About Health Care Law

The Journal of Health Care Law & Policy or JHCLP functions as a forum that caters to interdisciplinary discussion that concerns leading issues in the field of health law, medicine and health policies. Contributors of JHCLP include legal scholars, health law practitioners, physicians, leaders in health policy and leading industry experts in the field of public health, sociology, philosophy and other disciplines falling under the umbrella of health care.

Symposium based pieces and unsolicited manuscripts are published by JHCLP including student pieces composed by Journal staff members. Interested parties and organizations involving health care law are invited to contribute to the Journal.

Universal life care insurance is a globally accepted system to provide quality health care to citizens from all walks of life. It is a system by which basic health care expenses of a person are shared either completely by the government or partially by the government through a financial system of public-private partnership. In simple terms, when a person joins universal life care insurance, he or she will be provided free treatment either in hospitals run by the government or in certain hospitals stipulated by the government or the insurance scheme. Such a system is running efficiently in almost all developed countries in the world, especially in Europe and Asia. One notable exception from this group is United States.

Authorities dealing with health care insurance in United States maintain that there are a number of private companies in United States that provide a variety of health insurance. As a well-known apostle of free market and free economy, the US must provide an unregulated market environment for these companies to engage in a healthy competition so that the consumers will get maximum benefit. They insist that in the health care insurance system in the US, the consumer have a choice in selecting the insurance scheme.

The consumers can compare various insurance schemes and choose the best one according to their view. But many experts feel that the stance of the health care authorities does not take into consideration the situation prevailing at ground level. They argue that for a majority of people health insurance scheme is not their choice. For example, for employees of a private company, the company selects a particular health care insurance scheme and deducts the insurance premium from the salary of the employee. A fresh recruit to the company has no option but to select the insurance scheme of choice of that particular company. So the supposed advantage of insurance schemes of United States starkly reminds people of what Henry Ford, a great icon of capitalism, once said: “The customer can have any color as long as it is black.”

Another advantage of universal health care system is that every citizen of the country will come under a single scheme which will reduce the administrative costs significantly. A prominent health agency in United States, Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, pointed out several hidden costs in the present health insurance schemes, which ultimately decrease the quality of the health care and create further problems. Therefore, the institute has demanded for a universal health care insurance scheme in United States by 2010. In the present scenario, a person may not avail health care for certain health conditions because the insurance scheme he or she can afford does not support that kind of medical treatment. But every citizen of the country would benefit if a universal health care insurance scheme is put in place.

“We can’t afford that!”

“It’s too expensive!”

I hear it over and over again when discussing Long Term Care Insurance (LTCI) with folks. In fact some of my best clients had the exact same reaction when we first talked about LTCI.

The fact is most people can afford LTCI. What they can’t afford is the alternative and that is paying for the long term care they need out of their own pocket! Before we get into the numbers lets first take a minute to review what this type of extended care actually is.

Long term care is any number of services designed to meet the health and personal needs of an individual over an extended period of term. Most of this type of care is in the form of non-skilled care which provides assistance in performing the Activities of Daily Living, which are: bathing, eating, dressing, toileting and transferring.

Now for the numbers. I’ve never been one to recite statistics but I need to give you a sense of just how expensive long term care is. Costs vary greatly depending upon the type and amount of care you need and the provider you use. In Central Florida the average cost for the different levels of care are:

o Private Room at Nursing Home: $207 per day(1)
o Semi-Private Room at Nursing Home: $187 per day(1)
o Assisted Living Facility: $2,726 per month(1)
o Home Health Aide: $18 per hour(1)
o Homemaker Services: $17 per hour(1)
o Adult Day Services: $57 per day(1)

One year of home care, assuming the periodic need of a home health aide, would cost nearly $18,000 a year! Your potential yearly outlay for a private room at a nursing facility would cost $76,000! Combine this with an average need for long term care of 2 ½ years and the total potential outlay would be $45,000 for home care and $190,000 for a nursing home! And that is in today’s dollars. Ten, twenty and thirty years from now these costs will be even higher. Assuming a conservative 3% average annual increase, in 30 years these numbers will balloon to $275,000 and $460,000! The bottom line, this type of extended care is incredibly expensive and will only get more so as time goes on.

So when folks tell me how expensive LTCI is I tell them to consider the alternative. What is more expensive, a $2,300 annual premium for a comprehensive LTCI policy(2) or a $76,000 bill from the nursing home?

