The American Health Care System

The U.S. health care system faces challenges that indicate that the people urgently need to be reform. Attention has rightly focused on the approximately 46 million Americans who are uninsured, and on the many insured Americans who face rapid increases in premiums and out-of-pocket costs. As Congress and the Obama administration consider ways to invest new funds to reduce the number of Americans without insurance coverage, we must simultaneously address shortfalls in the quality and efficiency of care that lead to higher costs and to poor health outcomes. To do otherwise casts doubt on the feasibility and sustainability of coverage expansions and also ensures that our current health care system will continue to have large gaps even for those with access to insurance coverage.

The first characteristic of the US health care system is that there is no central governing agency which allows for little integration and coordination. While the government has a great influence on the health care system, the system is mostly controlled through private hands. The system is financed publically and privately creating a variety of payments and delivery unlike centrally controlled healthcare systems in other developed countries. The US system is more complex and less manageable than centrally controlled health care systems, which makes it more expensive. The second characteristic of the US health care system is that it is technology driven and focuses on acute care. With more usage of high technology,

On March 23, 2010, the President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) which represents the most significant regulatory that impacts the U.S. healthcare systems. With PPACA, 32 millions of Americans are expected the coverage and expanded access to health care and medical care. Due to the baby boomers and the downfall of the economics, there will be millions of people are seeking for low rates medical care which will create great impact on U.S. healthcare. According to Commonwealth Fund analysis, the U.S. healthcare ranks last on every cost-related. Therefore, healthcare becomes the top social and economic problem that American is dealing with. Like all other well-developed countries, there are both private and public insurers in the U.S. health care system. ‘What is unique about the U.S. healthcare system in the world is the dominance of the private element over the public element’ (Chua, 2006). Healthcare system in the Unites States can be divided into three different groups: Medicare, Medicaid, and Managed Care. Each plan provides different coverages for different groups of people.

Primary care is the backbone of many industrialized nations, but is the US one of them? Unfortunately, the answer is no. The US lags behind such developed nations in its accessibility of primary care by a huge difference. The United States healthcare system fails to ensure the timely preventative and primary care for its residents. The current estimates indicate that there is merely one physician for every 2,500 patients. Not only Medicare beneficiaries, but also privately insured adults struggle in accessing the right primary care physician at the right time. Moreover, maldistribution of physicians only exacerbates the problem, especially for those residing in health professional shortage areas (HPSA).15 Approximately, sixty-five million Americans live in designated primary care shortage areas.13 Such underserved population faces higher disease and death rates and health disparities that then result in higher rates of hospitalizations and emergency department visits—in other words, expensive medical bills.21 More governmental control on the geographic location of primary care physicians can be a first-step to fixing the shortage problem.

According to Joe Conason, "America 's current health care system wastes considerably more than a trillion dollars every year. We know that because countries such as France, Germany, Japan and Finland, with comparable standards of living to ours, spend roughly half what the United States spends annually on health care per citizen, while covering everyone and achieving better results." (Conason, 2009) The United States healthcare financial systems are severely flawed - affecting the overall cost control, services, and care made accessible to its clients. The rising costs in healthcare are reaching new highs, and with rising costs, there doesn 't seem to be much change in the quality of the care being given. Clients coming in and out of these

Today’s health care system is very different from how it used to be. There have been many changes that have taken place which represent the major shifts involved in moving from a plan which was based mainly on what the patient wanted, to a managed care system. The American health care system has evolved immensely over the past years and it continues to evolve to this day. As health care costs continue to rise, as treatments become even more costly, and as the population continues to age, it is essential to understand how health care is different from in the past and how changes in the future will impact families across the nation. By addressing past modifications, awareness is brought upon individuals and families regarding the progression of the current health care system.

