The value of health care is immeasurable; access to quality health care should be regarded as a basic human right which is fundamental to one’s life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. The health care system in the United States is in dire need of transformation to drive improvements on access, cost, and quality. The first step is to assess its current state to understand where it fails to meet the primary objectives of a viable health care system. Next, the U.S. should look elsewhere for inspiration by examining what has worked well in other comparable capitalistic democracies as the film, “Sick Around the World”, does. Additionally, the U.S. should determine which of these nations provides a suitable model for its own health care system; …show more content…
is the most advanced and richest nation in the world, yet it fails to meet the primary objectives of a health care system and lags behind other nations with respect to accessibility, cost-effectiveness, and quality of health care. “The primary objectives of a health care system are to enable all citizens to receive health care services, and to deliver services that are cost-effective and meet established standards of quality.” (Kramer & Chen, 2015) The U.S. health care system fails much in attaining these three primary objectives. First, the concept of universal access in the U.S. remains elusive. In recent years, over 50 million Americans or close to 17% of the population remain uninsured. Health insurance helps ensure access to health care. In sharp contrast, the 25 wealthiest nations all had some form of universal access. Although the passage of recent health care reforms—the Affordability Care Act (ACA)—could potentially increase the number of insured, there would still be a huge gap in coverage that needs to be addressed. Second, the U.S. health care sector contributed 17% to the GDP with the highest administrative costs compared to other countries. Even though it is the world’s most expensive health care system, a large proportion of the population are without coverage and drives many into bankruptcy. With the amount the U.S. spends compared to other countries which rank higher, the U.S. health care system is not cost-effective to say the least. …show more content…
should look at is Great Britain to find out what they are doing right. According to the film, Great Britain’s National Health Service (NHS)—the government run national health care system—is dedicated to the proposition that you should never have to pay a medical bill. There are no premiums, no copays, no deductibles, and no payments—absolutely nothing. This is too good to be true, yet Great Britain has managed to provide health care for everybody at half the cost of the U.S. In addition, they have better health statistics, including: higher life expectancy and lower infant mortality rate. The lower costs and improved quality may be attributed to Great Britain’s employment of a national health system. In the context of the quad-function model, the NHS requires a tighter consolidation of all four functions. With Great Britain’s single-payer system, for example, there is one primary payer which is the government. This creates simplicity in billing and receiving payments, thus contributing to increased efficiencies and lower administrative costs. Also unlike in the U.S., the system eliminates insurance intermediaries who have no incentive to be a patient’s advocate. There are no third-party insurers and payers who do not always have the patient’s best interests on either price or
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.
The facts bear out the conclusion that the way healthcare in this country is distributed is flawed. It causes us to lose money, productivity, and unjustly leaves too many people struggling for what Thomas Jefferson realized was fundamental. Among industrialized countries, America holds the unique position of not having any form of universal health care. This should lead Americans to ask why the health of its citizens is “less equal” than the health of a European.
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...
Universal health care refers to any system of health care managed by the government. The health care system may cover different programs including government run hospitals and health organizations and programs targeted at providing health care. Many developed countries such as Canada and United Kingdom have embraced universal health care with the United States being the only exception. The present U.S health care system has often been considered inefficient in terms of cost control as millions of Americans remain uncovered. This has made it the subject of a heated debate characterized by people who argue that the country requires a kind of socialized system that will permit increased government participation. Others have tended to support privatized health care, or a combined model of private and universal health care that will permit private companies to offer health care for a specific fee. Universal healthcare has numerous advantages that remain hidden from society. First, the federal government can apply economies of scale in managing health facilities which would reduce health care expenses. Second, all unnecessary expenses would be eliminated by requiring all states to bring together all the insurance companies into a single entity whose mandate would be to provide health insurance to all people. Lastly, increased government participation will guarantee quality care, improve access to medical services and address critical problems relating to market failure.
In recent years, the number of Americans who are uninsured has reached over 45 million citizens, with millions more who only have the very basic of insurance, effectively under insured. With the growing budget cuts to medicaid and the decreasing amount of employers cutting back on their health insurance options, more and more americans are put into positions with poor health care or no access to it at all. At the heart of the issue stems two roots, one concerning the morality of universal health care and the other concerning the economic effects. Many believe that health care reform at a national level is impossible or impractical, and so for too long now our citizens have stood by as our flawed health-care system has transformed into an unfixable mess. The good that universal healthcare would bring to our nation far outweighs the bad, however, so, sooner rather than later, it is important for us to strive towards a society where all people have access to healthcare.
