The Republican』s New Scheme

New York Times

Zimeng Zhou

「How do we lower the costs of insurance? How do we offer citizens even opportunity to access medicare?」 This was the republicans』 main issue under the whole discussion during

the first session of the conference. After Mr. Hatch』s proposal of bill and specific discussion during the time of lobby, the republicans seem to have developed a viable plan to solve these two problems.

According to Mr. Hatch, the Senate of Utah, he and some of his fellow senates planed to import drugs from other countries, costing them a relatively high tax. Meanwhile, the

tax implemented on native drug-production companies would decrease correspondingly, so that native drug prices would decrease and importing drug would still be beneficial to the nation. If this bill is enacted, not only would competition grow between drug markets and therefore prevent the formation of monopoly, but also the overall price of drugs would diminish as importing drugs stay profitable.

Indeed, thisscheme sounds rather reasonable; however, problems still exist. First of all,

whether the import of drugs is feasible is still under consideration. The reporter believes that America has strict constrains on the production of drugs. It is not hard to imagine the government』s attitude towards importation of drugs and this might lead to serious consequences. The first thing is that they would not use this policy. Medicine production companies have monopolized the market, and their profit would be deduced greatly with no compensation to make up their lost once the bill is passed. Though neither they are part of the discussion nor they are the one who make decisions, they, still, they are the representation and the backbone of a highly profitable market. Notwithstanding, the American government surely refuses such circumstances』 occurrence.

Afterwards, the discussion shifted to the solution of uneven coverage of insurance. Objecting to Obama Care, The republicans have come up with a new method, which equally

distributes the money that was formally inefficiently used in different aspect of insurance. After constructing a formula in which all factors like population, average income, insurance coverage at present, the age concentration etc. are regarded, this money would be handed over to the individual governments in each state which finally is offered to citizens for the purchase of insurance. As predicted, each and every citizen would then, have the power to decide freely what insurance they prefer instead of the forced purchase of medicare Obama Care demands.

Yet, there are some other issues that republicans should consider carefully. Although Obama Care』s is mandatory, it in fact improved the overall heath conditions in America. If this compelling policy was abolished, many Americans in poverty or people who barely ever get illness will chose not to buy an insurance, resulting in a necessary increase in insurance price so that medicare companies could function normally. Heath care hence, falls into an endless loop where the prices become even higher and people even more unwilling to purchase insurance. Thus, deliberation is required.

To draw a conclusion, the first session of the conference was great success. Hopefully,

the republicans are prefect their bill after balancing all factors. The reporter expects much from this conference.

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