Health Care Costs For The United States

Recently the Untied States top priority has been to provide accessible and affordable health care to every American. Those that lack access to coverage find it much more difficult to seek proper treatment and when they do they maybe left with astronomical medical bills. The CommanWealth Fund found that one-third or thirty three percent of Americans forgo health care because of costs and one-fifth or twenty percent are thus left with medical bills that have problems being able to pay. The federal government, through the Affordable Care Act (2010), has mandated that every person have health coverage in order

I will compare the current health care system with the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that became law on March 23, 2010.   The current system, which is being phased out between 2011 and 2018 is increasingly inaccessible to many poor and lower-middle-class people. About 47 million Americans lack health insurance, an increase of more than two million people from 2005 (Rover, 2011) the increasingly complex warfare between insurers and hospitals over who pays the bills is gobbling up a great deal of money and the end result is that the United States pays roughly twice as much per

Health care costs have been rising for several years. Expenditures in the United States on health care surpassed $2.3 trillion in 2008, more than three times the

There are many problems with healthcare in America today. One of them including the astronomical cost. According to CDC.ORG in 2007 the average person spends seven thousand four hundred dollars per year on health care alone. This rise in healthcare is extremely detrimental for families, seniors, and people of all ages. With such a high cost of insurance people are forced to make hard choices in

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

Uncontrollable skyrocketing health care costs not only effect our economy but every American pocket book. The Obamacare Act was the most important healthcare reform enacted since Medicare/Medicaid was created in 1965 (Jama, 2016). The Affordable Care Act has made a substantial progress in solving the challenges U.S healthcare faced for decades. The uninsured rate was dropped from 16.0% in 2010 to 9.0% in 2015 (Jama, 2016). Not only has the ACA delivered an access to quality

On average, according to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (2014), an estimated $9,695 was spent per person in America on healthcare. That's over $24,625 in a 2-person household. A median household income of $53,657 would spend 46% of its income on healthcare. In 2010, under the Obama Administration, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) otherwise known as Obamacare was enacted to advocate that “healthcare is a right, not a privilege” and to make healthcare accessible to millions of uninsured Americans at affordable price (Rak & Coffin, 2013). According to the US Census Bureau, 49.9 million Americans were uninsured in 2010. America is the highest in cost of

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.

As a result of enacting the Affordable Care Act, insurance costs will increase because the government will offer universal healthcare. This requires an exorbitant amount of “new [medical] technology [which] will increase efficiency; the cost of new tests and treatments will outweigh the savings”, consuming millions of dollars (Whelan). Therefore the price of healthcare will increase in order to cover all these expenses needed to contribute to the nation’s overall health. Without the Affordable Care Act in effect, the current annual average expense of healthcare insurance is estimated to be around $5,600 per person, an increase compared to $4,255 in 2010 (Kaiser Family Foundation). After the recession that began in 2007, “the government expects that the growth of healthcare spending will outpace the expansion of the economy. By 2020, 1 of every 5 dollars spent in the U.S. is expected to go to healthcare” (Levey). This thus proves that as time passes the amount of healthcare is going to increase, but precise expenses cannot be predicted since it will be evident in the following years to come.

There are many areas that offer different opportunities to reduce health care spending while improving Medicare and Medicaid cost for individuals. Over 30% of healthcare spending is mostly unnecessary care. Cost of healthcare will most definitely become a concern for thousands of individuals and their families. Health care plans like Affordable Care Act (ACA) and other health care plans have a great opportunity to help improve better care at a lower cost. Healthcare plans play a big part in transforming the United States healthcare system. The United States a lot of money on healthcare than other countries. Paying high insurance claims does not mean you are getting more. Many people have pointed out many ways that healthcare workers in the

In 2012, the Medicaid spending grew over 2% and the total healthcare spending was around $416 billion dollars. By the end of 2014, the healthcare spending for Medicaid is projected to be over 12%. This brings the enrollment total to increase by over eight million dollars. Depending of the individual’s finances dictates the type of insurance that they possess. Some people can afford private health insurance. The private health insurance is

The rough estimate according to the Thomson Reuters (TRI) report for the United States is on average seven hundred billion dollars. This is believed by many to be spent on multitudes of treatments that are unnecessary and redone, clerical error, and of course fraud. With an estimated 46 million people in the United States uninsured if even a third of that seven billion dollars could be cut every one of those millions of people could receive health care. Some of the cost cuts that are being suggested by President Barack Obama will not even go into effect until the latter months of 2013, because of this as is the same as the previous decade health care costs and spending if not put into check by other methods could easily continue to grow and double what history has already shown over the coming decade. This rough estimate is believed to possibly go as high as 5 trillion or more before the suggested legislature takes effect becoming almost an astounding 21% of the national average debt.

In the United States health care is required for everyone and private and public insurance are the two options available to choose from, but there are still many gaps in coverage rates present (International Profiles of Health, n.d.). Medicare is one form of private insurance and the program’s main purpose is to provide care for those who are 65 and older, disabled, or who are in the last stage of chronic kidney disease (International Profiles of Health, n.d.). Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program are available for those who have a low household income (International Profiles of Health, n.d.). It is estimated that 56% of residents within the U.S. are covered by private voluntary insurance with 51% being provided by employers and 6% being acquired on their own (International Profiles of Health, n.d.). Approximately 28% of the insured are covered by private programs which include Medicare providing 15% of coverage, Medicaid providing 12% of coverage, and military care constituting 1% (International Profiles of Health, n.d.). In the year of 2011, 28% of the population, equaling 50 million residents, were uninsured (International Profiles of Health, n.d.). It is predicted that the newly enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will decrease the number of people in the country who are without health insurance (International Profiles of Health, n.d.). By the year 2022, 25 million more people in the country

2.). Eighty five percent of the total national health spending accounts for personal health care spending, which “increased by 3.9 percent in 2012, 0.4 percentage points faster than in 2011”( (Gnadinger, 2014, para. 3). Faster growth was impacted mostly in hospital, physician and clinical services. To offset this acceleration was a slower growh in spending for perscription drugs and nursing home care. Health care payers spending varied as well in 2012. The medicaid and out of pocket spending grew faster in 2012 than in 2011, but growth in private health insurance and Medicare spending was a little slower. The national health spending is still continuing to grow faster then our economy. It is projected to increase from 18 percent to about 25 percent by 2037. Even with the ACA in effect, “the federal health spending is estimated to increase from 25 percent of total federal spending to about 40 by 2037” (Marcus, 2012, para. 2).

The rising cost of healthcare coupled with the current economic slowdown and rising federal deficit is placing great strains on the systems used to finance healthcare, including Medicare, Medicaid and employer-sponsored health plans. Since 1999, family premiums for employer-sponsored health plans have increased by 131 percent, placing even great cost burdens on workers and employees. Healthcare costs are growing faster than workers’ wages thus many Americans face difficulty affording out-of-pocket spending (Kimbuende et al., 2010).