The health insurance system ceased to work for Joanna

(Please answer this question by referring to the resource post below )

(I truly enjoyed reading your discussion post. It was well-written and very informative.  It is estimated that roughly 12 million Americans lost their health insurance in 2020, due to the pandemic .  Because many people were laid off due to Covid-19, do you think the government will consider another health system transformation? Also, what type of changes/ transformations should be made? How do you think the loss in insurance will impact the health of the population? )

{Resource post }

The health insurance system ceased to work for Joanna and her son because she is now unemployed and works a freelance job. Because she lost her job, she is now unable to receive healthcare benefits from an employer-sponsored healthcare plan. Post WWII, there was rapid growth in employer-sponsored healthcare plans, making government-sponsored plans a subordinate insurance option (Wilensky, S & Teitelbaum, J, 2020). Although subordinate, Joanna and her son would be able to apply for government assistance through Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act (ACA) since she still would have some income from her government job. Under the ACA, Joanna and her son would have access to “free preventive care”, access to insurance plans despite their pre-existing condition, and support with applying for Medicaid if necessary (U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services).

Health system transformation in the U.S. would help Joanna and her son if it switched to a universal healthcare coverage model for all. This government-sponsored healthcare system would ensure that Joanna and her son, among millions of others who lose their jobs and employer-sponsored insurance plans, would have adequate insurance coverage. One of the drawbacks to having employer-sponsored health insurance protection is that, in the case someone were to lose their job like in Joanna’s case, they would be completely uncovered. The silver lining for Joanna and her son, in this case, is that because of the HIPAA (1996), Joanna and her son could not be discriminated against providing private coverage, should she seek it, because of her and her son’s preexisting condition, diabetes. The HIPAA act states that “The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) includes an important protection for consumers by prohibiting group health plans from excluding or limiting otherwise qualified individuals due to preexisting conditions” (Wilensky, S & Teitelbaum, J, 2020). While this protection does exist for Joanna and her son, more is needed to ensure that she can afford the necessary

In supporting health system transformation, public health’s role is to ensure that all Americans are able to live a healthy lifestyle. In this regard, public health operates as part of the larger health system as it works to “[protect] and [improve] the health of people and their communities” (Buchdahl, Monroe, Waddell, & Strunz, N.D.). According to Wilensky and Titelbaum, “policymakers must also know how providers, suppliers, employers, states, and others respond to changes in the health insurance market” (2020), which I’d argue is the role of anyone who works within public health and their obligation to the American public.

References

Buchdahl, H., Monroe, J., Waddell, L., & Strunz, E. (n.d.). What is Public Health? Retrieved December 31, 2020, from https://www.cdcfoundation.org/what-public-health

Teitelbaum, J. B., & Wilensky, S. E. (2020). Essentials of health policy and law (3rd ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  Affordable Care Act (ACA) – HealthCare.gov Glossary. (n.d.). Retrieved December 31, 2020, from https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/affordable-care-act/