In a time of economic hardship, Americans have become more and more conscious of how they spend their money. For obvious reasons, nearly all consumers would agree that overpaying for a product is bad, what they don’t realize is that over half of Americans already do. The american health care system has a multitude of flaws with a bunch of causes that raises cost, but at the root of it all is what sets america’s system apart, private insurance. Because of private health insurance,the cost of health care in the United States has risen exponentially. Emerging around the mid 1900s, health insurance was created by doctors and medical professionals to provide affordable healthcare for everyone who needed it. Insurance is based off the concept of …show more content…
Varying in size, these companies act as a middleman between the patient and the medical facility finance office. All having slight variations, the abundance of insurers can cause confusion and often times incorrect billing. Insurance companies unlike individuals are able to negotiate a discounted payment with the hospital, but at a steep price. Of the considerable amount of money the United States put into the health industry, 35% of it went to paying for administration cost of both the insurer and the hospital (Brill,Steven, pg.34-43, Time). It should be no surprise then that the United States leads the world in every category of health care cost, often times charging twice more than the second most expensive country. Unlike the United States, nearly every other industrialized country in the world utilizes a non profit socialized health care system provided by their national government to provide healthcare to all of its citizens.This system, known as a single payer system, is able to set definitive prices on medical procedures while eliminating the need for negotiating and extra administrative task.Through socialized health care, countries such as Canada and the UK have been able to hold down cost benefitting the people in their respective countries (Goldman, Phyllis
An analysis of the US and Canada’s systems reveals advantages and drawbacks within each structure. While it is apparent that both countries could benefit from the adoption of portions of the others system, Canada’s healthcare system offers several benefits over the US system.
Universal health insurance is available to everybody with an option to purchase private insurance coverage (The U.S. Health Care System: An International Perspective, 2014). Approximately 90% of the population uses the national system in which premiums are income based. The system uses 240 private insurers for a non-profit, competitive system. Insurance costs are significantly less than the U.S. due to cost negotiations for medical facilities, appointments, and prescription medications (Sick Around the World, 2008). B. United States Healthcare System Healthcare in the U.S. has recently been affected by implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010.
Everyone though out the United States are being to have some sort of health insurance since legislations passed the patient protection affordable care act that began in the beginning of 2014. The reform act basically states all people have to have some type of health insurance and if they fall to have the minimal required insurance then will face a tax penalty. However, with the written laws the information is difficult to understand and even more difficult to interpret what the impact will be if people fail to comply and get insurance (Suelzer). Although the coverage is mandatory there is a loophole in the act making some people exempt from being required to have health insurance. Individuals who have a religious belief,
Health insurance is currently an important issue in the United States. Everyday more and more Americans become uninsured due to job loss and an increase in premiums. These Americans add to the ever growing population of 45.7 million people who are currently uninsured (Bialik). Moreover only 27% of those uninsured are under the age of 65 (NCHC). This is staggering considering most of those who are uninsured have, or soon will, suffer from some sort of illness or injury. As a result they will not be able to afford proper treatment. Insurance premiums can range in cost from fifty dollars per month, to fifteen hundred dollars per month (Kreidler). An individual’s premium is determined by factors they choose as well as other factors looked at by their provider. The cost of health insurance in America varies depending on the controllable factors, like particular insurance policies, and uncontrollable factors, like age.
Ans 1) To mandate the insurance or not is a big question to be answered and still there are a lot of problems associated with mandating the Health Insurance in United States. A lot of views have been given by people regarding whether there is need of mandating the Health Insurance or not.
In order to fully understand the uninsured and underinsured problem that hospital administrators face the cause must be examined. The health outcomes of uninsured individuals are generally worse than those who are insured. Uninsured persons are more likely to experience avoidable hospitalizations, diagnosed at later stages of disease, hospitalized on an emergency or urgent basis, and more seriously ill upon hospitalization (Simpson, 2002) Because the uninsured often lack an ongoing relationship with a health-care provider, they are less likely to receive preventive care and diagnostic tests (Kemper, 2002). Many corporations balance their budget through cost cuts and other moves, but have been slammed with an increasing load of uninsured patients, coupled with reduced payments from government and private insurance programs. In 2000, 564,476 uninsured patients came through Health and Hospitals Corporations health care centers, a 30 percent increase from 1996. In the same period, Congress reduced Medicare reimbursements to hospitals, while Medicaid reimbursements to primary care clinics remained basicall...
