A Brief Note On U.s. Healthcare System Essay

On March 23, 2010, the President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) which represents the most significant regulatory that impacts the U.S. healthcare systems. With PPACA, 32 millions of Americans are expected the coverage and expanded access to health care and medical care. Due to the baby boomers and the downfall of the economics, there will be millions of people are seeking for low rates medical care which will create great impact on U.S. healthcare. According to Commonwealth Fund analysis, the U.S. healthcare ranks last on every cost-related. Therefore, healthcare becomes the top social and economic problem that American is dealing with. Like all other well-developed countries, there are both private and public insurers in the U.S. health care system. ‘What is unique about the U.S. healthcare system in the world is the dominance of the private element over the public element’ (Chua, 2006). Healthcare system in the Unites States can be divided into three different groups: Medicare, Medicaid, and Managed Care. Each plan provides different coverages for different groups of people.

The subject of health care is a sore subject, one of the most debated topics in the United States of America today and it is also the source of a vast array of complex problems for the American people. Americans have seen an increase in the rates of uninsured Americans, an increase in the cost of health care, and a growth in profits for health care companies. Due to the problematic trends that have taken place in the health care system in the United States, many Americans have viewed it as “the health care crisis” (Obamacare Facts, 2015). During the administration of President Barack Obama, a new law was implemented in order to reform the United States’ health care system called The Affordable Care Act or ObamaCare or ACA.

Research shows that “The United States is an anomaly among industrialized countries in terms of the high proportion of citizens without health insurance and the high expenses for health care” (Feldman et al., 2015). Americans amongst industrialized countries having issues with healthcare affordability last several years. “Finally, the election of President Barack Obama and control of both houses of Congress by the Democrats led to the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), often referred to as “Obamacare” was signed into law in March 2010 since then, the ACA, or Obamacare, has become a centerpiece of political campaigning. The Republicans now control the presidency and both houses of Congress and are attempting to repeal and replace the ACA. Moreover, the future of the healthcare reform is still uncertain especially due to Republican party and by President Donald Trump” (Manchikanti et al., 2017). ACA reform have given insurance coverage about 20 million people, reduced the cost of it, and improved quality of care to all patients. There are several laws of Obamacare that includes protection, rights and benefits. One of the best ACA benefits is coverage of pre-exiting health conditions

The United States health care system may be unique in being a true melting pot of cultures, ethnicities, and races. Health care and maintenance of one’s health is a necessity of life, regardless of ethnic, social, or cultural background. The cultural landscape of America is a constantly changing as evidenced by some projections stating by the year 2045 that non-Hispanic Caucasians will represent less than 50% of the U.S. population for the first time (Alba, 2015). However, this estimate may actually be inaccurate due to the numerous American families that already incorporate multiple racial, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds. Nurse anesthetists that provide anesthesia for surgery are exposed to a myriad of cultures and all the differences that come with them. These many differences may affect how an anesthetist interacts with their patients, may cause a simple procedure to become a more challenging one, or it may also affect an anesthetist own beliefs and how that approach a case.

The United States healthcare system is unique when compared with that of other developed nations. Shi and Singh (2015) describe 10 different characteristics of the United States system, as well as, several external factors that assert some pressure on the healthcare delivery system. In this discussion, we will focus on access to health care, as one of the characteristics, and information technology as the external force. I will then review what effect the Affordable Care Act of 2010 had on these issues.

The United States (US) healthcare has seen tremendous shifts and turns in its existence. From the beginning, American healthcare’s focus is to provide quality and safe health care to the people. On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law prompting another colossal change in healthcare in the US (Moses et al., 2013; Pipes, 2010; Rice et al., 2014). The policy soon took on the more commonly known name of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA brought forth the biggest growth in healthcare coverage in the US since 1965 and resulted in the reorganization of 20 % of the US economy (Pipes, 2010). The ACA’s primary goal is to expand the number of individuals covered by health insurance and decrease the general cost of health care in the country (Gonzales & Stuart, 2014; Moses et al., 2013; Rice et al., 2014). This paper will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the United States healthcare and compare it to the reformed Dutch healthcare system.

According to the article and what you know, what are the benefits of the U.S. health care system? What are the limitations? What are the benefits of the health care system in England? What are the limitations?

