America 's National Health Service

During the past few decades in the United States, health care cost has been skyrocketing, and many people have lost their insurance as result of the high cost. Approximately 45 million American s are uninsured or they don’t have a real health care plan that can cover all their needs. Some Americans have the perception that even with coverage, cost and other problems in the system, the quality of the Healthcare System in the US is better than other countries in the world, something that it is not true. As a matter of fact the United States is one of the richest, industrialized countries in the world where it spends a lot of money in its healthcare system. Spending more money in the Healthcare system does not mean it will be a better system, nor it does not mean it could not improve in some areas. In contrast, the Federal Republic of Germany where its healthcare system is completely different from the United States.

The economics of healthcare is not at all simple. What you put in is certainly not necessarily indicative of what you get out, as shown by the striking discrepancy between what we pay and what we get out of our healthcare system. This is demonstrated further by comparing our system to those of France and Italy, who come in first and second, respectively, in WHO’s international ranking of healthcare systems (“World Health Organization’s Ranking of the World’s Health Systems”). Counter to what many Americans may believe, a number of European nations do not have completely socialized medicine.

Many people believe that the current of health care in the United States is the best health care in the world however it has major shortcomings that has become more visible for the whole world to see. The United States has the most expensive health care system in the world based on health expenditure per capita and on

The United States health care system is unique among other advanced countries. This system does not have a central governing agency, it is delivered under imperfect market conditions, there are multiple players and payers, and there is no universal health care coverage (Shi & Singh, 2015, p. 9). In a time where healthcare reform is being discussed, it is important for the United States to consider what is proactive as well as what is failing the system. That is what Sick Around The World did; the documentary compared five other countries’ (United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, and Switzerland) healthcare systems to see how they stacked up against the United States.

If there is one thing that most Americans are in agreement with, it is the vile shape of our U.S. health care system. There is no argument that the U.S. health care system is in need of an overhaul, however, there is much debate over just how to effectively go about the process. The public have voiced greatest concern in the health care areas of costs, quality and access. Many presidents have pondered the idea of health care reform; a few even made attempts to start the ball rolling. The first

T.R. Reid uses cost, quality, and choice to fully evaluate healthcare systems all around the world. As an American citizen, I have always thought our system was unfair. The poor suffer more than the rich for going to see a doctor for the same reason. In chapter one of The healing of America, T.R. Reid comments on how many Americans have also started to notice that the American healthcare system is not as great as we once thought. Not only is it unfair, but it is also expensive and unsuccessful (9). By looking at all the other countries’ healthcare systems, Reid would then be able to better pinpoint how America can better its health care system by taking portions of those health systems.

In The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care, T.R. Reid, a Washington Post reporter and NPR commentator, compares the United States’ health care system to the systems of other industrialized democracies. In this journey, he analyzes costs, quality, and overall functioning of the different systems. Through his first hand experiences around the globe, Reid illustrates a variety of systems, emphasizing the changes America needs.

The single most important impetus for healthcare reform throughout recent history has been rising costs (Sultz, 2006). In the book called The healing of America: a global quest for better, cheaper, and fairer health care, Reid wrote that the nation’s health care system has become excessively expensive, ineffective, and unjust. Among the world’s developed nations, the US ranks near the bottom for healthcare access and quality. However, the US ranks at the top for health expenditure as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and average of $7,400 per person (Reid, 2010). Therefore, Americans are spending

While the United States delivers some of the best medical care in the world, there are major inefficiencies in our healthcare system. We have high rates of medical errors, millions without health insurance coverage, and lower utilization of advanced health information technology than most western European nations. It seems every time you turn on the evening news, you hear something about the healthcare system in American and how it is in shambles. Without question, one of the biggest challenges facing American citizens is our dysfunctional healthcare system.

According to data presented by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the US health care cost exceeded $ 8,000 per capita, in 2010, comparing to the next most expensive system (Norway) $5,000 per capita (OECD Health Data, 2012). Despite being the most expensive system in the world, US healthcare system has failed in many areas of performance and quality. According to OECD data, US has a much lower life expectancy than other industrialized countries, also the infant mortality rate is higher than those countries. Moreover, the US is the only industrialized country that does not provide its citizens a protection of a universal health care coverage.

The documentary present by PBS “Sick Around the World” gave an insightful look to what other country’s healthcare systems are compared to the US. The film took a closer look at the healthcare systems of Great Britain, Japan, Germany, and Taiwan. Comparing all these country’s healthcare systems, the components in common are that it’s universal, fixed prices for medical treatment, and majority of providers believe that the citizens pay too little for healthcare. The problem with the issues changing the American healthcare system is that the culture of the US is individualistic, meaning we are grown to focus on ourselves, not the others around us. Changing the system, allowing healthcare to be universal is a problem to individuals because

The United States is full of opportunity, individual choice and freedom than any other country (Cline, 2007, pg. 9). It is outrageous to think that our medical care would not be considered the best of any nation. However, the United States quality and overall healthcare fall dead last in comparison to eleven countries. A country rich in opportunity spends more money on health care than any other nation has one of the poorest health systems (The Commonwealth Fund, 2014, pg.26 ). This spending on healthcare predates the 2010 Patient Protection, and Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) intent is to reverse the incentives that drive up the costs (Sultz & Young, p 33). According to a comparison made by Baribault, decent medical care is available in other advanced countries at lower healthcare costs than the United States.

As the United States continues make improvements to its national health care system, it is important to look to the health care policies of other countries. We can learn a lot from noting what is working in regards to foreign health

Living in a country with the best medical labs, hospitals and educated technicians; you would only expect the best health care would come in correlation. However, the United States health insurance systems prevent millions from receiving care. The US health care system lacks in coverage, quality and cost; it is a system that doesn’t believe that everyone has a right to health care, ranks low on the global standards of quality of care and pays more on health care than any other well-developed democracy. So when our government is looking for ideas to reform our health care system, why not look at the country that has been ranked the best? The World Health Organization concluded that France has the world’s best health care system.

The current state of United States’ health care system is one of the most polarizing subjects of debate among scholars and other health care professionals across the globe. This can be attributed to the fact that at one extreme end, there are some who argue that that Americans have the best system of health care in the world (MePhee, 2013). Perhaps the availability of the state-of-the-art facilities and free medical technology that have become highly symbolic of the various industries in the United States have motivated the idea of the country’s health care system being unparalleled to others. However, there is a common belief that the fight for universal health care can only be successful if its current state of health care is described as a failure in the modern era as emphasized by MePhee (2013).