In order to make ones’ health care coverage more affordable, the nation needs to address the continually increasing medical care costs. Approximately more than one-sixth of the United States economy is devoted to health care spending, such as: soaring prices for medical services, costly prescription drugs, newly advanced medical technology, and even unhealthy lifestyles. Our system is spending approximately $2.7 trillion annually on health care. According to experts, it is estimated that approximately 20%-30% of that spending (approx. $800 billion a year) appears to go towards wasteful, redundant, or even inefficient care.
Despite the established health care facilities in the United States, most citizens do not have access to proper medical care. We must appreciate from the very onset that a healthy and strong nation must have a proper health care system. Such a health system should be available and affordable to all. The cost of health services is high. In fact, the ...
In sum, America needs to reevaluate the status quo surrounding medical care. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the current model only benefits a select few and causes insufferable costs for the rest of the world. If there is no reform for these issues, money will continue to be siphoned directly into the pockets of large, for-profit companies that benefit from the strife of
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 medical cost coverage depends on the insurance plan one buys which includes bronze, silver, gold, and, platinum levels, and the high the premium equaling larger benefits and more coverage of medical costs (Blumenthal & Collins, 2014). Since the ACA has passed the direct affect was the increase of insurance coverage resulting in the uninsured rate falling to 13.4% in May 2012 with more than 20 million more people covered (Blumenthal & Collins, 2014). Even though the uninsured rate is at the lowest in recent history it is important to consider that the ACA does not replace existing private and public coverage, it is not universal coverage but a stepping stone to better healthcare, and the ACA market place is only open for the previously
Healthcare professionals want only to provide the best care and comfort for their patients. In today’s world, advances in healthcare and medicine have made their task of doing so much easier, allowing previously lethal diseases to be diagnosed and treated with proficiency and speed. A majority of people in the United States have health insurance and enjoy the luxury of convenient, easy to access health care services, with annual checkups, preventative care, and their own personal doctor ready to diagnose and provide treatment for even the most trivial of symptoms. Many of these people could not imagine living a day without the assurance that, when needed, medical care would not be available to themselves and their loved ones. However, millions of American citizens currently live under these unimaginable conditions, going day to day without the security of frequent checkups, prescription medicine, or preventative medicines that could prevent future complications in their health. Now with the rising unemployment rates due to the current global recession, even more Americans are becoming uninsured, and the flaws in the United States’ current healthcare system are being exposed. In order to amend these flaws, some are looking to make small changes to fix the current healthcare system, while others look to make sweeping changes and remodel the system completely, favoring a more socialized, universal type of healthcare system. Although it is certain that change is needed, universal healthcare is not the miracle cure that will solve the systems current ailments. Universal healthcare should not be allowed to take form in America as it is a menace to the capitalist principle of a free market, threatens to put a stranglehold on for-...
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 US health system has both considerable strengths and notable weaknesses. With a large and well-trained health workforce, access to a wide range of high-quality medical specialists as well as secondary and tertiary institutions, patient outcomes are among the best in the world. But the US also suffers from incomplete coverage of its population, and health expenditure levels per person far exceed all other countries. Poor measures on many objective and subjective indicators of quality and outcomes plague the US health care system. In addition, an unequal distribution of resources across the country and among different population groups results in poor access to care for many citizens. Efforts to provide comprehensive, national health insurance in the United States go back to the Great Depression, and nearly every president since Harry S. Truman has proposed some form of national health insurance.
The movie Sicko evaluates the medical services and shows the U.S. government 's role in policing the medical profession. Before I watched this movie, I thought that living in America was living the American dream. However, this American dream is only a façade or an illusion that takes my mind away from some of America 's flaws. In this documentary, the director and writer Michael Moore exposes the dysfunctional health care system in the United States, which sacrifice essential health services in order to maximize profits and insurance companies, which pay bonuses to employees who are successful in denying coverage and claims. They are in the business of finding reasons not to spend money. Health insurance does not protect you from not paying.