the cost of treating patients has gone up by 5% each year and there is no sign that this trend will change anytime soon.
Due to a number of changes introduced during Obamacare there has been a lot of setup costs and administration charges. These have added extra costs and with changes expected under the new President, companies are having to increase the price to pay for this.
Obamacare has helped to provide cover for those that health insurance companies ignored and refused cover due to the possible high medical costs. Now that everyone is entitled to insurance it means that the companies can not pick and choose which clients they want on their book. It means that they have having to provide insurance to those that offer a potential risk of costing more money than the insurance company receives. To cover this all of the policies need to go up to pay for a customer that previously would have been rejected.
Conclusion
There is a long way to go in the Trump administration and the world is going to look like different places once his leadership comes to an end. Let’s hope for the sake of the American people that Trump picks up where Obama left off to provide healthcare for those in need like they have all across Europe.