Essay On Cost Of Health Care

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

Rising medical costs are a worldwide problem, but nowhere are they higher than in the U.S. Although Americans with good health insurance coverage may get the best medical treatment in the world, the health of the average American, as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality, is below the average of other major industrial countries. Inefficiency, fraud and the expense of malpractice suits are often blamed for high U.S. costs, but the major reason is overinvestment in technology and personnel.

Another issue contributing to the high cost of health care is inefficient use of premium dollars from insurance companies. I am proud to say that the insurance company I work for does a great job of making proper use of insurance premiums. As a company we use on average 8 cents of every premium dollar. This means that 92 Percent of each dollar goes to paying patient's claims and building reserves. Unfortunately this is not as common as it should be. According to Harvard's David Cutler who is among the country's foremost health economists, our administrative costs for health care equal one quarter of the cost of health care today. By comparison, the next closest country spends around 10 to 15 percent on administrative costs (2013, para. 4 and 6). There are many things that could be done to lower administrative costs.

Health care fraud and abuse is a significant contributor to high health care spending, resulting in the wasteful spending of health care dollars. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association (NHCAA) estimates that 3 to 10 percent of health care dollars are lost to fraud and abuse (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2010). Fraud is the intentional deception or misrepresentation that an individual knows to be false or does not believe to be true and makes, knowing that the deception could result in some unauthorized benefit to themselves or some other person (Ryan, 2006). Bloomberg reports health care expenditures are rising faster than the rate of inflation and spending in the US has nearly doubled in the last decade and one-half of health care

The American Dream is described by The Free Dictionary as, “An American ideal of a happy and successful life to which all may aspire” ("Definition," 2013, p. 1) yet this can mean different things to different people. To this student it means happiness, prosperity, health, freedom, and the ability to makes choices according to what this student believes in. For other people, the American Dream will mean similar and probably different things. To many Americans the ability to have health care is a part of the American Dream. Obtaining health care insurance and being able to choose the

The documentary “Money and Medicine,” reveals the essentials of unnecessary health care spending and the policies that intervene with the health care systems. In the beginning of the film, the people being interviewed talked about patients receiving major amounts of unnecessary treatment and that a majority of health care spending is devoted to needless services. Several physicians in the video explained the extreme dangers that are present within health care; along with clarifying that they are paid more when doing harm to their patients and when they do more for them even if it is not beneficial to do so. If the cost of health care continues to rise, health care will become too expensive and unavailable that the U.S. will be put in a financial

The purpose of this paper is to review and discuss the current level of national healthcare expenditures and to determine if we as Americans are spending too much on healthcare. The author of this paper will provide examples and solutions where we as a nation should add or cut from the healthcare expenditures. This paper will also detail how the general public's healthcare needs are being paid for, the biggest economic healthcare challenge, why the challenge should be addressed, and how this challenge to be financed.

America faces a choice, keep The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, or scrap it and come up with something better. The ACA in its entirety leaves room for improvement. It could do better, much better, if it weren’t for matters of political expediency. Currently the United States spends more on health care than any other country. According to a Huffington Post article (2013) the U.S. spends about 17.2 percent of their GDP on medical care. Health care per capita is approximately $8,608, second only to Switzerland, which spends $9,121.

Another factor that has contributed to the over-utilization and increased treatment charges is the fact that providers set the prices for services. Patients were free to seek any type of healthcare services that they thought they required for their well-being, while providers set the costs for each service that was billed to indemnity insurance companies (Shi & Singh, 2015). Insurance companies had little control on the types of services that the patient received and prices billed for each service. The fee-for-service model encourages excessive and unwarranted procedures and offers no incentives to utilize economical services

