An Inside Perspective

In order to understand why these reforms are needed so badly in the first place, I decided to talk to someone who is personally involved in the Medicaid system. I interviewed Maureen Kavjian, a financial manager at a medical practice that is in the Medicaid program. Her job is to process claims and payments from the federal government to fund the Medicaid program. Here's what she had to say.

What are the biggest issues with the current Medicaid system?

I don't think there are any major issues with the Medicare program, but Medicaid's one major issue is that it is run by two private corporations, Amerigroup (which employs over 700 doctors for 11 states) and Anthem Health Keepers Plus. Medicaid patients are only able to go to a doctor covered by Medicaid if they are signed up for this program through a private corporation. The problem is these companies pay so little to the doctors, that there are hardly any doctors willing to sign up. This leaves patients with no doctors anywhere near them that they can see.

What are your thoughts on the reforms to American health care?

I think that it will only make the situation worse unless the government is willing to pay the doctors more money in order to get more doctors in the program. It will simply cause more patients to have health insurance with no doctors to go to.


I found this perspective on the issue very enlightening. It is good that Obama has addressed that choice of doctor needs to be given to the patients, but not monetary aid has been given to this aspect of the issue yet.

What is the government doing?

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On February 4, 2009, President Obama signed the Children's Health Insurance Reauthorization Act. This brings health care to 4 million children who did not have health insurance prior to the act. This is a major step towards his overall goal of providing health care to all Americans.


Obama also created the Recovery Act, which has many different costs:

Computerization of medical records.......$19 billion
Prevention and wellness..........................$1 billion
Research to aid doctor decisions..............$1.1 billion
Doctor and nurse training........................$500 million

Who will be affected?

If Obama's plans are completed in their entirety, his plans will affect all Americans. It is his main goal to make sure that not U.S. citizen is without health insurance. His plans should lower health care costs through computerizing all medical records and by giving doctors more training in giving diagnoses. This issue is so prevalent because not everyone is affected by public health care, and that is something that Obama seeks to change.

What areas of government are involved?

With the sweeping reforms in the Obama Administration, there would be federal standards for all of America's health care. Currently, medicaid programs are funded by the federal and state governments. However, the recession has caused state budgets to be cut, reducing the funding for the program overall. The Department of Health and Human Services has a whole website showing the plans the hope to achieve. The current system of Medicaid is run at the state level. Here's the link to Virginia's Medicaid page.

Weaknesses?

As of now, the weaknesses are all of the current flaws in the system that Obama hopes to change. This includes: lack of Medicaid doctors, not having medical records computerized, lack of coverage for every American, and much more. It is hard to say how Obama's plans will go for his reforms on health care until the entire system is given more time to adjust to all of the changes.

What are the strengths of the government's involvement?

One strength of the government's involvement is that Obama seems to be having a very comprehensive look at all of the areas in need of improvement in the health care system. In his list of goals, he includes topics that will not only fix our current situation, like giving coverage to all Americans, but also things that will help America's health care in the future, like computerizing all medical records. In order to truly be successful in fixing our health care system, it was vital that Obama make sure he was correcting every current and potential problem.

What are Obama's goals?

In his comprehensive health care reforms, President Obama has many goals that he hopes to achieve.

He hopes to:

• Reduce long-term growth of health care costs
  
• Protect families from bankruptcy or debt because of health care costs
• Guarantee choice of doctors and health plans
• Invest in prevention and wellness
• Improve patient safety and quality of care
• Assure affordable, quality health coverage for all Americans
• Maintain coverage if you lose your job

It is quite clear that Obama has many goals that will be difficult to achieve. However, I feel that if he has the ambition to stick with his Reform program in order to see them all through, the country would benefit greatly.

What are the current issues?

The health care system is not being changed without reason. The cost of health care for America last year was $2.2 trillion, or over $7,000 a person. This amount is massive and still climbing, and in our current economic state, Americans are very worried about keeping their insurance. Even those who do have insurance are seeing low quality in their care. It is very clear by the graph above that the ratio of wage to insurance increases is quite ominous.

Researching Public Healthcare

I am starting to research America's public health care program. Health care is one of the major issues that President Obama has been pressing since the start of his presidency. With many reforms, Obama is putting a lot of effort (and money) into his new and improved health care program. In 2007, the costs of health care were roughly $7,000 a person and Obama hopes that by lowering these costs, the economy will benefit. I am hoping to learn all about the reforms President Obama plans to make and what they mean for U.S. citizens.