Social Values And Beliefs
One of the social problems, which are discussed, is affordable Health Care. The medical care and medical aid being very expensive in the U.S., the people with low incomes, experience the lack of social healthcare programs. Therefore health care system practices three major issues: millions of Americans do not have insurance to cover the medical care, health care service fees rise every year and cannot be afforded by people with low income, and often the quality of health care people get is not what it should be (Wilensky, 2012).
In particular, according to the National Center for Health Statistics of 2014, more than 36 millions of Americans, which is 11,5 percent of the U.S. population, lacked health insurance (Cdc.gov, 2015).Americans as a nation have a specific list of core values and beliefs that they apply towards the changes in their life, including the social welfare system. The issue contradicts with some of private and social values the nation have. While some people believe that the issue should be governed following private values, others strongly believe that it should be solved in accordance with the social values. Therefore it results in conflict of values, namely social vs. private responsibility, social support vs. time self-sufficiency, personal failure vs. system failure, etc. (Segal, 2007).
According to Pew Research Center’s statistics, the majority (59%) of Americans believe, that it is the responsibility of Government to take care of people who cannot take care of themselves (Pew Research Center, 2012).
Affordable health care is one of the major issues being discussed within health care system, as it directly contradicts with the American social and private values, and although the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, the Policy is new to society and still raises much controversy on the issue.II. Social Welfare Policy ExplanationThe Federal Statute of the U.S., the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), signed by Barack Obama on March 23, 2010 – is one of the most significant Healthcare acts, governing the social healthcare protection and affordable care (Gpo.gov, 2010). Being a health care reform, it introduced mechanisms like mandates, subsidies, and insurance exchanges for people to increase quality and affordability of health insurance.The Affordable Care Act not only strengthens already exciting heath care policies, but also reforms the whole system by making a new affordable health insurance market for the people with low income.
Act fundamentally restructures Medicaid program to cover all citizens and legal U.S. residents with family incomes less than 133% of the federal poverty level (Rosenbaum, 2011). Also, the Act sets federal standards for insurance companies in order to avoid any type of discrimination, such as race, sex, age, when providing services. Moreover, from the legal side, the law now prescribes that if coverage for routine medical care and other clinical trials is denied, a person has the right to impartial appeal procedures. Therefore the new Act restructures the insurance system, as well as makes health …