burns through $2,797 more every individual consistently than other industrialized nations, despite the fact that 47 million of those individuals are uninsured so the U.S. spends more is that simply the value we pay for having the free decision of suppliers and driving the trends in therapeutic innovation. Not really because no less than 30 percent of all delivered human services administrations are thought to be pointless on the grounds that they do not make very sick individuals any healthier. As an illustration, we should consider Medicare spending. One study contrasted patients and comparable afflictions in high-spending Medicare areas and low-spending Medicare districts. Those patients in the high-spending ranges, who saw their specialist all the more regularly and spent more days in the health facilities, had an expanded risk of biting the dust when contrasted with patients in the lower-spending territories who had the same ailment. It's as though heading off to the specialist in this nation can make a man significantly more debilitated, maybe on the grounds that a patient runs the danger of experiencing unnecessary treatment that correct only the symptoms and not the disease (PBS,

Healthcare spending growth rate trends show astounding estimates. Since 1960, spending has risen from $27 billion ($143 per capita, 5.1% pf GDP) to amazing $1,678.9 billion ($5,670 per capita, 15.3% of GDP, 2003 data) (HHS, 2005). Recent research estimated that by 2013, healthcare spending will be as high as 18.4% of the Growth Domestic Product. It is important to note that the gradual move from hospital to ambulatory setting has resulted in much higher spending on outpatient hospital services and prescription drugs. The spending growth for these two trends is much higher than the overall healthcare cost growth, which, in fact, increases faster than such important economic indicators as GDP growth, inflation growth, and population growth rates.

Hospitals are notorious for overbilling which is the act of charging more than what is ethically and socially acceptable on a bill. Inflating hospitals charges of materials and procedures is the easiest and most profitable healthcare fraud hospitals can do. Hospitals can do so because there is no one to tell them that they cannot and they do not have any competition. In a TIME magazine article, Sean Recchi was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and went to MD Anderson Cancer Center for treatment. Recchi did not have comprehensive health insurance but had an insurance policy that covered $2,000 per day of any hospital charges. Unfortunately, for Recchi, MD Anderson Cancer Center

Steven Brill feels that American health care is eating away at our economy and our treasury and discusses the costs associated with the provision of health care services in the U.S.. The article explores the medical world through the medical expenses incurred by a 64-year-old Janice S., Sean Recchi, A 42-year-old from Lancaster, Ohio and several other egregiously billed patients. The article poses the question: why exactly are the medical bills so high; in particular hospital bills?

The healthcare system plays a key role in the economic stability of our country, as every year trillions are spent in attempt to combat disease and health issues that plaque humanity. As it makes up a significant amount of the expenditures in the economy, so the costs associated with health care of those in pain from illness and injury, including lost productivity, increased need of assistance in living and also the cost of death in some cases, is important to the economic stability and over all standard of living in our country. The key to economic prosperity is balancing the need for care with the costs of illness to keep as many people healthy and well without breaking the bank of collective society. The costs of healthcare have been increasingly problematic in recent years with so many issues surrounding the current system. With the “total health care spending in the United States expected to reach $4.8 trillion in 2021, up from $2.6 trillion in 2010 and $75 billion in 1970, meaning that health care spending will account for nearly 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), or one-fifth of the U.S. economy, by 2021” (Aetna). With this in mind it is apparent that as we look at the trillion-dollar industry of the medical community it seems that it needs to be a major focus of our nation as a whole and with the many issues come many creative solutions. First let us analyze the reasons behind the current cost and the major problems facing this industry and than discus what

Health care costs are high for multiple reasons. Inefficiency is happening because doctors lack resources that inform them about their patients’ past tests and prescriptions. This costs time and money. According to Furchtgott-Roth (2009), former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, ten cents of every dollar paid to the doctor goes to his or her malpractice insurance. These rates are so high because there is no cap on the amount of money a doctor can be sued. Doctors even fear being sued for doing “too little” in the patients’ eyes. Because of this, doctors end up running unnecessary tests and prescribing unneeded drugs. Medical News Today acerbates that health care is so expensive because we spend $147 billion per year on problems that