The American Healthcare System Is the Healthcare System Broken?

Universal Healthcare sounds appealing, but it actually lowers the quality and quantity of healthcare services that are rendered to patients, thus downgrading the healthcare system as a whole.  Not having to pay, with everyone having coverage leads to longer wait times for medical service and many people overusing health care services. Implementation of Universal Healthcare in the United States would lead to a detrimental crippling of the nation’s health system. For those countries that have implemented Universal Healthcare or a system similar to it, all or most aspects of the coverage such as cost and care is generally provided by and tightly controlled by the government, a public-sector committee, or employer-based programs, with most of the funding essentially coming from tax revenues or budget cuts in other areas of spending. This paper will conclude with comparing the US healthcare system to others and how the US has one of the most advanced systems in the world.

Health care spending in the United States of America as a percentage of the economy has reached astonishing heights, equating to 17.7 percent. This number is shocking when compared to other counties; in Australia health care is 8.9 percent, in United Kingdom 9.4 percent, in Canada 11.2 percent. If the American health care system were to hypothetically become its own economy, it would be the fifth-largest in the world. While these statistics sound troubling, they lead us to look for answers about the problems surrounding our system. The first health insurance company was created in the 1930s to give all American families an equal opportunity for hospital care and eventually led to a nationwide economic and social controversy that erupted in the 1990s and continued to be shaped by the government, insurance companies, doctors, and American citizens. In this paper, I will go in to detail about the various opinions regarding the controversy, the history behind health insurance companies, and the main dilemmas brought out by the health care crisis. Greedy insurance companies combined with high costs of doctor visits and pharmaceutical drugs or the inefficient hospitals all over America can only describe the beginning to this in depth crisis. Recently, the United States health care industry has become know for the outrageous costs of insurance models, developments of various social and health services programs, and the frequent changes in medicinal technology.

The US pays twice as much yet lags other wealthy nations in such measures as infant mortality and life expectancy, which are among the most widely collected, hence easily compared, international statistics. Many people are underinsured, for example, in Colorado "of those with insurance for a full year, 36.3% were underinsured."[6][7] About 10.7 million insured Americans spend more than a quarter of their annual paychecks on health care because of the high deductible polices.[8]

The availability of healthcare is an extremely important issue in the United States. There are millions of Americans that are uninsured in the U.S. A high amount of uninsured people are from minority groups such as Hispanics and African-Americans. High deductible payments, the cost of prescription drugs, and lack of health insurance coverage cause many Americans to choose to live without insurance to save money for everyday expenses beside healthcare. Without health insurance, people do not have access to quality healthcare. Most citizens are aware of the issues in the healthcare system, but the disagreement comes when discussing how the best approach on ameliorating the system. Some believe that a more public and universal healthcare system is the best approach. Others believe that America works best through free enterprise and private institutions, and believe health insurance should be more privatized. However, health care has been shown to work best and be more available through proper public government control as it will allow for all Americans to have access to equal healthcare, in which money does not dictate health.

In 1954, Congress passed legislation allowing employers to provide health insurance benefits to employees on a tax-free basis (Sih and Singh 99). This legal provision marked the beginning of the rapidly expanding health care costs still apparent today due to the major incentives provided by the government to obtain employer-based health coverage. The overwhelming popularity of employer-based health insurance has led to a serious market inefficiency resulting from the system of third-party payment. As individuals rely on their insurance companies to pay for their medical expenses, this provides

7. How does the health care system in the US differ from the system in other developed countries?

One of the major problems facing our country today is the healthcare crisis. The inequality in our current healthcare system has created a huge gap in the difference between the level and the quality of healthcare that different people receive. Having an improved and reliable health care system available for everyone should be a priority that the government must make available. There are countries whose health care system meets the needs of the patients while there are countries whose health care systems need a great amount of overhaul for them to be able to attend to their patients. In this essay I will discuss the healthcare crisis and the differences in many countries

In recent years, health care has been a huge topic in public debates, legislations, and even in deciding who will become the next president. There have been many acts, legislations, and debates on what the country has to do in regards to health care. According to University of Phoenix Read Me First HCS/235 (n.d.), “How health care is financed influences access to health care, how health care is delivered, the quality of health care provided, and its cost”.

How societies pay for health care, and how many resources they devote to health, affects both the care people can get and its quality. In most developed countries, health care is paid for largely by the government or an organization associated with it, using taxes collected from citizens. The United Kingdom, for example, has a “single-payer” system in which the government pays directly for care; in France and Germany, the government collects taxes to fund part of the government health care system, and employers and individuals pay for the remainder of the costs directly. In other countries, such as the United States, a portion of the health care system is marketbased, that is, paid for by private entities such as

It occurs in two categories. The first is public funding. This public funding is divided into two is taxpayer funded. It is where health care will be funded by the taxpayers of general government funds. Health care that has been provided will be given free of charge to patients with resource allocation driven by the needs of operating income and price mechanism. The next is social insurance. Social insurance is the employee and employer is obliged to make contributions to health care and provision of free as well as time required. It is often called health care financing Europe. The second is the private financing. Private insurance that individuals pay fees to private companies and then can claim when receiving

That means they will miss fewer days of work, be less likely to become disabled, spend more years in the workforce, and be more productive while on the job. Recent evidence bolsters the case that health insurance coverage can have important benefits for long-term labor market outcomes”(Jason). This made people’s lives way much easier and give more time for them to spend time with their families. All Americans are required to get health insurance and are free to choose the doctor that they prefer. But in Canada, most French providers, including hospitals, are private businesses. The United Kingdom is different and it has a opened healthcare system which is funded and controlled by the government through taxes. There are more people in Texas who have Obamacare than people in Florida. Most doctors, specialists, and hospitals are all paid by government, not insurance

Most government financed systems are inclined to make available for every person living in the nation with treatment which proposes access to some fundamental level of care. Majority of people pay for coverage through taxes and additional charges. In government financed health care the government may provide care itself such as the United Kingdom or they may contact other providers to do so ex: Germany and Japan or in the United States

How can we justifiably change the status of how we receive health care? In today society, health care services are imbalanced in serving its members. Reform is what is desired of most people who feel that the present standards are insufficient. In fact, numerous reports have surfaced in support of the rights to health care. There will be different reviews examined to determine how health care reform can accommodate the misfortune as well as the fortunate. Inequalities and cost has attributed to the deficient quality of care that is available. Ways to decrease cost and restructure health care will be discussed

Choose 2 other countries from around the world and discuss the strengths of the U.S. health care system as compared to these countries from an administrator’s and a third-party payer’s perspectives.

Americans are not amateurs in challenging the current paradigm and fighting for its shift. The 21st century has brought about much needed conversions in America. Conversations including gay marriage rights, fair pay between men and women, gun control laws and many others. These conversations emerge when our basic human rights are infringed upon. Thus, healthcare in America is not immune to these conversations; on the contrary, our healthcare system has numerous issues to address.