And for those who think they will never need long term care…think again. By some estimates, the chances of an individual needing this type of care are as high as 70 percent. Of those, 40 percent will need care in a nursing home. In today’s environment, not having LTCI is not an option! Contact your local long term care specialist today to structure an LTCI policy to meet your needs.

(1) 2008 Cost of Care Survey, Genworth Financial, March 2008.
(2) Great American Life Insurance Company At-Home Advantage, 60 years old, standard rate class, $200 a day benefit, 3 year policy, 5% simple interest.

Because of the unfortunate stigma still attached to mental health conditions, people should think twice before using their health insurance to pay for visits to a mental health professional, such a marriage and family therapist, a psychologist or psychiatrist.

If you do have health insurance coverage, your first reaction might be to think, “Well, if I’ve got insurance, why shouldn’t I use it? That’s what it’s there for.” And, most of the time, that’s true. I know I’m certainly grateful for my health insurance when I go to the doctor or dentist.

But it gets more complicated when it comes to mental health care because of negative associations attached to psychological disorders. For example, people probably think differently about an individual who has a physical condition such as a thyroid disorder versus someone who has a psychological condition such as major depression.

The reality is, if you want to get your insurance company to pay for your mental health care, the mental health care provider has to give you a serious psychological diagnosis or the insurance company won’t pay for the treatment.

For instance, many insurance companies won’t pay for someone seeing a therapist for couples counseling or for “normal bereavement” following a loved one’s death. So your mental health care provider needs to find a serious diagnosis that legitimately describes your situation and that will be acceptable to your insurance company. But, once you have that diagnosis, the big issue becomes confidentiality.

Here’s how that works. When you’re seeing a therapist and paying for it yourself, the information you discuss in session stays in the room for the most part. The therapist doesn’t share the information with anyone else, except when they’re required to report child abuse or elder abuse or a handful of other situations covered by law or their profession’s code of ethics. So the vast majority of the time, the information you share with your therapist stays just between the two of you, and you can feel completely free to share all the deep problems that brought you to the therapist’s office in the first place.

However, your sessions won’t be so private any more if your insurance company is paying for all or part of your mental health care, because your diagnosis then becomes part of your health record and it’s no longer confidential. That could be detrimental to you in the future.

For example, let’s say your therapist diagnoses you with major depressive disorder, which is a very common diagnosis. Think about how people view other people who are seriously depressed. They generally have certain expectations of how depressed people behave.

So having that diagnosis in your health record could affect your ability to get a job in the future. It could be an issue in a child custody battle or other legal problems, especially since law enforcement agencies can access your insurance information at any time. A serious mental health diagnosis could cause problems if you tried to obtain other health insurance or life insurance in the future. Those are just a few examples of situations to think about.

The other issue with using insurance benefits for mental health care is that the insurance company might place limitations on the number of sessions you can obtain or require that you get pre-approval from your primary care physician. Some insurance companies are very generous and allow weekly sessions until your problem is resolved, and they don’t interfere very much in the therapeutic process. But some companies place a limit on the number of sessions they’ll cover in a given year, and that frankly might not be enough to resolve some serious or longstanding problems.

But, to me at least, those pragmatic challenges of trying to get your insurance company to provide adequate mental health coverage pale in comparison to the confidentiality issue I was talking about earlier. Confidentiality really is the Number One thing you should consider when you’re deciding whether you want to use your health insurance to cover mental health care.

How does an Illinois resident with a pre-existing health condition find a quality Illinois health insurance plan? Why does it seem like it is so difficult to find a pre-existing condition Illinois health insurance plan?

Pre-existing conditions are defined as illnesses in which the person has gone to a physician, clinic, or medical facility and has received medical care in the past. Insurance companies are using these questionnaires as well as an exclusion period in order to defend themselves from people with pre-existing conditions that are seeking medical insurance.

In the state of Illinois people that are applying for an individual health insurance plan can be turned down at the insurance company’s discretion due to pre-existing conditions unless that person is eligible for an Illinois HIPAA health insurance plan.

In the state of Illinois they follow HIPAA laws very strict. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act created in 1996 and effective in 1997 provides protection for people that have medical pre-existing illnesses. The law protects people by limiting their exclusion period when purchasing health insurance, lowering the chances for a member with a pre-existing condition to lose coverage, providing protections when they change jobs and guaranteeing that your health insurance policy gets renewed at the end of your coverage year.