The United States spends more of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on healthcare then any other industrialized country in the world and because of this one would think that the U.S. provides one of the top universal healthcare plans for all citizens without health insurance. Furthermore, the U.S.’s overall health system performance is 37 out of 191 (qtd in U.S. Census Bureau), obviously 37 out of 191 is horrible especially because of the investment made by tax paying citizens. This problem affects a massive amount of Americans. Approximately 40 million Americans are without health insurance and because of the increasing expenditures the numbers of

The health care system in America is unlike any other. Many Americans go into debt every day because of medical bills and costs. America is the one of the only countries in the world that has its citizens falling into bankruptcy due to healthcare costs. Not only is the healthcare expensive and doesn’t extend care to everyone, the system treats those of different races differently. Health disparities has been a big issue in America’s history since slavery and continues to resonate here to this day. In the film, John Q, it is evident how income and race affect a young child’s ranking in the medical field. Young Mikey needs a new heart but due to racial health disparity and his father’s insurance plan, the hospital board will not put his name on the donor list. In films such as, Sick Around the World and Sick Around America, the health care system in America is shown to be one of the most expensive but least effective. This healthcare system leaves thousands in debt and without medical care. In the book, An American Heath Dilemma, it states, “wherein nearly 50 percent of the population reported it was having difficulty paying for health care.” (569, Byrd) The book talks about Americans constant struggle of needing health care but not being able to afford it, just like John Archibald in John Q. The American healthcare system needs some major changes and policies for equality before it can be as productive as those in other countries.

Does America have a good healthcare system? This really just depends on the person you are asking. The average American spent $9,565 on healthcare in 2012. For a doctor this may not be a problem because of their income. But for people who make less income than others, this may be a very big issue for them and their family. Many other countries have nothing to worry about when it comes to healthcare, no matter what their income may be. France’s healthcare system is a lot different than ours. Theirs is said to be one of the best services of public health in the world. America is one of the worst. Their healthcare is about $4,086. Which is about half of what America’s is. The population of France does have to pay compulsory health insurance. As of 2015, America’s life expectancy is an average of 78.74 years. In France, the average life expectancy

Currently, The United States sits as the thirty-sixth best nation at delivering effective healthcare, and yet the US does so at over $8,200 per capita, more than two and half times the OECD average. This creates and incredibly paradoxical circumstance where “the most powerful, most innovative, and richest country [on] the plant” delivers on average one of the worst healthcare results among developed countries (Reid 28). Several countries including Canada, England, the Netherlands, France, and Germany have developed systems that are much more comprehensive and much cheaper compared to the United States. However, American exceptionalism, the reluctance to think that we can learn from other nations, has impeded our ability to learn from

Healthcare coverage resembles a blanket: In some countries, the cloth of healthcare covers all of its citizens, and others allow their people to fight over the blanket. This resides in the hands of its government, whether or not they will permit universal healthcare. To clarify, universal healthcare refers to the process of medical service being provided to citizens while the costs are taken out of the taxpayer money. While thirty two or more countries use universal healthcare, America is one of the only first world countries to not jump on that bandwagon (Kapitall). Instead of raising its taxes and risk making their people and economy suffer, the United States established a law known as the Affordable Care Act

”The United States has a unique system of health care delivery. For the purposes of this discussion, “health care delivery” and “health services delivery” can have slightly different meaning, but in a broad sense, both terms refer to the major components of the system and the processes that enable people to receive health care. In a more restricted sense, the terms refer to the act of providing health care services to patients…,” (Major Characteristics, n.d.).

The health care system within the United States is facing numerous problems. Even after the passing of the Affordable Care Act many Americans remain uninsured or underinsured. This results in citizens facing financial blockades in receiving care at a primary level and often waiting till the health issue has escalated to the point of needing hospitalization before seeking care. While each state has had challenges expanding their health care system the board of Access Health Care Initiative (AHCI) has chosen the state of Pennsylvania as a target region for possible expansion. The question posed by the board of directors is would it be possible for AHCI to expand into Pennsylvania and have a positive effect on the state’s health care system. The research has shown that it would be possible for AHCI to expand into Pennsylvania and help the state meet the health care needs of its residents. However this expansion will take careful planning and the ability to overcome some unique problems that Pennsylvania poses.

Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or ‘Obamacare’ in 2010 and its implementation in 2014, there has been a steady decline in the uninsured population of the United States of America. According to recent data from the Census Bureau , the number of uninsured Americans fell from 33 million in 2013 to 29 million in 2014, a drop of about 4-percentage points. Accordingly, the ACA has significantly reduced the number of Americans who were not able to acquire health insurance due to poverty, unemployment, or having a pre-existing condition. Coverage achieved through direct purchase on the marketplace, and Medicaid, accounted for the biggest gains in the health insurance rates.