Health care coverage has always been a major issue in the United States. Now, with the presidential election happening in less than two weeks, Americans are wondering what steps the next president will take regarding the issue.
Affordable Care Act which was written by Congress in 2009 and 2010 has been called by Donald Trump as a "disaster" and is pushing to repeal the law. Hilary Clinton for her part said that if there will be changes to health care, it should be made at the edges of the current program.
According to the IRS website, Affordable Care Act "requires you and each member of your family to have qualifying health care coverage (called minimum essential coverage), qualify for a coverage exemption, or make an individual shared responsibility payment when you file your federal income tax return."
The ACA has brought Americans closer to getting universal coverage. So a lot of people are wondering : Why isn't a universal coverage in place? The real reason? Americans, particularly conservatives, do not want it. A survey conducted by the International Social Survey Program shows that only a very low percentage of Americans believe that health care coverage for the sick is the responsibility of the government.
The second reason being that interest groups do not like it, too. Billions of dollars have been spent by interest groups to influence political process to make sure that private insurers maintain their status in the health care system.
Third, massive entitlement programs like universal healthcare are simply just very difficult to enact. Policy experts have pointed out that the health system in the US have a comprehensive national health insurance system because "American political institutions are structurally biased against this kind of comprehensive reform."
It is safe to say that regardless of who wins in the next presidential elections, Americans can expect no universal health care coverage any time soon.