The law however, has not eliminated the ability of individual carriers of denying health insurance to pre-existing condition people or exclude medical conditions. The only guarantee issue provisions lie in State sponsored plans and insurance company funded plans. What HIPAA does provide is for guaranteed acceptance health insurance coverage for people that meet 6 HIPAA requirements. When someone meets these 6 requirements they are considered “HIPAA eligible” and can qualify for a guaranteed issue HIPAA health insurance plan. The 6 requirements for HIPAA eligibility can often be the only avenue of health insurance coverage available to some high risk individuals with major pre-existing health conditions.

Some of the most important insurance companies in the state of Illinois handle pre-existing conditions a little bit differently, because of this it is important to do some research and actually shop around for a policy before deciding to apply. Individual plans have more exclusion that group plans and that is why they are quite a bit less expensive, because they are more restrictive.

Aetna Health Insurance who is one of the “big dogs” in the health insurance business across the United States is a primary example of exclusion period. They offer a 365 day period starting from the day of enrollment, in which a person with a pre-existing condition is not covered. It is important to note however, that if the person that has a pre-existing condition has had prior creditable coverage within 63 days immediately before the signature of the application; then the exclusion period will be waived.

Another example of this can be seen with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, who is one of the 39 independent, community-based insurance companies that make up the national Blue Cross Blue Shield network. Since they are independent that means they might not have the same provisions as Blue Cross Blue Shield companies in other states. In Illinois, BCBS requires a member with a pre-existing condition to wait a 365 day exclusion period from the day that they sign the policy before receiving coverage for their illness.

Compared to individual coverage, group plans are a little better. They cannot turn you down due to a pre-existing condition, which makes group plans more expensive. Under HIPAA law an employer can only deny pre-existing condition coverage if the person is diagnosed, receives treatment or has care and treatment 6 months before the enrollment date. A good thing to note is that pregnancy cannot be accounted as a pre-existing condition by an employer insurer.

The total time a person can be excluded from a group health plan if they have a pre-existing condition is 12 months after enrollment (18 months if they enroll late), for this reason it is important for a person to sign up for health insurance as soon as they are offered it (if not you can be subject to 18 months instead of 12). Fortunately for some, the time can be less in case that they were covered by an insurance company for the 63 days before enrollment. Also, an insurer cannot deny coverage to a small employer (2-50) under HIPAA law.

Finding Illinois health insurance coverage when one has a pre-existing condition can be very tough. Not to mention that pre-existing conditions cover everything from cancer, HIV, Hepatitis C and even high cholesterol. It is key however, for a person that has a pre-existing condition to know all the exclusions and their rights that are provided under the HIPAA law. This is important because once you know your rights, you will be able to be more knowledgeable about the subject and avoid long exclusion periods.

There have been countless books written on the positive affect of how a happy and joyful attitude has on our health, and how laughter can empower the immune system. These practices are quite well known and useful. The Law of Attraction provides unparalleled insight into how we attract that which gives us the reality we experience. It indicates that what one gives attention to one attracts, that likeness is drawn unto itself. Indeed it goes to the heart of every health issue one might have experienced. In this brief article I will attempt to wet your taste buds with the idea that health is a function of one’s willingness to be happy no matter what.

Most everyone would agree that a person does not have a choice as to what he or she will think about. Rather, it is dictated by what comes to his attention in the everyday situations and circumstances of life. But in a more precise looking at where thoughts come, we find that all thoughts are preceded by energy. We usually feel this energy in the emotions and feelings we are experiencing. By reaching for better feeling thoughts, through the intention to do so, you evoke thoughts which feel better. When you are hashing over something you have angry feelings for, notice how corresponding thoughts surface to engage with.

I knew a woman once who every morning when greeted by her fellow co-workers responded with the words “pretty shittee, thank you”. It became her customary reply and her no-humor greeting did not do well for her. I have known people who must read every article on everything ‘wrong’ in the world or their government. Many people do believe to worry is a necessary act in order to survive. Yet the fact is negative stress looks for more of the same.

People who have an extreme contempt or disgust for someone with a contradictory point of view are in the moment vibrating, or transmitting hate into the very space in which they want life to flourish. It is just not possible to get healthy and filled with happiness and joy if you cannot create and sustain the experience of happy and joyful thoughts right where you are. Each of us can choose to have our own being radiate the vibrations of love, kindness and joy.

