Assignment Task: Respond to
This statement highlights the debate over healthcare in the United States. There are proponents for universalization of healthcare to all citizens in the United States, which the federal government took a step toward in passing the Affordable Care Act. Alternatively, there are proponents for continued private insurances and minimal federal government intervention. This shows how healthcare is evolving in the United States over time, which exists on a pendulum between the views of health care as an ordinary consumer good and health care as an essential good.
Hospitals, more than physicians, will feel the impact on this continuously evolving issue. Physician-patient relationships are still considered voluntary and contractual in nature, which are not as affected by the passing of EMTALA and the Affordable Care Act. EMTALA allows everyone to have access to emergency care regardless of payment. The Affordable Care Act increased insurance access to the uninsured. With these two Acts, the hospital is most impacted in terms of resources, such as having enough staff and equipment to handle the patient load, and from a revenue standpoint in terms of the costs of taking care of the uninsured although they receive funds from Medicaid/Medicare to help cover these costs. Need Assignment Help?