The Twin Problems Of The Health Care Industry

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 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.

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

In addition, health care industry can affect every living person in United State in one way or another. For instance, the uninsured are excluded from services, charged more for medical services and die when medical care could have saved them(Berkin, 2012). America is known to have some of the best doctors, and healthcare facilities in the World, however two thirds of our country do not have an access to health insurance, or cannot afford it(Berkin, 2012). The Right to Health Care notes that the United States is one of the few, if not, only, developed nation in the world that does not guarantee

I will compare the current health care system with the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that became law on March 23, 2010.   The current system, which is being phased out between 2011 and 2018 is increasingly inaccessible to many poor and lower-middle-class people. About 47 million Americans lack health insurance, an increase of more than two million people from 2005 (Rover, 2011) the increasingly complex warfare between insurers and hospitals over who pays the bills is gobbling up a great deal of money and the end result is that the United States pays roughly twice as much per

Health care is one of the major political issues facing the nation today. Most industrialized countries have national healthcare system, while the United States only provide coverage for those who are eligible under government programs like Medicare and Medicaid. As the cost of health care to continue to increase, many question the role of the government while other blame insurance companies for increase in premium.

For too long, the American public was held hostage by predatory insurance companies. These companies used their power and privilege to keep their companies afloat while ensuring that much needed medical care was out of reach for a majority of the American public. Citizens were subjected to rules, regulations and policies that proved to be detrimental to their needs. Individuals with pre-existing medical conditions were denied care or were made to pay very expensive premiums. Policies were cancelled if additional medical conditions were identified and policies offering the bare minimum of coverage, were expensive preventing individuals from being able to afford health insurance. Americans over the age of 50 found it impossible to obtain quality insurance without paying way too much in premiums. Policies were denied for reasons that benefitted the insured. The result was that many Americans were uninsured, underinsured and when medical situations occurred, citizens were not able to obtain the proper treatment and care. This also placed a strain on the economy because individuals would go to the emergency rooms for treatment and not pay their bills resulting in the increase in premiums. The cycle continued, with bills not paid and premiums increased. This caused the

“The amount people pay for health insurance increased 30 percent from 2001 to 2005, while income for the same period of time only increased 3 percent.” (Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). The rising cost of healthcare is a huge problem in America today. In this paper I will analyze the different issues and causes for the increase in cost.

The current issue with health insurance in America is rising prices. If they continue to rise millions of middle class Americans will no longer be able to afford health insurance. There are two main reasons that health insurance premiums are on the rise. The main reason health insurance premiums are rising is the cost of health care is skyrocketing and has every year. Under the

A major contributor to the rise of healthcare cost is that heath spending for individuals is primarily funded by third-parties. Because consumers of healthcare share little of the financial burden of the cost of the care they receive, patients and physicians are incentivized to utilize healthcare at a higher rate than they would if cost was a larger factor. The United States healthcare systems is based on a capitalist system but it operates in an imperfect marketplace that is no competitive. The current marketplace is not highly regulated as there is not a national health care program for all Americans which allow prices to be regulated and controlled effectively by a single regulating body. In this imperfect

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

In March of 2010 President Barack Obama reform Health care in America and implement a new law called the Affordable Care Act. “Millions whom previously could not afford to purchase insurance now had care drastically impacting the way health care would be delivered” (Wilson, 2010). “The Us spends 1.5 times more in health care than any other developed country and 2.5 times more than the average. At least $3000 more per person that Switzerland with comparable income yet americans die earlier and live in poorer health. Growth in the US Healthcare is Unstable , health care spending has doubled in the past 30 years rising from 9.2% of GDP min 1980 to 17.9% in 2014. Health insurance premiums have increased 97% the last decade “(Kane, 2012)

Looking back at our former healthcare system, we see that it was far from flawless, some say it is due to the government, while others claim the health insurance and the healthcare system in general is to blame. So it 's no wonder that the healthcare system is constantly fluctuating. These fluctuations have let us to a system that was very flawed and in dire need of rectification. Furthermore, the health insurance market wasn’t readily accessible to the middle and lower class, due to high costs, bizarre prerequisites, and complicated terminology.

The health insurance market in the United States has been anything but competitive since the dawn of it 's existence. In many states, a single health insurance provider dominates the market, with virtually no competition (Holahan and Blumberg). In the past, before 2010, there has been no “marketplace” to compare prices for health insurance, which has contributed to ignorance in terms of finding competitive, lower prices for health insurance. Essentially, health insurance providers have been “price makers” rather than “price takers” because the demand for health insurance is relatively inelastic (as people will always get sick or get

Affordable Health care has been an ongoing issue in the United States for many years. Generations of politicians have been determined to make the cost, quality, and, access of healthcare affordable for all citizens. However, problems associated with this matter have created much controversy. Many facts exists concerning “Obama Care”, facts that point out how the Affordable Care Act helped the United States save billions of dollars for insurance companies and the American people. On the hand, some Americans are not satisfied with “Obama Care”, because of high insurance premiums, deductibles, and co-payments that are coming out of the general public paying out of pocket for this plan.