Millions of Americans are without health insurance in the United States due to many factors such as unemployment, the cost of insurance and insurance companies denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions. The United States does not provide health care to its citizens the way the rest of the industrialized world does. Instead of providing coverage for all it institutes market-based options, in which some receive coverage from their place of employment, another options are purchasing individual plans and some can obtain coverage through public programs like Medicaid. The United States is the only westernized industrial nation without a universal health care system.
An issue that is widely discussed and debated concerning the United States’ economy is our health care system. The health care system in the United States is not public, meaning that the states does not offer free or affordable health care service. In Canada, France and Great Britain, for example, the government funds health care through taxes. The United States, on the other hand, opted for another direction and passed the burden of health care spending on individual consumers as well as employers and insurers. In July 2006, the issue was transparency: should the American people know the price of the health care service they use and the results doctors and hospitals achieve? The Wall Street Journal article revealed that “U.S. hospitals, most of them nonprofit, charged un-insured patients prices that vastly exceeded those they charged their insured patients. Driving their un-insured patients into bankruptcy." (p. B1) The most expensive health care system in the world is that of America. I will talk about the health insurance in U.S., the health care in other countries, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, and my solution to this problem.
Rising medical costs are a worldwide problem, but nowhere are they higher than in the U.S. Although Americans with good health insurance coverage may get the best medical treatment in the world, the health of the average American, as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality, is below the average of other major industrial countries. Inefficiency, fraud and the expense of malpractice suits are often blamed for high U.S. costs, but the major reason is overinvestment in technology and personnel.
The U.S. expends far more on healthcare than any other country in the world, yet we get fewer benefits, less than ideal health outcomes, and a lot of dissatisfaction manifested by unequal access, the significant numbers of uninsured and underinsured Americans, uneven quality, and unconstrained wastes. The financing of healthcare is also complicated, as there is no single payer system and payment schemes vary across payors and providers.
The United States health care system ranks 37th in the world. Statistically, it’s bizarre how United States is amongst one of the most advanced nations in the world and the fact that it spends more on its healthcare than any other country, yet its standards are incomparable to other European nations. Unlike most countries, America doesn’t have universal coverage for health care. This means that it is the responsibility of an average American to obtain health insurance either through private insurance companies or through their employer. Under this system, there is a notion of a certain premium due at regular intervals of time but the insured may need to “co-pay” or pay a certain deductible for their treatment before their insurance takes care of the rest.
High health insurance costs have cost a lot of Americans to lose their jobs due to unaffordable health care costs (Kaiser). There are many people who need Medicaid but some people can’t afford Medicaid due to its high costs (Kaiser). Medicaid is an important provider to have because they help those who have no money and need a backup solution (Kaiser). Medicaid has also been known for its enormous rates of falling family income. In April of 2014 there were over 8 million people who selected plans to help take care of their everyday needs. When a person is uninsured, they are forced to pay out of pocket costs (Nunley). The total medical care insurance costs are 10% greater than the average person’s annual income (Nunley). Health insurance is a much needed insurance to
The healthcare industry is very complex and is contentiously changing. There are many key elements that affect healthcare policy. One of those key elements is cost. When the price of a gallon of gas or a pound of hamburger rises, consumers can anticipate how the increase will affect what they have left to spend on other goods. It is far less obvious to consumers how increases in health care costs hit their pocket book. In the past several years, medical spending has risen faster than inflation and the economy as a whole. The reason for this is due to high deductible health plans, providers rising operating and regulatory costs, employers desire to offer a health benefit while managing their own costs, and the opaque pricing and payment
Health care is the maintenance and improvement of physical and mental health, especially through the provision of medical services. The United States does not have a single nationwide health care system. Health insurance can be purchased through private marketplace or it’s provided by the government to certain groups. Private health insurance is usually purchased from various for-profit commercial insurance companies or from non-profit insurers. The two major types of public health insurance, both of which began in 1966 are Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare is a uniform national public health insurance program for aged and disabled individuals. The second type of public health insurance program, Medicaid, provides coverage for certain economically
The reason health insurance exists is because of the unknown. The unknown about who will become injured or ill and at what time and to what extent this event will be. It is a given that there will be thousands of people across the U.S. every day that will need to seek out healthcare in some form or another and will need help from health insurance to pay for that care. This fact makes the choice involved with health insurance about risk.