The typical middle class American family has four people, two children and two working adults. The combined income of the household amounts to an average net pay of $84,431 a year and $60,000 of it is spent on everyday expenses (United States Census Bureau). Health care in the United States is currently a free-market in which private companies charge customers for their medical coverage. In the current system, it costs about $8,400 per household for medical coverage in a year (Rising Health Care Costs). That only leaves about $16,000 for emergency money or money used for other recreational activities. The typical middle class American families would also have other luxuries that working class families would not have, and they lack some of the luxuries that upper class families have. These numbers would change a little with universal health care coverage because there would not be $8,400 allotted for health insurance, however,the salaries would be less due to an increase in taxestaken out used to help pay for universal insurance. The middle class families would not be impacted as much as working class families who struggle to make it through the month on a tight budget. Not all employers pay for insurance for their employees and those people need to go through a different company in order to have insurance. This probability could cost the family extra, and would add to their expenses. Other companies pay for all insurance claims needed by the employee and only have them pay off a small deductible. It depends on the employer, but if there was the passage of the universal Maldonado 2 health care act, all people would have the same basic coverage along with any extra coverage that they choose to pay for. Currently, insured Americans ... ... middle of paper ... ...late the economy and provide jobs for people. Works Cited Ballaro, Beverly. Sprague, Nancy. “Point: The United States Needs a Single-Payer Health Insurance System.” Points of View: Universal Health Care. (2013): 1. Points of View Reference Center. Web 9 March 2014. 2c7e887f652c%40sessionmgr113&vid=4&hid=114>. Emanuel, Ezekiel, Dr. "Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel on Universal Health Care." Interview by David Brancaccio. NOW on the News PBS. Public Broadcasting Service, 13 Apr. 2007. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. . "Rising Health Care Costs." America's Health Insurance Plans. Web. 10 May 2014. . "United States Census Bureau." State Median Income. Web. 9 May 2014. .
For example, the more notable difference would be the amount spent on children’s education—in comparing with the same family type as mine, the family with a full-time minimum wage pays $47.89/month for their children’s education while the family with a median income pays $400/month, both at a public school. Whereas, my family type spent a more significantly amount due to the fact that both children are enrolled in a private school. This shows that family’s earning more than the median, are more likely to have their children go to a private education. Moreover, a similarity I found across all family types were the main expenses where money would be primarily dedicated to—specifically, housing, food, utilities, clothing, and having a mobile device and internet. For transportation, I noticed that the majority of family types had OPUS cards—with the exception of individuals on social assistance and full-time minimum wage having bicycles—and the family types of four with a median income, or twice the median income (including my own family type), owned up to two vehicles. This illustrates the difference in terms of costs being distributed for this category as OPUS cards cost about a tenth of what all the expenses would be in owning a car. What’s more, the amount of money set aside for “other” expenses were highly variable across the different family types, with some who could not afford to put any amount at all—such as, the single mother with 2 children on social assistance and on a full-time minimum wage—to a family of two parents and two teenage children making twice the median income who could spend $1431.54/month. Ultimately, I have learnt that for many people, despite having a minimum wage, it is very difficult for an individual to live (and survive) with
Employers who do not offer an employee healthcare can leave them open to a different type of financial responsibility. Employees who qualify for a premium tax credit, in turn qualify their employers for a provision called the Employer Shared Responsibility.
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.
The United States is projected to spend nearly 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product on healthcare by 2020.According to a Mckinsey study $447 billion of the 1.7 trillion the U.S. spent on healthcare in 2003 was in excess of what it should have spent based on its wealth. A 1 % increase in the rate of health-spending results in an increase of about $2 trillion in spending on health over the next 10 years.
Within the previous four years, the number of uninsured Americans has jumped to forty five million people. Beginning in the 1980’s, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has been trying to fix this problem of health insurance coverage for everyone with a basic reform. The AAFP’s plan imagined every American with insured coverage for necessary improved services that fall between the crucial health benefits and the surprising costs. (Sweeney) They expect by fostering prevention, and early prevention, with early diagnosis with treatment, the program would result in decreased health system costs and increased productivity through healthier lives. The way to achieve health care coverage for all is pretty simple. This country needs the United States congress to act out legislation assuring essential health care coverage for all.
