Sick Around the World Video Analysis Essay

Universal healthcare coverage allows individuals to use promotive, preventative, curative, rehabilitative and palliative health services (WHO) . Universal coverage fulfills the following characteristics:

The question of Universal Healthcare in the United States has valid and non valid arguments with supporters on both sides of the issue. Millions of Americans do not have affordable health care insurance. The main question is who is responsible to provide this? Is it feasible for government to pay for the lack of health care by taxpayer’s dollars? Should you be responsible for yourselves or should you be compensated by the government?       Unemployment is at record high making health insurance less attainable or affordable than ever. In most cases, additional restrictions or

This movie went around the world to different countries to show the comparisons and differences in healthcare compared to each other and the U.S. The first country that was visited was the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom spends 8.3% of their GDP on healthcare. The citizens pay nothing for premiums, all of it is paid trough taxation. Some services require co-pay, but all young people and all elderly are exempt from drug co-pays. The United Kingdom calls their healthcare system “socialized medicine”; the government provides for and pays for all healthcare. The taxes that Britons pay gets distributed up to different healthcare providers. Since the United Kingdoms’ system is taxed,

In contrast to the United States, Great Britain has a health care system that is focused on the delivery of health care as a human right. Because of this model health insurance is universal for all citizens allowing everyone to have access to care. According to Sick Around the World produced by Jon Palfreman (2008), Great Britain runs a system that allows their people to never receive medical bills. Instead, Great Britain has implemented a national health system where the government runs and regulates the delivery of health care (Shi & Singh, 2013, p. 20). They have universal coverage where all citizens have access to health care under the national health system (Thorlby & Arora, 2016, p. 49). People living in Great Britain can also choose to pay for their own private insurance but only a small number of people select to do so.

Health care systems are highly complex and require vast resources. Moreover, providing healthcare coverage to all citizens can be challenging for many countries. Different models and theories abound all over the world about how best to provide care and only the most developed countries have adequate resources to truly provide universal coverage to their citizens.

Before creating Obamacare, million people in the United States could not afford the expenditure to buy health insurances and drug costs. Therefore, they have no chance to prevent diseases or receive treatments. They could be discriminated against coverage and treatment because they had pre-existing conditions. As shown in statistics in the article “Health Coverage before the ACA, and Why All Americans are Better Off Now” of David Simas, the insurance companies could deny to coverage nearly one in two people because they have pre-condition such as heart diseases, cancer, or diabetes.

The united states have a unique health care system of delivery that pursues to target some specific areas. The health reform, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act also called the Obama care (2010), which holds the promise of universal health coverage under government mandates. With a predominant role that is play from the government the Health Care Reform is said to be, one of the most important pieces of legislation today. Universal health care is the pourpose that all citizens should have access to affordable, high-quality medical care and acces to primary care. Health care reform will provide every American with the ability to obtain, health insurance regardless of race, ethnicity, or income. With universal health care, everyone’s

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama in March of 2010. This law provides equal access to medical care, lowered health care costs and eliminates denial of coverage of pre-existing conditions to the millions of the uninsured and insured Americans that were without and denied health care coverage. Patients who were denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions can now look forward to relief and great improvement because their illness is covered in the new policy, and care is now provided for them at next to minimal cost (Stehly,

“A person with a PEC [pre-existing condition] could cost a health insurer millions of dollars. It therefore behooves health insurance companies that are. Of course, for-profit businesses - to apply a PEC exclusion to the person and, depending on the severity of their medical problem, limit their plan coverage, or exclude coverage altogether.”

The Affordable Care Act has made many positive changes for uninsured and underinsured citizens. With the addition of a program called Health Insurance Marketplace, it is now possible for uninsured people in every state to purchase private insurance plans, those making under 400% or less of the Federal Poverty Level will be able to have tax credits making insurance more affordable (Lathrop & Hodnicki, 2014). Insurance companies are no longer allowed to cancel a policy or raise rates when a client gets sick. Insurance companies cannot refuse coverage to individuals with preexisting conditions such as cancer (“Quality Improvement,” 2015). Insurance companies now must cover preventive care and screenings allowing diseases like cancer to be caught early (“Quality Improvement,” 2015). Research has shown that through health screenings

Universal Healthcare means that all individuals can use medical services as preventative, curative, and rehabilitative care when they need it regardless of their income levels. Universal healthcare guarantees that these services are available to everyone. The U.S. is in talks now for a single payer system which would provide health insurance in place of private companies to bring more access to medical to the lower class and the thousands of under or uninsured.

Leading up to the enactment of the Affordable Care Act the United States of America had been in a major recession with consistent increases in medical costs in conjunction with increased rates of uninsured populations. Pre-existing conditions were a major concern for people wanting to move around in the job market or shop

Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century the United States has always had a realization that there was a problem with obtaining affordable health insurance. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) also known as Obamacare, was signed into law in March 2010. This law enables people who were unable to afford healthcare the ability to obtain a healthcare plan at an affordable rate. In 2009 a survey was taken as to the amount of people in the United States that carried health insurance. In table one below you can see over 50 million people in the United States did not have any type of insurance, which is close to 17 percent of the population (see table 1 below). “According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, “32%

According to the United States census Bureau 47.9 million persons in the US which is approximately 15.4% of the entire US population, in 2012 lacked health insurance. Mexico and the US are the only nations of the thirty-four member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that do not provide their citizens with universal health care. On the other hand, health care right should be provided to any person in the developed world and no one should be excluded from it. Universal health care would enhance public health, put an end to medical bankruptcies, minimize overall spending in healthcare, assist small businesses as well as the fact that health care must be a crucial service offered by the government (Mangan, 2014).

Since the beginning of human civilization, our health and well-being has sustained a high level of importance, because one’s physical and mental condition are things that are necessary to care for. The issue however remains in how our governments should assist in this care and how involved they should be in the world of doctors, drugs and healthcare companies. Many have strong opinions on this complex issue, and governments have attempted many different strategies which have been met with a sweeping range of results, from the corrupt health care companies which can be seen in the US to systems which have been denounced as communism to everything in between. Personally, I believe that completely universal healthcare is the best for society as a healthy population increases economic productivity, the system allows you to contribute incrementally over time and your wealth should not influence your access to care.