Health Care in the United States

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Recommended: Health care is desperate need of reform

The United States is portrayed as having one of the best health care systems in the world. However, health care is the industry that is affecting the lives of most Americans daily. As a result, more than 40 million people have no health insurance in the United States, which is primarily due to issues with access, cost, and quality and coordination of health care among various populations (Starfield, 2000). Essentially, the dream is for everyone to have health coverage in the United States. Access, cost, and quality and coordination of health care have been the hot topic for decades now. It has been the topic for change, a change that can finally be fulfilled due to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in my opinion. It will not matter if people are rich, poor, or sick; everyone will be able to seek health care. With that being said, the act will expand coverage and reduce the number of uninsured and under-insured people by 70 percent (Schoen, Doty, Robertson & Collins, 2011). The request for Medicaid expansion was the first step to reducing the number of uninsured people and is currently in action. However, the decision to expand Medicaid was ultimately up to each state within the United States. For instance, the state of Georgia did not decide to participate in the Medicaid expansion, which is causing many people to fall in the “Medicaid Gap” or those that cannot afford private health insurance and are ineligible for Medicaid. On the other hand, most states decided to participate in the Medicaid expansion, Michigan being one of them. Michigan, desperately affected by the automotive industry crashing in the 1970s and 1980s, needed this expansion the most. The automotive crash caused most of the pop... ... middle of paper ... ...nd affordable care act: Promise and peril for primary care. Ann Intern Med, 152 (11), 742-744. DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-152-11-201006010-00249. Koh, H.H. & Sebelius, K.G. (2010). Promoting prevention through the affordable care act. N Engl J Med, 363:1296-1299. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1008560. Ku, L. (2010). Ready, set, plan, implement: Executing the expansion of Medicaid. Health Affairs, 29(6), 1173-1177. DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2010.0417. Schoen, C., Doty, M.M., Robertson, R.H., & Collins, S.R. (2011). Affordable care act reforms could reduce the number of underinsured U.S. adults by 70 percent. Health Affairs, 30 (9), 1762-1771. DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2011.0335. Starfield, B. (2000). Is the U.S. health really the best in the world? JAMA, 284 (4), 483-485. Retrieved from http://extension.oregonstate.edu/coos/sites/default/files/FFE/documents/us_health_care.pdfV

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