Americans are paying more, but getting less for health insurance. Should quality healthcare be available to only those that have the money to purchase it? Opportunities for good health bypass many of us daily. If we all were rich we all would have good healthcare because we could afford it. Being healthy and living a healthy lifestyle can be costly. For most people good health may be unobtainable due to ones economic circumstances. In most situations being healthy has nothing to do with color or zip code. However it has everything to do with money or the lack thereof. The country is divided about Obamacare, although its needed it is just a bandaid that covers the wounds of many Americans, sending a message to other countries that …show more content…
Especially when the individuals frequently visit emergency rooms and clinics with the same issues. Our system seems to be designed to keep us coming back overusing medical insurance as their means of payment. Health insurance system where originally created to cover cost of serious illnesses and crises and to manage our routine, everyday healthcare needs.
According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality there are some disparities in quality healthcare based on race and ethnicity. Disparities in quality. although quality problems affect all populations, they may be most marked for members of ethnic and racial minority populations. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham examined the use of thrombolysis ("clot busters") for patients who had experienced a heart attack and found that while this evidence-based life-saving treatment was underused for all, black Medicare beneficiaries were significantly less likely than whites to receive this treatment.
Insurance is a critical part in the health care of Americans that would use it for life threatening, unaffordable and spontaneous health issues. But instead insurance has created substantial problem because it is being utilized as a payment system for everyday primary health care and not to cure
Everyone should have the opportunity to achieve a healthy life and have comprehensive health care services available to them. To achieve this healthy life, people need to have access to the health care system and to a health care provider with whom they can develop a trusting relationship. However, existing barriers to attaining health care services often lead to disparities which in turn lead to differences in life expectancy, health status and a higher prevalence of certain chronic diseases (HealthyPeople.gov, 2012).
More and more people with medical insurance are relying on the health care system as new technologies and treatments become available. This leads to a grater number of claims for payment by insurance companies, the costs of which are passed back to health care consumers. The baby-boom generation is entering its peak health-care using period. Over eighty million Americans will turn 50 in the next 10 years. The cost of providing heath care for these individuals will be staggering
The Health and Wealth connection distilled is our health will most commonly reflect from our amount of wealth. The wealthy can afford the cost of quality care and the time to take care of themselves. Within the textbook, Dimensions of Human Behavior Hutchison writes. Public health experts have long noted the association of poor clinical outcomes, in all body systems, with low income, low education, unsanitary housing, poor healthcare, on stable employment, and uncertain physical environment (Hutchison, 2015). Easily demonstrated throughout American society the rather dubious and is a somewhat perplexing phenomenon of the Health-and-Wealth connection theory. The gap between the haves and have-nots are ever expanding. Those who have the funding to pay for resources will pay to get those resources. And those who do not have sufficient funds to pay for said resources will, unfortunately, have to stand in the long lines to receive seemingly, deceptively, scarce resources.
The lucrative healthcare companies in America have created an immeasurable gap between good healthcare only being for the privileged upper class Americans which has left a horrible effect on the middle and lower class Americans. As modern medicine achieves new heights, the prices of healthcare seem to tread right behind maintaining an unbroken pattern that American classes have grown accustomed to over the past few decades of paying more for less. Leaving many Americans uninsured, underinsured, or even in debt. In a speech Bernie Sanders a U.S. Senator from Vermont spoke at a presidential campaign October of 2015 which he discussed the unruly problematic healthcare trend of price gouging, that is the medical industry getting the most it can from American citizens. In a blog Bernie Sanders states that “46 million Americans today have no health insurance and even more are underinsured with high deductibles and co-payments” (Sanders). 18,000 Americans die every year from preventable illnesses because they cannot cover the cost and don’t go to the doctor when they should. Sanders summed this situation up with this “Health Care is a Right, Not a Privilege” (Sanders). After researching the issue of healthcare, I have come to the conclusion that the American healthcare system is disintegrating due to the ravenousness of modern medical industries, first I will discuss a few reasons to why the healthcare system is failing the modern American
Since the advent of health insurance in the 1950s, there have been many models of care that are come to the scene in an attempt to both control cost of care and improve quality of care. Insurance models came into being because the fee for service model used until then was proving to increase cost of healthcare without any measure of quality of services and care provided. Health insurance models have evolved from the basic hospital offered insurance to employer sponsored coverage plans. The US health system is broken both financially and quality wise with more than 20% of gross domestic product being spent on healthcare (Blackstone, 2016).
