Dear Professor,
I suppose that health reform in the USA still remains one of the most discussed issues in the medical sphere. Too many changes were made that touched all spheres of medicine, and this issue will be considered until all the misunderstandings are removed and all the problems are made clear. Having a connection with nursing as my future profession, I am sure that myths and misconceptions about US health insurance discussed in the article should be considered in detail with the purpose to get to know more and do not being frustrated in the future.
I see that health care reform has many supporters as well as opponents, however, this is the fact that the failure to understand the information correctly makes people create the wrong point of view that prevents them from adequate thinking. I believe that US health reform is useful and the understanding of some information correctly will help others to see the advantages of this reform as I see them.
Having read the article “Myths and misconceptions about US health insurance” by Katherine Baicker and Amittabh Chandra about the failure to understand the complicated process of health insurance, their simplification and as a result of a wrong interpretation, I tried to reflect on each of the myths and comment on them. I have drawn my attention to the discussion of those myths and their application to my future interest as a nurse.
The main idea of insurance is to protect people when they get ill. Insurance is rather an expensive service, however, I am sure that it is worthy. By buying insurance a person protects him/herself from the risk to appear insolvent when one gets ill while being healthy. The relation of nursing to the problem of insurance is both direct and indirect.
The direct relation is based on the personal payments for health insurance as in this way nurses protect themselves from costly medical care and expenses while paying for treatment when getting sick in case of the absence of insurance. It is much easier to pay insurance charges when health than to pay for treatment when you are sick.
The indirect connection between insurance and nurses is their medical profession. When dealing with patients, a nurse should know whether one has insurance and in case of its absence, a nurse should get to know the information about patients’ income. This is really important in prescribing treatment and drugs. A person should be able to pay for treatment. Considering the myths and misconceptions about US health insurance discussed in the article, I will assess the level of their impact on nursing.
The first myth is that sick people without insurance are unable to find affordable policies. This is absolutely wrong as the presence or absence of insurance puts people in different public policy challenges. Those who have an insurance need the policy for instance, while those who do not have insurance for any reason should seek for health care. There is no any advantage in absence of insurance as people are to pay for health care and it is rather expensive.
The second myth is connected with the fact that those who are uninsured pay less as they try to avoid or reduce the expensive and inefficient emergency room care. Such statement is rather provocative and doubtful. Reducing costs on emergency room, people leave themselves without important health care management.
Those who have health insurance come through the whole process of necessary procedures while treatment. Therefore, they are healthier than those who avoid important stages such as emergency room and in fact they pay more for the diseases they could avoid. Nurses should try to convince those who do not have insurance either to buy it or to come through the whole process necessary for health care management in order to avoid problems in the future.
The third myth is that the absence of insurance is barrier for getting a top-quality health care. In reality, “higher spending is not even associated with lower morality, which suggests that more-generous insurance provision does not necessarily translate the better care or outcome” (Baicker and Chandra 50).
The presence and absence of the insurance impacts the cost of treatment, as those who have insurance are protected from extra costs, while those who failed to get insurance on time are to pay for all the services. Nursing is a profession which makes people take care of patients and do all possible to make sure that the treatment is correctly assigned and a patient is getting better. The absence or presence of the insurance may never impact the nurses’ performance as it contradicts the ethics of nurses. Moreover, this is unethical as the absence of the insurance is not the identifier of the quality of the health care and nurses are to understand this and follow moral and ethical norms.
The next myth is that employers can get more of the burden of paying for insurance. This is an absolute misconception as “employees ultimately pay for health insurance they get through their employer, no matter who writes the check to the insurance company” (Baicker and Chandra 51). The payment an employer gets is directed to the insurance.
Therefore, those who think that an employer gets something from the insurance for his/her employees are mistaken. This information is necessary for nurses as for the employees of the medical system. Each employee should know its rights and obligations. The data connected with the relationships between an employer and an employee is to be considered by everyone.
The final myth discussed in the article is related to the high-deductive health plans and competition as the way to lower the costs. The presence of many insurance companies at the market and the competition between those does not mean that the cost of the insurance policy is going to reduce. The level of the insurance payment is stated by the government and other specific institutions and the insurance companies do not have any impact on the prices.
Nurses should know this information as they can deliver it to their patients. Moreover, being the consumers of the services of the insurance companies, nurses should also be aware of this news.
Therefore, I want to conclude that the insurance reform and the inability to consider information appropriately create a number of myths and misconceptions which prevent people from correct understanding of the health insurance. The nurses play an important role in some aspects of those misunderstandings as being the consumers of the services of the insurance companies and performing the services based on the insurance and health care policies, they are to understand the new law correctly.
The article has presented several myths which occurred in the in the society. I tried to consider those misconceptions from the point of view of the nurses, how they are to consider that information and how they are to behave in case the problem appears. The health care assurance should be clear for medical employees as only in this case the services are going to work correctly when there is no misunderstanding of the insurance policies among the medical staff.
Sincerely yours.
Works Cited
Baicker, Katherine and Amittabh Chandra. “Myths and misconceptions about US health insurance.” 47-53. Print.