Translated material
Americans in line for the policy
In the United States, the first results of medical insurance reform are summarized as the "Obama Law"
According to the Law on Compulsory medical insurance adopted in the United States about four years ago, until April 1, all Americans had to purchase medical insurance at affordable prices or pay a fine. The law was adopted at the initiative of President Obama in order to provide insurance of all American citizens.
The wave of those who postponed until the last day an unpleasant procedure for buying an insurance policy swept on Monday the State Electronic Medical Insurance Exchange. Like last fall, after launching it, the website could not withstand overload, and dozens, if not hundreds of thousands of people were forced to spend several hours in virtual halls for the ability to at least register as a buyer of insurance. If last fall, the White House tried to find excuses for the failure of the electronic insurance market, then this time the virtual tough of those who wanted to acquire insurance caused a triumphant comment by Jay Carney’s press secretary: "No one expected that we could resist the edge of the abyss last fall. I think this fact is worth mentioning in your correspondence." Even more emotionally in one of the television programs, Vice President Joe Biden spoke:
- Today is the deadline for the purchase of insurance policies, and I assure you that we will all be pleasantly surprised by the results of this process. But I want to take the opportunity and tell everyone who is waiting for the line on the Internet or trying to get through to representatives of the insurance company that they will have the opportunity to complete the process of buying insurance even after the expiration of the deadline.
According to the latest estimates, about nine and a half million people bought subsidized medical insurance since the fall of last year, including about six million on the State Electronic Exchange. Approximately on such results, I was counting on the White House last fall. However, the preliminary analysis of these figures, carried out by the observer of The Boston Globe newspaper, former Republican Senator John Sunun , gave him reason to talk about unsatisfactory results of the reform.
In addition, according to a survey conducted by McKinsey Consulting, the suppressing the number of newly insured and had previously had insurance, but lost it as a result of the reform of medical insurance. According to John Sunun, thanks to Obama’s reform, only about five million Americans left the ranks of the undigested. And they are believed to be more than forty million people in the country. So far, the cost of insurance of even this group turned out to be gigantic for the state-about four hundred thousand dollars per person-due to subsidies that were required to embody the reform.
The Republican Congressman Andy Harris , a practicing doctor, said in an interview with Bloomberg television about the alarm of doctors related to the reform:
-Many doctors are very concerned that they will become fewer patients, since insurance purchased on electronic exchanges will not cover their services, and payment for the treatment of poor patients using state insurance will decrease due to considerations of savings. And all this against the background of growing state expenses for medicine. In the first three months of this year, we spent ten billion dollars in order to subsidize the newly insured. Because of this reform, we are lowering down the financial abyss lower, ”says Andy Harris.
The defenders of the reform, however, have their own numbers. They indicate, for example, that, thanks to the so -called "Obama Law," the increase in the cost of medical care has slowed down in the past three years. And the observer of The New Yorks Times, Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, insists that in fact this reform is the embodiment of the ideas of the Republicans, that is, the organization of medical care on the pseudo -fatal principle. "Pseudo", because it is impossible to provide everyone with accessible insurance without state subsidies.