In the United States, coverage and reimbursement of prescription drugs are the responsibility of both public and private payers, as opposed to European countries where coverage and reimbursement typically occurs through publicly financed national healthcare systems. CMS, the largest public payer, provides coverage for the vast majority of prescription drugs once they earn approval from the FDA. Prior to making coverage decisions, European jurisdictions typically require that high-risk, innovative, or costly devices undergo a health technology assessment.

The U.S. health care system faces challenges and it is urgent that the American people become aware of these challenges. There are approximately 46 million Americans who are uninsured, and many insured Americans who face rapid increases in premiums have to pay out-of-pocket costs. As Congress and the Obama administration consider ways to invest new funds to reduce the number of Americans without insurance coverage, people must address shortfalls in the quality and efficiency of care that lead to higher costs and to poor health outcomes. If something is not done soon, there will be many more who will not have health care coverage that is affordable or they will be without coverage altogether.

Barrack Hussein Obama was elected President of the United States on November 4, 2008 and was sworn in the Presidency on January 20, 2009. During his campaign leading up to the election, Obama promised to bring affordable healthcare to all Americans. Obama was widely known as “stating that the cost of health care was a "threat to our economy" and that health care should be a right for every American" (ProCon.org, 2011). While his quotes resonate with many Americans, there are also Americans who do not agree with socialized medicine or sometimes known as “Obamacare”. Keep in mind that just because Obama is a democrat and has the backing of the majority of democrats and the majority of republicans disagree with socialized medicine there is much more history than that.

1. Summarize the essential aspects of the American healthcare system, highlighting how American health care has evolved since World War Two (eg., who has health insurance, how expensive is health care, what citizen-patient outcomes/life expectancy look like, etc.).

Health care systems are organizations that are formed to meet the overall health needs of the population. Health care is regarded as one of the leading cause in promoting not only physical and mental health but the well-being of the population. Legislation is implemented requiring government to offer services to all members of its society. The role of health services and the organizations that provide aid is to focus on the health of an individual and to uphold their human rights. According to WHO (2013), a “well-functioning health care system requires a robust financing mechanism, a well-trained and adequately-paid workforce, reliable information on which to base decisions and policies, and well maintained facilities and logistics to deliver quality medicines and technologies (World Health Organization; 2013).

Out of the nineteen candidates running for president, Ben Carson, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump were chosen for the analysis of their plans for the United States health care system. The United States health care system has been in need of adjustment for years, with prices being paid over double per capita compared to other countries. While they have some similar views on current issues, there are drastic differences in the candidates’ ideas for change.

For many years the condition of the United States health care system has been a hot topic for debate. Some would like to believe that the U.S has the best health care system in the world, but unfortunately that may not be the truth. In 2000 The World Health Organization (WHO) released a world health report. The report ranked the overall health system performance of 191 countries; the United States was ranked at 37 out of the 191. “With out-of-control costs, highly inequitable coverage and comparatively low health outcomes, the US healthcare system has failed to provide efficient, dependable coverage for the population as a whole as compared to most European and developed Asian systems” (Blank, 2012). In other developed

The U.S. health care system unlike many other advanced industrialized countries do not have a uniform system. Until recently, there has been no universal health care coverage or legislation mandated healthcare coverage required for everyone (Dorning, 2016). This has lead to many different consumer’s perception of the U.S. health care system. Consumers like the facts that they get to choose the plans and coverage they want along with choosing the doctors and medical professionals they wish to see while getting high-qaulity clinical care (Jonas & Kovner, 2015). They can also get access to the latest medical technologies and pharmaceuticals. Jonas and Kovner (2015) states that some of the consumer’s dislike of the U.S. health care system is

The United States health care system is one that gets considered to give proper medical attention in the region. It is a system that developed through initiatives presented by the private sectors which give an enormous amount of funds. In comparison with other countries in the world; it is the United States that spends more money on health care when calculated per person (Thomas, 2016). The literature indicates that its percentage has a larger margin close to 53% when get compared to the nearest country which is Norway. For example, when narrowed down to the district of Colombia, the amount of money that the state spends ranges between $5000 to $1000.