The Influence of Political Ideologies on the Health Care Systems in the United States

In social studies one may define a political ideology as a coherent set of individual views on politics and the role of the existing government. In the current day and age one cannot help but identify with a political affiliation. In the United States for instance our politics function largely as a contest between Democrats or liberals and republicans or conservatives. The influence of politics is considered to be on everything we touch. From education to stock markets, development to devolution, politics influences on all these important departments of our country. Well heath is no different. Political ideologies have influenced this important department just like any other. The fact that it is one of the most critical in the country does not make it excepted, quite the opposite really, we are currently witnessing the greatest influence of the health care department than any other time in history even from the citizens. Take this for instance What do you think about the quality of healthcare in the United States? Your answer may depend on your politics. This is because in the United States, political parties and their ideologies significantly influence decision making in health care systems. The influence is so deep that it also affects the citizens' attitude towards the healthcare services and their satisfaction (Coburn, 67). In this paper we seek to understand and outline the connection that is between political ideologies and the health care system organization and functionality in the United States. We will seek to find out why and how the health care providing system is influenced and seek to provide clear evidences upon which a clear conclusion on how a specific political ideology has over the decision on whether to implement a heath care policy or not.

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There are two major political affiliations in the United States namely the republicans and democrats. Political ideologies like this cause a division of opinion when heath care ideas are offered for deliberation on the basis of whose ideas it is and which affiliation you belong to. Most American citizens refer themselves as independents grouped into either republicans or democrats. In a recent survey conducted by Kirstin W. Scott, MPhil, PhD, of Harvard University the conclude that recently political ideologies have strong implications in the health care system with even efforts to improve the quality of care under scrutiny. The research was based on data acquired from a survey of personal experiences and altitude towards healthcare provision in the country conducted in 2012. There were at least 1500 Americans involved in this survey. The survey emphasized on the experiences of those who were recently on the receiving end of hospitalization services and other healthcare affiliates due to disability or illness. Participants were also asked their political affiliations if they had any. The data acquired was then used to outline perceptions of those participants that were identified with one of the two major political affiliations in America. The identified that democrats had a more negative approach in the current health care provision system. 70 percent of the people aligned with the Democratic Party perceived that in the United States had a serious problem in the healthcare system as compared to 46 percent of the conservatives. Well it is true that much has to be done to improve the health care situation in the country it is clear that political affiliations have a role to play.

Since the passage into law the Affordable Care Act became law in 2010, by the Obama administration. There have been efforts by the conservatives to destroy it. The liberals insist however that if there is even a chance that the country would be able to reform the health care system then it is absolutely necessary that it is made accessible and affordable. The conservatives however claim that as much as reform is necessary, the way approach upon which the Affordable Care Act has taken is not acceptable and will result to worse healthcare system than it is currently is. This is an example that shows how much political ideologies can influence health care policies.

The democrat's argument was that the federal government should legislate and administer health care. Their main aim was to protect Obamacare that was established in the act. Since its inception there had been 20 million citizens who have received health insurance services. And according to Democrats.org (official democrats' page) the rate of people without insurance has been cut into half. The ideology behind this campaign was based on the belief that quality healthcare is a key and fundamental right for every American citizen. They had also tasked the federal government with the responsibility of overseeing and regulating the health care system. There were claims that the party had disagreements in themselves over the degree upon which the government was able to take care of everyone's health care but most of them agreed that the federal government was to oversee the heath care situation in the country. Republicans however had a different view on the subject. The party strongly aligned with capitalism personal responsibility and freedom from the government viewed the Affordable Care Act as an infringement into the Americans rights. They argued that the act infringes on the American independence and also claimed the inception of Obama care would eventually lead to the collapse of the nation's healthcare system. They viewed the Affordable Act as flawed and the only solution would be to repeal the entire section and abolish the Obamacare program all together. Ideally we would have our lawmaker getting along and after talks they would decide on the best way forward in passing a bill. Realistically however It comes down to the ideological differences that separate them in the first place. This ends up affecting the health care delivery in itself.