Despite improvements, differences persist in health care quality among racial and ethnic minority groups. People in low-income families also experience poorer quality care (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2013). Access to care measures include facilitators and barriers to care and health care utilization experiences of subgroups defined by race and ethnicity, income, education, availability of health insurance, limited English proficiency, and availability of a usual source of care (Mandal, 2014).
Although the United States is a leader in healthcare innovation and spends more money on health care than any other industrialized nation, not all people in the United State benefit equally from this progress as a health care disparity exists between racial and ethnic minorities and white Americans. Health care disparity is defined as “a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social or economic disadvantage…adversely affecting groups of people who have systematically experienced greater social and/or economic obstacles to health and/or clean environment based on their racial or ethnic group; religion; socioeconomic status; gender; age; mental health; cognitive, sensory or physical disability; sexual orientation or gender identity; geographic location; or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion” (National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities [NPAEHD], 2011, p. 3). Overwhelming evidence shows that racial and ethnic minorities receive inferior quality health care compared to white Americans, and multiple factors contribute to these disparities, including geography, lack of access to adequate health coverage, communication difficulties between patients and providers, cultural barriers, and lack of access to providers (American College of Physicians,
In today’s society, there is still a great struggle with health care disparities and many lives are affected by the lack of this fundamental program in our society. There are millions of people who die each year because they are unable to afford quality healthcare. The debate still continues about healthcare inequalities, what causes this disparity and who are affected by it. Health care is more of a necessity rather than a luxury and even though skeptics may argue to the latter, it only underlines the importance of the need for the wellbeing and care of individuals. There are several factors that could contribute to the lack of health care in the United States which ranges from but not limited to race, gender, socio- economic status, and lack of insurance coverage. The truth is there is a great disproportion between who can really afford quality healthcare as appose to individuals who have it. One would imagine that an employed individual would easily afford quality healthcare but we could be no further from the truth, since one’s economic status is an essential determinant to its affordability.
This report is gives a look at numerous factors affecting healthcare and how a lack of insurance has implications to not just the individual, but society as
Obamacare is becoming a big deal in the united states and mainly texas. Obama said he was making health care his top priority. If he was making it his top priority then why is he trying to take away guns and passing laws i consider unconstitutional. In my opinion if he wanted to make health care his top priority he would offer it free. But no he is making discounted by what a few dollars. My step-father was trying to get it and was denied for the health care. The man needs that health care. but its not just him, it’s every other person who applies. honestly obamacare needs to be shut down effective immediately. not everybody can afford healthcare, like the homeless or the jobless.
The Health and wealth connection distilled is our health will most commonly reflect from our amount of wealth. The wealthy can afford the cost of quality care and the time to take care of them selves. Within the textbook, Dimensions of Human Behavior Hutchison writes. Public health experts have long noted the association of poor health outcomes, in all body systems, with low income, low education, unsanitary housing, in adequate healthcare, on stable employment, and unsafe physical environment (Hutchison, 2015). Easily demonstrated throughout American society the rather dubious and is somewhat perplexing phenomenon of the Health-and-Wealth connection theory. The gap between the haves and have-nots are ever expanding. Those who have the funding to pay for resources will pay to get those resources. And those who do not have adequate funding to pay for said resources will unfortunately have to stand in the long lines to receive seemingly, deceptively, scarce resources.
Health insurance is essential in order to assist in paying for hospital and clinic visits. Without health insurance cost would be astronomical and people would not be able to afford health care. Blue Cross/ Blue Shield and Health Maintenance Organization, were some of the many insurance companies widely used before the Affordable Care Act. Although health insurances existed, many individuals and families were not able to afford them due to the increase in the cost of health care. New research over the years has enabled the creation of new medicine and technology in our practice. This leads to services being more expensive for individuals, which raises the price of insurance.
With the current healthcare system in the United States there are many people who do not have health insurance due to cost.
When ever we here about the financial side of Healthcare the first thing that comes to mind is insurance. Insurance plays a big role in our well being in today's world . It plays roles with our finance in our everyday living. As we all know, that if you have medical insurance on your job than the cost is cheaper then if you were paying out of your pockets or with the help of the government. Regardless who pays for it the cost is still high. Ex-President Obama had put in place “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act “ to help those that had no insurance be able to afford health insurance at an affordable cost.
According to Investopedia, health insurance is a product that is able to cover expenses of medical or surgical needs based on injury or sickness. It ensures a peoples expenses based on the chance of injury or sickness in the future. Insurance may be chosen to be paid for in advanced before the injury or sickness.