Millions of U.S Americans are uninsured and don’t know why it’s so important to get covered. Most people need medical care at some point in their lives whether it’s from getting sick or getting hurt. We don’t want these things to happen, but you never know what life throws at you. The benefit of having health insurance protects you from unexpected, high medical cost. They cover most, or even all, of the cost and offer many benefits. But, even then, some people may not be able to afford the rest of the expenses. It is expensive and sometimes, the quality of care is not efficient enough. There are many sectors in healthcare, public and private. Public health care isn't as qualitative as private. Not many people have access to healthcare due to their finances. These controversial sub issues of U.S American healthcare are always …show more content…
Even those insured, would skip a doctor visit due to high cost. According to Commonwealth Fund, finds that even though the numbers of uninsured Americans are dropping, many would still avoid a visit to the doctors to avoid “out-of-pocket” expenses. The many Americans with health insurance are underinsured because their medical expenses may add up to 10% or more of household income. People fear that a simple check up, refill on essential prescriptions, or undergo necessary diagnostic test would cost them hundreds or even thousands. People who are insured through Medicaid still struggles to pay bills. In 2014, 22% of beneficiaries are underinsured, including higher rates among the disabled. A report, based on telephone interviews, found that ¼ of adults with at least one chronic disease didn't fill/refill their prescription due to the high cost of the pharmaceutical drug(s). Rather than spending the money to take care of themselves, they used it to pay bills. Not to mention, those who are underinsured paid for health care that did not cover through their
Access to healthcare provides financial stability by assuring people that they will not be financially destroyed by injury or illness. Additionally, when people can afford regular medical care they tend to avoid chronic problems and financial stress. In a study provided by the American Medical Students Association, researchers reviewed the costs and benefits of universal health care. They came to the conclusion, after reviewing other articles and statistics from multiple sources, that, “The annual cost of diminished health and shorter life spans of Americans without insurance is $65-$130 billion.” (Chua 5) This comes from people not having adequate health care and then losing their jobs because they...
On a global scale, the United States is a relatively wealthy country of advanced industrialization. Unfortunately, the healthcare system is among the costliest, spending close to 18% of gross domestic product (GDP) towards funding healthcare (2011). No universal healthcare coverage is currently available. United States healthcare is currently funded through private, federal, state, and local sources. Coverage is provided privately and through the government and military. Nearly 85% of the U.S. population is covered to some extent, leaving a population of close to 48 million without any type of health insurance. Cost is the primary reason for lack of insurance and individuals foregoing medical care and use of prescription medications.
Out of all the industrialized countries in the world, the United States is the only one that doesn’t have a universal health care plan (Yamin 1157). The current health care system in the United States relies on employer-sponsored insurance programs or purchase of individual insurance plans. Employer-sponsored coverage has dropped from roughly 80 percent in 1982 to a little over 60 percent in 2006 (Kinney 809). The government does provide...
The United States spends vast amounts on its healthcare, while falling short of achieving superiority over other developed nations. One cannot overlook that the deepening recession has left many without jobs and therefore lacking health insurance. According to Fairhall and Steadman, (2009), even though the recession is hard on all, it is worse on the uninsured due to health care and insurance cost rising faster than incomes. Nevertheless, even those with jobs are lacking in health insurance due to employers, who provide insurance, are increasingly dropping their sponsored insurance. Many find that purchasing a health policy or paying for medical care out-of-pocket is cost prohibitive. “Since the recession began in December 2007, the number of unemployed Americans has increased by 3.6 million,” (Fairhall & Steadman, 2009). In 2009 it was stated that approximately 46 million Americans were uninsured, however not all of that number is due to the inability to afford coverage. According to a 2009 story written by Christopher Weaver of Kaiser Health News, 43% of that number should be classified as “voluntarily” uninsured. This subset of uninsured Americans consist of nearly half being young and healthy; therefo...
Have you ever went without health insurance between jobs, or while working part time or because you just couldn?t afford it? No having health insurance is a big risk in a time where medical costs are sky high, Prescription drug prices are outrageous and when your paying your family doctor $50 for a office visit. Fifty dollars represents a full 8 hours of work for many Americans.