Another primary example of political influences on the healthcare systems is the recent dismantling of Obamacare by the US president Donald Trump. After failing to influence change over the last eight years the democrats were in government it was high on president's Trump agenda after coming into office. The republicans had of course tried to repeal it earlier nut their efforts failed. Repealing failed because then, the Republicans were in the opposition of the government. The dismantling of this law led to the introduction of cheaper insurances (The Guardian). As much as Obama care had not lived up to its hype it was much easier to reform rather than abolish it entirely. The Trump government provided reasons for the repeal such as cost of premium subscriptions, choice and competition due to the monopoly nature of the acts and exchange enrollment. They replaced the new Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) or as it is better known American Health Care Act (AHCA).

In America political lobbying has become a common thing these days. It is when an organization backs a politician to office and use the politician to promote their agenda in return.

"Pharmaceutical companies spend far more than any other industry to influence politicians. Drug makers have poured close to $2.5bn into lobbying and funding members of Congress over the past decade." (The Guardian). In return the government and congress uses these organizations as important research sources of policy proposals. America's politics is characterized with porous systems' and veto points upon which if one had organized interest it is possible to change or even block legislation that are not in line with their business and their agenda. Interest groups have different platforms upon which they can challenge the laws that do not favor them. One of the ways we have seen interest groups protect themselves is by lobbying politicians and using them to block legislations. In the recent days there has been an outcry in the lack of a legislation that would seek to curb the rising pricing of prescription medicine with the most recent Mylan Inc. There has been public outcry over the increase in prices and this has of course triggered a response from our law makers. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah just to name a few were among the politicians that took time and even wrote letters to Mylan Inc. about its choice to raise its price on a common allergy drug EpiPen. This tough talk however has borne no fruits as no action has been taken. This is not the only situation with similar outcry of the public and lawmakers as a result of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International and Turing Pharmaceuticals raising the prices of their products.

Some of the political leaders who have no affiliations with these interest groups have tried to put forward bills with intent to seek control over some of these decisions. According to a statement by the Guardian, at least 15 bills to help regulate drug prices since 2017, including one that would allow Americans to import from approved Canadian pharmacies where the same treatments are often cheaper, have been introduced in this Congress. It is therefore surprising that not even a single one has made it to the floor of the house with all of them not making out of the lower committees in congress. Record show that there have been similar 119 bills dating back to 2005 presented to the congress but all have been similarly squashed. These are just examples of a few situations that have been recorded. It is evident that as much as it is easy for the politicians to speak against these situations, the lobbies have more influence and they are determined to make sure that they remain so. Apart from lobbying organizations have been known to use big donations to encourage support and destroy any intent to establish policies that would affect their businesses.

The universal healthcare agenda is also a political ideology that has had an influence on the Health Care Systems in the United States. This where the government fully controls and supervises all health care operations. While the United States used more per capita on healthcare than any other country in the globe with sums amounting over 3 trillion dollars, it is only America among the developed nations that does not have a working universal health coverage. Difference in political ideologies in congress has not helped its case with but it is one that needs to be looked at from the both sides of the political spectrum. The difference in opinion between republicans and democrats was deepened by the Affordable care act. Since then there has been disagreements that in the end led to the repealing of the act. Universal health care coverage according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development means everyone has to be able to access good quality health services without suffering financial hardship.

There are two major types of universal health coverage currently being used in developed countries. One is the National Health Service model that is a single payer system that has the government providing most health care via public hospitals. It has been adopted successfully in the United Kingdom. The other type involves the National Health Insurance model in which the government requires that everyone possess health insurance but services are rendered by a mix of public, nonprofit, and for-profit providers. The second model is more flexible and has been implemented in many countries in different forms where some are single payer while others are multi-player. In the US however this has been unable to be realized as a result of failure of the stakeholders particularly our law makers to work together. While Democra...