Resistance to a better feeling emotion may be the only thing between a person’s experience of health and vitality. All across the world there are countless stories of people who otherwise should have passed on, yet they became strong and healthy. Despite the pronouncements by the medical institutions and their powerful suggestive powers, these individuals reached beyond convention wisdom. Your power lies in your willingness to be cause in the matter of choosing what you will focus upon. Is it one where you feel happy and joyful or is it one you find yourself feeling less than happy? Deliberately choose the later.

The environment is a great influence on our health but not for the same reason one thinks. It is not the viruses we need to be so worried about but rather the toxic effect negative and limiting thinking has on each one of us. To release this unhealthy habit and turn it into an expanding life of happiness, joy and even bliss would a wise choice. Everyone has access to their higher and more divine self. Showing appreciation and expressing your gratitude for all that there is, is another effective way to point you in a positive direction and better feelings.

The best work to date for the layman to understand the most advanced knowledge about the cells of our body is The Biology of Belief Among other insightful things is how the membrane is reading the environment around it. Dr. Bruce Lipton Ph.D. clearly describes the survival-retreat state or the growth-expansion state of the cells. Happy and joyful emotions move you towards life, and fear, hate and anger can eventually cause the cell to protect itself to death. Fortunately humans are living in an overall state which still seeks life and we can endure quite the burden.

There are numerous ways in which to create space and feel better and everyone has the capacity to take charge of what is important to them. It is when you realize for yourself that there is nothing more important than that you feel good, that the condition of life transforms to happiness, joy, freedom and health.

I am going to suggest that if things are not working or flowing into your life sufficiently to your satisfaction be it health and vitality, relationships, business, resources, friendships or if things are always breaking down around you, there may be one common element that could be the cause for unworkability in your life – a lack of happiness and joy. Increase your joyful vibration by focusing solely on the possibility and the happy things in your life. You will feel better!

In this pure state every area of one’s life works. Is working means happiness and joy fills the experience of life. It fills it in all relationships, and in all business activity. By living in happiness and joy one has access to abundant resources and the ability to experience freedom and satisfaction. Oftentimes there is a mix of both positive and negative energy producing an out-of-balance condition. A cold is nothing more than emotional turmoil. Someone may have endless supplies of resources available to him but has a barrier to finding someone to love and cherish. The connection between free thinking and the free flow of one’s life wonderfully working in every area and at every turn is a function of one’s emotional state of being. Your health and your life are one.

The bottom line here is that everyone has the capacity to develop the skill of noticing how they feel and how they want to feel. And if they can do this they can deliberately choose to do everything to manage their own well being by demanding that nothing is more important to them than that they feel good. Let go of entertaining thoughts which inevitably bring you down. If there were a universal health remedy, this would indeed be the magic potion. Do this for a short while and you will see the evidence that affirms your natural healing process. Miracles will happen!

Abraham-Hicks is the leading force behind bringing to light the nature of the Law of Attraction. I am every so grateful for her work and so many others in enabling me to write on the practical applications discovered inside this law. For more please search me on the internet.

In the “ObamaCare” Health Care Reform Law there is a section in there for very large companies and corporations who wish to self-insure for their employees health care plan. This sounds like an awfully hard thing to do for a Corporation to become their own health care insurance provider, but in reality it makes a lot of sense for a very large Corporation with tens of thousands of employees. They can pool their resources together and run their own insurance company, and it can become a profit center.

In California healthcare insurance companies are much like utilities in that they can only charge 30% more than they can prove they are spending on the actual healthcare costs. If we look at a self-insuring corporations for employee health care, we can see that a 30% margin is more than enough to justify setting up another profit center. However, insurance companies are allowed to ask people all kinds of things before they insure them, or assign them to a risk category.

A large Corporation which self insurers will need to ask the same questions upon hiring the individual, and it could become a reason for hiring in the first place. Some of these questions are actually against current employment laws, and that gets into a gray area of law with the human resource department. There are specific questions that no company is allowed to ask due to discrimination laws. Things like age, race, marital status, etc. – and if a human resource person asks these questions, it is possible that the applying potential future employee can sue the company if they’re not hired or let go right after they are hired.