The first side to the health care system is the Single Payer system. Many European countries, and our neighboring country Canada, have this type of system. This system has every citizen put his or her money into a fund that would be controlled by a federal agency. That agency would then pay for the treatment. Private insurance companies would basically be die off. The difference from this and our current health care system...
of health care for 45 million people, including 7 million who are younger than age 65 and
However, our system is based on money. The more money you have to spend, the better medical services you will receive. ?According to the Bureau of Labor education at the university of main (2003), America spends more money oh health care than any other nation, "$4,178 per capita on health care in 1998?, compared to the average of $1,783. (BLE., 2003, p.23). Still an estimated "42.5 million Americans are living without health insurance", which prevents them from receiving medical treatment. (Climan, Scharff, 2003, p.33). The numbers of un-insured Americans continue to rise. Tim Middleton (2002) states, ?insurance premiums grow at a rate greater than wages,? when you have a low-income job. (¶ 9). With our current economy recession, taxes are rising and small business employers are unable to purchase health plans for their employees. Employees are realizing that they are unable to gain insurance from their jobs and beginning to speak out about the high price of health care.
Until Obama-care, The United States was one of the only developed nations that did not provide some sort of health care for its citizens. To most other nations that do provide healthcare, it is because it is considered a human right that all people should be entitled to. That hasn’t been the case in America, however, where only those who could afford it could have healthcare plans. Those who stand to gain the most from universal healthcare are the already mentioned 45 million americans who currently don’t have any form of healthcare. For many of these individuals, there are many obstacles that prevent them from gaining healthcare. 80% of the 45 million are working class citizens, but either their employer doesn’t offer insurance, or they do but the individual can n...
Universal Health Care seems to be the answer to all our medical problems at the moment. There are bad things about universal health care, but there are some good things ...
While our economy is struggling to get back on its feet, the unemployment rate is declining but at a very slow rate. With so many people still without jobs, many Americans who previously had health insurance found themselves unable to pay for private insurance or COBRA. COBRA is a health insurance plan which allows an employee who leaves a company to continue to be covered under the company’s health plan, for a certain time period and under certain conditions. With COBRA insurance one is now required to pay the full price for health insurance, meaning one is now responsible for the portion the company used to pay as well as the previous rates. For most of those who are unemployed, that is an amount that is not affordable. When one or more family members are unemployed, as is the case...
Although health insurance can be beneficial because providers get paid for the services they provide to the patient the insurance premiums and deductibles are in many instances way more than many families across the United States can afford. With these extremely high costs for insurance statics show that over 40 million families’ can’t afford or have access to needed health care systems. “It shows that one-fifth of Americans couldn 't afford one or more of these services: medical care, prescription medicines, mental health care, dental care, or eyeglasses (R...
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.
Throughout the years, universal health care has certainly been a debatable topic among Americans, the debate being whether we should stay true to the current system of private health insurance companies, covering only those wealthy enough to afford it, or if we should have a government-run system that covers all Americans. Currently, there are two programs to help support those without health insurance: Medicare and Medicaid. They are both government-sponsored programs designed to help cover healthcare costs. The first, Medicare, is a federal program that is attached to Social Security and is made readily available to all U.S. citizens of or above the age 65 and also the disabled. The other, Medicaid, is a joint federal and state program that helps low-income individuals and families pay for the medical costs and long-term care. It requires more nitty-gritty details than only being of a certain age; these details are determined by each individual state. Both programs work together to help provide coverage for the elderly and the poor. Unfortunately the rest of the population, over 45 million Americans, are left uninsured. Without changes in our policy, there will be a growing number of people, mainly under the age of 65, which will lack health insurance. The United States government should provide universal health care to its people, as proven by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan federal agency that provides valid economic data, who estimate that the average number of nonelderly people alone that are uninsured will rise from about 45 million in 2009 to about 54 million in 2019. This is not anything new; again, health care has been a problem for years, beginning in the 1930s during the great...
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.