Health Insurance being mandatory let us solve lot of problems that we are facing nowadays like free riders, more number of uninsured in the country, etc.
There are several issues concerning the uninsured and underinsured patient population in America. There are many areas of concern the congressional efforts to increase the availability of health insurance, the public image of the insurance industry illustrated by the movie "John Q", the lack of good management tools, and creating health insurance coverage for all low income Americans. Since the number of uninsured Americans has risen to 43 million from 37 million in the flourishing 1990s and could shoot up even more severely if the economy continues to decrease and health care premiums keep increasing (Insurance No Simple Fix, 2001).
Health insurance, too many American citizens, is not an option. However, some citizens find it unnecessary. Working in the health care field, I witness the effects of uninsured patients on medical offices. Too often, I see a “self-pay” patient receive care from their doctor and then fail to pay for it. Altogether, their refusal to pay leaves the office at a loss of money and calls for patients to pay extra in covering for the cost of the care the uninsured patient received. One office visit does not seem like too big of an expense, but multiple patients failing to pay for the care they receive adds up. Imagine the hospital bills that patients fail to pay; health services in a hospital are double, sometimes triple, in price at a hospital. It is unfair that paying patients are responsible for covering these unpaid services. Luckily, the Affordable Care Act was passed on March 23, 2010, otherwise known as Obamacare. Obamacare is necessary in America because it calls for all citizens to be health insured, no worrying about pre-existing conditions, and free benefits for men and women’s health.
The insurance mandate makes it affordable for those high-risk individuals. This may appear unfair for the young and healthy who believe they do not need insurance. However, it is not fair for those with pre-existing conditions and are denied coverage (i.e., cancer, pregnant, mental health issues, and etc.). There is no feasible way to “have your cake and eat it too; you can’t let some people choose not to purchase insurance and still cover all the riskier, more expensive people who want insurance—there's just not enough money to go around.”5 For those individuals who are healthy but fall ill or get into an accident, they will get the coverage they need instead of paying all of it out-of-pocket. Although, the ACA is not perfect, an additional 16 million Americans have coverage and uninsured rates have gone down to 10.4 percent. The only way this was possible was through the individual mandate.5 An additional problem that individual mandate tackles is the free-rider problem. Individual mandates minimize the free-rider problem by making it a legal requirement that individuals carry their own insurance
Health insurance facilitates entry into the health care system. Uninsured people are less likely to receive medical care and more likely to have poor health. Many Americans are foregoing medical care because they cannot afford it, or are struggling to pay their medical bills. “Adults in the US are more likely to go without health care due to cost” (Schoen, Osborn, Squires, Doty, & Pierson, 2010) Many of the currently uninsured or underinsured are forced accept inferior plans with large out-of-pocket costs, or are not be able to afford coverage offered by private health insurers. This lack of adequate coverage makes it difficult for people to get the health care they need and can have a particularly serious impact on a person's health and stability.
With the United Nations listing health care as natural born right and the escalating cost of health care America has reached a debatable crisis. Even if you do have insurance it's a finical strain on most families.
...ue to numerous medical errors. With the amount of medical errors that currently do occur which is a current health care issue it cost the health care billions of dollar each year to fix the mistakes that were made.
Healthcare is complex and very diverse aspect and like any other business it has its issues both good and bad. One of the contemporary health care issues that we have is medical cost. Medical cost in terms of all costs related to receiving healthcare services from doctor and hospital visits, drug prescriptions, over the counters drugs and a whole lot other more. So for healthcare being just like any other business there are funds that are needed in order to keep things running smoothly and making sure people are satisfied by the services offered to them. However, the costs keep on rising to keep up with the demands of the services required making it even harder for people to receive healthcare services in an affordable manner.
Currently, there are several healthcare topics being debated by the American public. Healthcare has always been a very controversial topic. These topics range from The Affordable Care Act to reproductive health and drug prices, just to name a few.
Health care has always been an interesting topic all over the world. Voltaire once said, “The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” It may seem like health care that nothing gets accomplished in different health care systems, but ultimately many trying to cures diseases and improve health care systems.