If the company self insurers they have to ask these questions. But does that mean that the company can only ask the questions after the person is hired? And if so their so-called self insuring corporate profit center must take all the employees regardless of any of these facts. This is one of the underlining themes of ObamaCare in that an insurance company may not deny coverage for pre-existing health issues. Instead, they have to offer the health care insurance and put them into one of those high risk category pools.

Nevertheless, they still have to ask the questions. And yet an employer is not allowed to ask these questions if they self-insure, and therefore our legislature has created the law of unintended consequences, created a new gray area of law, for which no case law actually exists yet. Had they considered this prior to completing the bill, this wouldn’t have happened. Please consider all this.

The Department of Health and Human Services together with the Department of Justice is implementing a project that would help prevent the operation of fraudulent health providers within the Medicare system. The two government agencies are targeting Southern Florida after successful demonstration in Los Angeles and Houston.

This project will ensure that every provider meets the requirements set forth by law otherwise; their licenses to operate would be revoked. Those who meet the requirements will still undergo greater scrutiny with regular visits on site, more audits and potential risks for fraud. The project has yielded tremendous results over the past eighteen months with many indictments and convictions.

Anyone who cares about the feelings of their family members, or their own final health care treatment, should consider executing a Living Will. It has become an essential element in the practice of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Why? A Living Will permits the patient to communicate, in advance, the medical care decisions he or she would make if rendered incapacitated, so that their family won’t be put in the difficult position of having to do so for them.

The recent nationwide controversy caused by the unfortunate situation of a woman in Florida, who did not possess a Living Will, has demonstrated the family pain created by this issue and sparked renewed public interest in the Living Will. Clients from California to New Jersey have contacted Estate Planning Attorneys to learn more about them.

The Basics:

The legal name for a Living Will is an Advanced Directive, a document codified nearly 15 years ago by The New Jersey Advanced Directives for Health Care Act.

In New Jersey, according to the law, an Advanced Directive, or Living Will, in and of itself, is a simple document needing only to be in writing, signed and dated in the presence of two subscribing adult witnesses who must attest to the fact that the person is of sound mind and free from duress and undue influence. Alternatively, it simply may be signed, dated and acknowledged before a notary public, an attorney or other person authorized in New Jersey to administer oaths.

The Advanced Directive becomes operative when it is transmitted to the attending physician who has determined that the patient lacks the capacity to make a particular health care decision.

Once made, the patient may revoke the Advanced Directive either by oral or written notification of the revocation to the “Health Care Representative”, physician, nurse or other health care professional, or by any other act evidencing an intent to revoke the document. In other words, the patient can change his or her mind, at any time, simply by saying so.

What It Does:

Consistent with the terms of an Advance Directive, life-sustaining treatment may be withheld or withdrawn from a patient if the life-sustaining treatment is:

· Experimental and not proven therapy, or is likely to be ineffective or futile in prolonging life, or is likely to merely prolong an imminent dying process;

· The patient is permanently unconscious, as determined by the attending physician and confirmed by a second qualified physician;

· The patient is in a terminal condition as determined by the attending physician and confirmed by a second qualified physician, or

· The patient has a serious irreversible illness or condition, and the likely risks and burdens associated with the medial intervention to be withheld or withdrawn may be reasonably judged to outweigh the likely benefits to the patients from such intervention or imposition on an unwilling patient would be inhumane.

The law allows the attending physician, consistent with the terms of the Advance Directive, to issue a “Do Not Resuscitate” Order.

Two Types — Instruction and Proxy:

There are two types of New Jersey Advanced Directive, or Living Will: An Instruction Directive and a Proxy Directive. You may choose to create either one or both.

The first type, an Instructive Directive is what clients usually mean when referring to a Living Will. It provides instructions and directions regarding health care in the event that the patient subsequently lacks such decision-making capacity. The Instruction Directive may state the person’s general treatment philosophy and objections together with the person’s specific wishes regarding the provision, withholding or withdrawal of any form of health care, including life-sustaining treatment.

The second type, the Proxy Directive is more similar to a Power of Attorney because it appoints a “Health Care Representative” to make health care decisions in the event the patient subsequently loses the capacity to make such decisions.

