Analysis Of Sick Around The World

Walter Cronkite, an American broadcast journalist, once stated: “America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.” The structure we use can simply be summarized as capitalistic and inefficient. The United States healthcare system is a constant cycle of an astronomical amount of money wasted on doctors who don’t invest the right amount of care into their patients; however, we need to move healthcare upstream in a way that results in improving health at the start and discarding harmful programs.

In “The American Health Care Paradox”, Elizabeth H. Bradley and Lauren A. Taylor explore why the American health care system achieves mediocre results, despite spending a higher percentage of its gross domestic product than any other country in the world on health care. They explain that health care is more than just getting medical treatment, but there are social factors that affect a person 's health. The authors claim that more government spending on medical treatments is not the solution to the health care paradox, but we should focus more on social needs that have a greater impact on health. Case studies and interviews with physicians, other health care providers, and social service providers are used to support the authors’ claims. Though the authors do not explicitly state the path they believe the American health care system should follow, they give examples of foreign health care systems and domestic health care projects that may point in the right direction.

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

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.

Health care has been a debatable topic for many years now. More than half of Americas are without health coverage. On the other side the world places like Germany and Japan required that everyone has insurance. In the videos, Sick Around the World and Sick Around America, Frontline examines the health care system in the United States and parts of the world such as, England, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, and Switzerland, for some responses about health care.

Health care in America is a continuous fight and has become a daily hot topic with every news outlet. Even politicians use it to secure their role in congress. Sadly, as a powerful force of a nation the United States (U.S.) plays against and for other nations, the American people’s health care system is broken at the moment. There is continuous chatter about making improvement but nothing is being done to correct it. American public health is in a desperate state and a cry for help because as a nation the American public health is at it’s lowest. Issues need to be corrected and mandates need to be made with Affordable Care Act (ACA), in-order for improvements to be made with the current American's public health system.

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), health care spending in the United States has grown at a rate of 3.7 percent since 2012 to $2.8 trillion, costing the U.S. 17.9 percent of total its GDP and ranking it number one spending on health care (Martin et al 67; world bank). Despite having the most expensive healthcare per capita, according to The Commonwealth Fund - a private American foundation dedicated to the promotion of a high performance healthcare system - the U.S. ranks at the bottom of the top ten wealthiest nations in terms of “access, efficiency, and equity” (Davis

Many Americans believe that their health care system is the finest in North America, and probably among the best in the world. This is not true. The American health care system ranked last out of 10 other developed countries’ systems, including Australia, Germany, Canada, France, Sweden, New Zealand, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, in a survey by the Commonwealth Fund in 2014 (Hellmann). Countries received ranks according to several factors, like access to a physician or quality of care (Hellmann). That same year, an estimated 42 million Americans under age 65 were without health insurance, according to a survey by the Congressional Budget Office (“Health Reform”). America also ranks 26th among 36 countries in the

In America, health care has become a big controversy. Recently politicians have tried to create the perfect health care system that works for everyone. As one can imagine it is pretty hard to find a single health care plan to work for over 300 million people. Since our country began the states, not the federal government, have been given the challenge of finding a healthcare system that will work for everyone. Prior to the colonial era colonist and native americans handled domestic

3.2 trillion dollars are spent every year on the United States healthcare system (CMS). Estimates report that on average there are 2.6 million deaths in America on a yearly basis (CDC). The source of these calamities is simple: a poor healthcare system. Until American political parties arrive at a consensus, this country’s citizens will continue to fight the war on healthcare. Meanwhile politicians and hospitals fight each other tooth and nail, Atul Gawande, in his article “Overkill”, takes an insider approach into the current health care system to uncover the flaws that are that are forcing patients to collectively pay trillions of dollars each year for healthcare. However, while he does pose valid claims, he misinterprets the culprit and

The U.S. is an industrialized nation that continues to be behind on providing health care coverage to all citizens. However, the German health care system came up with a plan that ensured all citizens are provided with some form of health care coverage; nevertheless, the U.S. continues to dispute health care reform and how to provide coverage to all citizens. “Health spending per capita in the United States is much higher than in other countries – at least $2,535 dollars, or 51%, higher than Norway, the next largest per capita spender. Furthermore, the United States spends nearly double the average $3,923 for the 15 countries ("Health Care Cost," 2011, table 1)”.

The United States is considered by many to be the greatest country in the world. However, when it comes to health care the US is ranked behind 36 other countries, according to the World Health Organization. If one was to do any research at all, they would find that an overwhelming 34 of these 36 countries all have one thing in common. They all use a universal health care system. This is not just a mere coincidence. The problems and outrageous cost within the US healthcare system causes over 700,000 Americans to go bankrupt every year. This staggering problem simply does not occur in any other industrialized countries. Accounting for these facts the United States needs to move quickly to embrace

Single-payer health care would also improve the ease with which people receive competent health care. A single-payer health care system with a streamlined means of receiving and paying for medical care would save valuable time and money as compared to our current health care system, which is bogged down in a morass of complex and varying insurance forms by indifferent insurance companies. The complexity could lead one to think the insurance companies would be more than happy to simply not make payments after their customers have received the required care. The administrative cost of dealing with so many varied insurance companies alone is exorbitant, “$82,975 per physician per year spent in the United States”(Morra et al. n. pag). Nearly

The United States system of healthcare when compared with healthcare systems in the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, and Taiwan is far more expensive, is notably inefficient, leaves 47 million people uninsured, and forces "hundreds of thousands of people into bankruptcy," according to a PBS video "Sick Around the World." This paper compares the current U.S. healthcare system which at the moment is undergoing a difficult transition into the Affordable Care Act with the healthcare programs in the above-mentioned countries.

“Sick Around the World”The reform about the healthcare system in the US has been debated within the government and the public for years. The need for change in the healthcare system echoed since the legislation of Medicare and Medicaid were created. US presidents have tried to push for a universal healthcare system because of its citizen’s outcry for better, quality care, for all. Surprisingly other countries have studied the US health system and reared away from its market based structure to more of a government based structure. In watching the documentary titled “Sick Around the World” I find it ironic that the most powerful rich country in the world ranks 37th when it comes to healthcare for its citizens. As a citizen of the US, I