Medical Insurance : Is Not Affordable Without Assistance From Government Assistance?

Living in the United States, there is one essential thing you need to have, which is health insurance. Health insurance is a type of insurance that can covers cost of medical and surgical expenses when you need them. Without health insurance, the cost of one single surgery would be a enormous number. But in the United States, there are about 46 million americans are uninsured. To them, the cost of health insurance is too high. In America, the average cost of health insurance per month is about $328 and the minimum wage per hour in here is $7.25(where cite from?). From here, we can conclude that it is too expensive for those people to get sick. So, is the health insurance cost unjustifiably high? The answer is the highly developed technology, waste of health care budget and the free competitor in the health insurance market, caused health insurance’s price to remain so high.

The health care system is one of the largest industries in the nation. It employs nearly twelve and a half million people. Even though this many people are employed by health care systems, there is little to no competition between the many different systems. This results in the cost being whatever the system wants. People who are ill or

The cost of healthcare has and will continue to rise in the United States. Some factors that contribute to those hikes are due to the consumer demanding more complex services from health care providers. Things such as new technology, equipment, research and testing procedures, along with pharmacy, and the number of uninsured are all dynamics of the increased cost in health care. The U.S. health care system relies heavily on third-party payers; these payers include commercial insurers and the Federal and state governments. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, the National Health Expenditure grew 3.6% to $2.9 trillion in 2013, or $9,255 per person, and accounted for 17.4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Id.

As a result, 49 million Americans lacked health insurance in 2011. Those consumers with health care coverage experienced a 7.2 percent increase in their share of health care costs between 2011 and 2012. Health care costs for American families in 2012 exceeded $20,000 for the first time. Increasingly, Americans are having problems paying for care — 26 percent report they, or a family member, had problems paying medical bills in the past year. Fifty-eight percent of Americans reported foregoing or delaying medical care in the past year. Escalating health care costs are also straining federal and state budgets, hindering the nation 's ability to pay for important initiatives needed to address other significant issues.

The Medicare, Medicaid, and other types of public funded health insurance programs are the other major sources of insurance in the United States. These types of insurance programs target some particular populations of people and most Americans don’t fall into such populations. This mode of healthcare coverage left over 50 million American (17.6 of the population) including about 7.5 million children, without any form of health coverage in 2009. (Lapierre,2012)

Health care expenditures in the United States are currently about 18 percent of GDP, and this share is expected to continue to rise with the share of GDP devoted to health care in the United States projected to reach 34 percent by 2040 (CEA, 2009). U.S. spending on healthcare is greater than any other developed country, yet unlike others which provide near universal coverage, the United States still has 46 million uninsured (Godell, 2008). For

United States spend a huge expense on health care that ranks number 1 among all the countries in the world. In comparison, the rank for the health quality is not among top thirty. That difference between cost and effect has always been under debate. In this aspect, government intervention is partly responsible for two reasons of increase in cost. First, given that Medicare and Medicaid offer limited part of the price but commercial insurances can offer

The reason for this is because hospital costs are rising, provider prices, medical technology, waste, unhealthy lifestyle, taxes, and aging population are all factors that make the United States spend more. Health care providers in the United States are much higher than in Europe (The Facts About Rising Health Care Costs), the unhealthy lifestyle in the United States such as obesity escalates more than any other country. There are so many things to be done to control the spending of money in the United States, because if the spending continues then the healthcare costs will inflate and become less affordable and more people will have no insurance. So in order to keep spending cost manageable the National Physicians Alliance has called stakeholders to help control rising health care cost.

Healthcare systems in the United States are very complex. The United States healthcare system is made up of public and private components. Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, government run healthcare systems, and military coverage is reviewed. As of 2011, 15% of Americans are uninsured, 60% of insured are employer based, and 15% are covered by Medicare. Access to medical care still has its challenges especially for the uninsured or underinsured. Although the United States spends the most on healthcare and has access to the best technology and healthcare services for Americans, the quality of care is not significantly better than other countries. Financing and Resources are two of many internal factors and emerging medical technology are on of many external factor discussed, and their relationship to Access, healthcare expenditures, and quality. Improving quality of care delivery by increasing care coordination, reducing the growth of costs, and moving away from fee-for-service delivery toward rewarding quality and value is needed. The United States is going to need to work toward price regulation, decreasing healthcare expenditures, and improving quality of care and outcomes, so that all Americans in the future will have healthcare coverage.

The high cost of health care in the United States clearly has a negative impact on the competitiveness of US businesses. Health insurance premiums in the US have gone up 114% over the last decade, becoming one of the largest expenses for most companies. General Motors spends over five billion dollars annually on health care for their employees and retirees. This represents almost two thousand dollars for every car they sell. This is a huge competitive disadvantage for GM because companies like Toyota, Honda and Volvo pay far less for health care

The United States' health care industry has gone through more changes in the past ten years than any other business in modern times. Health care spending has grown exponentially over the past half-century. But for 2014-24, health spending is projected to grow at an average rate of 5.8 percent per year.1 Several factors will contribute to this growth. The population in the United States is increasingly getting older, and it is the elderly that require the most medical care. Also, medical technology has made tremendous strides during this time, and with increased technology comes an increased price tag. Rising medical costs first became an issue during the Nixon administration, and eventually

Healthcare costs in the United States is growing at an alarming rate. For many Americans, getting sick in America is a financial death sentence. A survey of 5,700 people released by the Federal Reserve reported that 46% of working Americans cannot pay an emergency expense costing $400 or more without borrowing money or selling their property (El Issa, 2015). It is important to recognize the different factors that contribute to the rise in healthcare costs as the healthcare industry is a vital source for job development and economic production. Although The United States of America invests billions of dollars in the healthcare system, it is still ranked as the most inefficient healthcare system among developed countries. Experts in the field broadly mention administrative costs, drug costs, and defensive medicine as the major contributors to this nationwide dilemma. To understand the growing issues facing Americans today, one must examine these three areas within the healthcare system in depth.

Health care in America is at the center of controversy. It is a progressive and rapid changing entity. Since the 1970s, America has seen many different types of programs and funds created to help solve the issue of the cost of health care. Many of these programs are on the brink of bankruptcy and have not done far enough to make it more affordable and assessable. Actually America has the most expensive healthcare system in the world and not only is it the most expensive, but in many areas such as quality of care, America is no where near the top among developed countries (Davis, Stremikis, Squires, & Schoen, 2014).

Rising health care cost is a nationwide problem in the United States (U.S.). In the U.S., more money is spent on the health care than any other country in the world. In 2012, the overall national spending on healthcare in the U.S. was $2.8 trillion, which is about 17 percent of total economic output (Peter G. Peterson Foundation [PGPF], 2014). Several government organizations predict that the healthcare disbursements are expected to rise to 22 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by the year 2039 (PGPF, 2014). Even though the U.S. has the priciest health care system in the world, it ranks lowest among the other wealthiest nations. There are many underlying causes for the high healthcare costs. Some of the main reasons for upsurges in healthcare

“Government Funds Nearly Two-Thirds of U.S. Health Care Costs: American Journal of Public Health Study.” More Americans Gain Health Coverage, but Many Can't Afford to Use It: Doctors Group | Physicians for a National Health Program,