A person may appoint as his “Health Care Representative” any competent adult, including a family member, a friend or a religious adviser. Once the person’s attending physician determines that a person lacks decision- making capacity (along with confirmation of another physician, unless that person’s lack of decision-making capacity is clearly apparent), the “Health Care Representative” has the authority to make health care decisions on behalf of the patient. The “Health Care Representative” is to make all health care decisions the patient would have made had he or she possessed decision-making capacity, or where the patient’s wishes cannot be determined adequately, to make a decision in the best interest of the patient.

In carrying out the person’s wishes, the “Health Care Representative” is to give priority to that patient’s Instruction Directive, if one exists. Also, a Proxy Directive can be written in New Jersey so as to place specific limitations upon the authority of the “Health Care Representative”.

Also important to note, the Living Will statute in New Jersey covering Proxy Directives specifically protects the patient’s “Health Care Representative” from liability. The law states that the “Health Care Representative” is not imposed with any liability for any portion of the person’s health care costs, not subject to criminal or civil liability for any action performed in good faith and in accordance with the provisions of the act to carry out the terms of the Advance Directive.

Physician and Hospital Responsibilities:

Interestingly, the law requires the attending physician to make affirmative inquiry of the patient, his family or others as appropriate under the circumstances, concerning the existence of an Advance Directive. In other words, the attending physician must initiate the question of a Living Will. The attending physician is required to note in the patient’s medical records whether an Advance Directive exists and the name of the patient’s “Health Care Representative”, if any. If an Advance Directive exists, a copy must be attached to the patient’s medial records.

Health care institutions including hospitals, nursing homes, home health care agencies and hospice programs are required to adopt policies and practices that are necessary to provide for routine inquiry at the time of admission and other appropriate times concerning the existence and location of an Advance Directive. Moreover, health care institutions must adopt policies and practices necessary to provide appropriate informational materials concerning Advance Directive to all interested patients, their families and their “Health Care Representatives”, and to assist those patients in discussing the executing an Advance Directive.

These health care institutions will also be required to adopt policies and practices necessary to educate patients, their families and “Health Care Representatives” about the availability, benefits and burdens of rehabilitative treatment, therapy and services, included but not limited to family and social services, self-help and advocacy services, employment and community living, and the use of assisting devices. Health care institutions must establish procedures and practices for resolution of the disputes among the patient, and “Health Care Representative” and attending physician in the event there is disagreement concerning the patient’s decision making capacity or in the interpretation of the Advance Directive concerning the patient’s course of treatment.

The New Jersey law on Living Wills expressly states that it should not be interpreted to impair the obligations of health care professionals to provide for the care and comfort of the patient and to alleviate pain, in accordance with accepted medical and nursing standards.

The patient’s family, “Health Care Representative”, and appropriate others should be informed that if a person has appointed a “Health Care Representative” and subsequently lacks decisions-making capacity concerning a particular health care decision, the attending physician must obtain the informed consent for, or refusal of, health care from the “Health Care Representative” after discussing the nature and the consequences of the person’s medical condition, and the risks, benefits and burdens of the proposed health care and its alternatives. However, if the patient is subsequently found to possess adequate decision-making capacity, the patient shall retain legal authority to make the health care decision.

Moreover, even if the patient lacks decision-making capacity, but nonetheless clearly expresses the wish that medically appropriate measures be utilized to sustain life, that wish shall take precedence over any contrary decision of the “Health Care Representative” and over any contrary statement in the patient’s Instructive Directive.

Conclusion:

The services of an Estate Planning Attorney are not necessarily required in New Jersey to execute a Living Will – just as they are not required to execute a Real Estate Contract or a Last Will & Testament – provided the document is in the proper form, correctly drafted, signed and witnessed. However to be sure that a Living Will conforms to New Jersey legal guidelines and that the patient’s wishes in the event of incapacity are clearly expressed – so as to be understood and followed – it may be prudent to consult a lawyer experienced in Estate Planning before the occasion arises in which the Living Will is needed.

The concept of universal health care started with the term of President Bill Clinton when he pushed the concept of a united healthcare plan for Americans. The topic has so much social implication that it has been made a point of discussion in every election campaign and which further stresses the current healthcare crisis in the United States. The government needs to step up its efforts in order to curb the growing expenses in healthcare services which are eating into the Nation’s budget.

There are no arguments that every government is responsible for maintaining the health of its citizens. However, the debate ensues on the manner on how to implement such a worthy cause with far reaching implications. The sooner this issue goes from the floor debates into the implementing laws the better for everyone.