Reform Is Necessary: An Analysis of the United States Healthcare System after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act with Comparison to South Africa’s Pluralistic Healthcare System

The structural and functional complexity of the United States healthcare system affects its citizens. As such, the healthcare system has caused both economic and social issues to arise, which have demanded the need for healthcare reform. The two major issues in the healthcare system which are disadvantageous to citizens are limited accessibility to healthcare and its cost; both of which are disadvantageous to citizens. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), was passed in order to combat these issues within the healthcare system, however, its impacts did not produce a comprehensive solution. Since the enactment of PPACA there have been positive changes, but healthcare costs continue to rise and the United States still ranks lower than other developed nations in healthcare quality. The country of South Africa has a pluralistic healthcare system like the United States, and it is currently undergoing a healthcare system reform. Due to this similarity, the United States can study the impacts of South Africa’s healthcare reform in order to determine that healthcare reform is necessary, and to discover which reforms are essential to construct a thriving healthcare system. The current United States healthcare system is unsustainable and further healthcare reform is necessary to ensure accessibility to quality healthcare for all citizens at an affordable cost.