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Health Insurance for Everyone
The first suggestion of a national health insurance policy began in 1912 with Theodore Roosevelt during his presidential campaign. The year 1915 saw the defeat of the model bill for a national health insurance policy. The people fear of socialized medicine was the driving force behind the defeat. President Truman during his speech to Congress in 1945 and President Clinton in 1993 also proposed a national health insurance policy. In both cases, special interest groups such as the insurance companies and some medical advocacy groups joined ranks to oppose the plans (CHA, 2006). The challenge to insure all citizens is a daunting task, but a challenge that is possible.
The United States health care system is failing many Americans, yet the cost of health care is rising higher each year. Some estimates have the number of uninsured and underinsured adult population at 61 million people in the United States. The cost of our current health care system is roughly 15.3% of our gross domestic product in 2003 (Hodges, 2006). Healthy People 2010 have many objectives addressing the concerns of the current health care system. One of the objectives is to have 100% of population with some form of health insurance by the year 2010. The research to determine how well Healthy People 2010 is reaching this goal shows the objective is moving backwards instead of forward (HealthyPeople, 2006). In order to achieve this objective, creation of the policy Health Insurance for Everyone (HIFE) mandates each state create a program to provide health insurance for citizens of their state. The federal government will provide financial support through a sliding income scale. HIFE will allow all medically necessary services. HIFE encourages states to form bargaining teams for setting prices with the medical industry based on diseases. Each State will ensure everyone has health insurance with three months of being born or moving to the state.
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