The Role of Congress in Addressing Rising Healthcare Costs in the US

This essay analyzes the issue of rising healthcare costs in the United States, focusing on the role and responsibilities of the Congress in addressing this complex problem. It explores how Congress, as the primary law-making body, influences healthcare costs through legislation, taxation, and polic...Read More

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Rising healthcare costs
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Question 1
The Congress was created through the US constitution and commercialized it first meeting in
1789. It is made up of a Senate and House of Representatives. The congress parties play a crucial
role in making laws that affect the health sector and other areas by passing bills (New York
Times, 2017). They first formulate the laws they want to pass, declare them to the public before
enacting them to get a view of what the people need. If the people agree, the parties go ahead to
pass the laws, and if not, they get the public views, amend the bills before passing them to
become laws. In the rising costs of healthcare, the congress parties as the chief lawmaking body
are responsible for establishing the levels of taxes that should be paid by the organizations and
control their spending (New York Times, 2017). The Congress parties are responsible for
coming up with programs and policies that will help reduce the increasing healthcare cost as
claimed by the nation's public.
According to New York Times, the issue is seen to have exceeded the limits as it has a higher
inflation from a year to the other compared to all other sectors. Leaders have increased the
efforts made to combat the healthcare cost problem by setting up facilities that help reduce the
health charges. For instance, the Obama care that offers services to people at affordable costs.
Both the Democrats and Republicans committees feel that the issue has been politicized at the
expense of public lives. The United Health Foundation and Alliance for reforms urged the two
sides to set the differences aside to address the problem before it goes beyond the controllable
limit. The committee is ready to review the legislation and the taxes which have been highly
claimed to constitute the rapid cost increase from time to time.
The parties’ leadership and policy committees have shown interest in considering the changes in
the health policy legislation so as to tackle the high rising health costs. This will enable them to

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set up reinsurance program to revive the idea of the public option which would compete with the
private carriers and consequently the prices would decrease (Alliance for Health Reform, 2017).
Nonetheless, they may chose not to endorse various set of reforms in part because some of them
have little interest in considering the ideas and avoid distraction when it comes to urgent
imperative aspect of the legislation.
Question 2
The parties deliberated on ways in which the costs can be reduced and among the suggestions
was the establishment of coalitions between the government, hospitals, insurance companies and
employers. According to the Center of Disease Control, the United States healthcare costs have
witnessed a decline since the establishment of coalitions such as the Ebola Preparedness that is
financed by the government to test and treat patients suspected to be infected by Ebola Virus
Disease. Other Coalitions have been established in the county's states and monitored by one
system within every state. For instance, the EPR-health.state.mn.us which is a system monitoring
coalitions in Minnesota that were established to help the public in ensuring sustainability and
provide healthcare services during disasters. A broad coalition is the Medical Disaster Coalition
Advisory, formed on a permanent basis to offer medical advice to the health sector in times of a
disaster. The Healthcare-Now current (CNHP NOW) is a coalition initiated as a non-profit
coalition to help private healthcare provider. The coalition chooses a name which mostly implies
what it advocates for and handles.
The coalition’s distribute healthcare materials for the ill people in the health center, provide first
aid to people faced by disasters such as the Tornados as well as earthquakes and outbreaks.
Every organization in a coalition commands resources that it's highly endowed in and agree to
provide during the formation of the coalition. Some organizations such as the government have

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joined several coalitions to provide marginalized aid and healthcare awareness to the public. The
groups work effectively since they have a common goal of providing affordable healthcare
services to the US people.
The coalition which have formed are temporary so as to play significant role is shaping of the
policy in the US. The coalition formed in support of the national safety reforms include groups
representing the interests of the public health, consumers as well as victims of the illness. The
members of the coalition includes the American Public Health Association, and Pew Charitable.
The coalition usually command various resources and the membership aspect is claimed (Kaiser
Health Tracking, 2017). Some members are responsible for overseeing the matters related to the
budget formulation. Others are tasked at ensuring there is quality in regards to the service
delivery. The coalition’s believes that the regulatory safeguards are important so as to ensure
good quality of life as well as the economic stability for the American individuals (Kaiser Health
Tracking, 2017). Various groups with the common interest in regards to the health cost issues
have worked together in a number of ways; one way has been through advocating for the
protection for the human health as well as the environment.

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References
Alliance for Health Reform, 2017. Accessed At: (www.allhealth.org)
The American Presidency Project on-line www.presidency.ucsb.edu/index.php
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll - November 2017: The Politics of Health Insurance Coverage, ACA
Open Enrollment. Kaiser Family Foundation (www.kff.org)
New York Times, 2017. Accessed At: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/10/us/health-
insurance-affordable-care-act.html