The United States ' Healthcare System

The United States (U.S) healthcare system is a large private system that consist of multiple payers, which leaves the U.S

Globally, the United States has one of the largest and most convoluted healthcare systems, whereas universal healthcare coverage seems extremely farfetched. Annually, the US spends over $3 trillion on healthcare. Nevertheless, we have the worst health outcomes when compared to other industrialized countries. As stated by Anja Rudiger (2008), “Recent data suggest that around 101,000 deaths a year can be attributed to the underperformance of the US healthcare system.” Thus, the United States’ healthcare system greatly relies on revenue. Both funding and the distribution of services are commercially structured and held accountable by investors to increase financial gains. According to Andrew Jameton and Jessica Pierce (1997), “the US healthcare system increasing appears to have

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 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,

T.R. Reid uses cost, quality, and choice to fully evaluate healthcare systems all around the world. As an American citizen, I have always thought our system was unfair. The poor suffer more than the rich for going to see a doctor for the same reason. In chapter one of The healing of America, T.R. Reid comments on how many Americans have also started to notice that the American healthcare system is not as great as we once thought. Not only is it unfair, but it is also expensive and unsuccessful (9). By looking at all the other countries’ healthcare systems, Reid would then be able to better pinpoint how America can better its health care system by taking portions of those health systems.

In The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care, T.R. Reid, a Washington Post reporter and NPR commentator, compares the United States’ health care system to the systems of other industrialized democracies. In this journey, he analyzes costs, quality, and overall functioning of the different systems. Through his first hand experiences around the globe, Reid illustrates a variety of systems, emphasizing the changes America needs.

One of the issues that is widely discussed and debated concerning the United States economy is the healthcare system. Unlike in the majority of developed and developing countries, the healthcare system in the United States is not public, meaning that the state does not provide free or cheap healthcare services. This paper addresses many of the factors contributing to the rising cost of healthcare.

The paper is broken up in to three sections. In section one, we will discuss the problems with the American Healthcare system and we will try and clear up some of the often misrepresented facts about the healthcare problems and solutions to fix them. In section two, we will present some of the solutions being put forward to fix the healthcare system, including plans by both Presidential Candidates

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).

Healthcare is a major topic that is constantly being brought up in the news. It is often discussed within categories such as economics, politics, and policy. The reason that is, is because of healthcare's crucial role integration as part of each of these things. With that said, the United States has received back and forth opinions on the healthcare services that it offers. Karl Polanyi defines embeddedness as a way in which economic activity is constrained societies set of institutions (Tuttle 2018). So this implies that there are two main elements that are 'embedded' into the American culture, individualism and capitalism. These two elements shape the way the healthcare system is set up. Capitalism

Clearly, The United States health care system is the largest industry in the United States and even the world. Currently, health care represents approximately 14% of the United States gross domestic product (GDP). Health care expenditures continue to grow; for instance, in 2001 the market grew to $1.5 trillion and the growth expectation is that health care cost will reach nearly $2 trillion dollars by 2007 (Torreblanca, Friend & Oasterom). Currently, the government leads the healthcare market so it is crucial and beneficial to healthcare patients to understand the United States health care systems. Medical care is a finite service for monetary compensation and changes in demand may occur because of the absence or presence of health insurance plans.

The four essential segments are financing, insurance, delivery, and payment. Financing pays for the buy of medical coverage. Financing comprises of employers, government, singular self - subsidizing. Insurance secures the purchasers of health coverage against disastrous risks. A rundown of a few insurance agencies would be, blue cross/blue shield and self-insurance. Delivery of health care empowers individuals to receive services covered under their medical coverage plans. A few cases of delivery incorporate doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, diagnostic centers, medicinal equipment merchants and community health centers. Payment systems enable providers to receive payments for services conveyed to the insured, for example, the insurance agencies

As a matter of fact Wise and Yashiro, 2006 assert that there some individuals who describe the America’s system as being fragmented and inefficient, considering the staggering statistics regarding how Americans spend more on health care compared to other countries in the world. Additionally, they suffer from massive insurance costs and uneven quality of care, and thus understanding the debate about the two diametrically opposed viewpoints requires an in-depth understanding of the current health care issues in the United States (Rashidian, Joudaki, Vian, & Baradaran, 2012).

The health care system is one of the major sectors that have attracted huge debates in the past few years. The polarizing debate is attributed to the fact that the health care system is fragmented and relatively inefficient. As a result, many Americans spend more on health care services than any other nation across the globe but still suffer from huge insurance, administrative waste, and uneven quality. Despite of the huge health care expenditures, funding health care services is still a huge concern for policy makers and the public. Generally, funding health care services is based on two sources of money i.e. collections for the health system and reimbursement of care providers for this sector. The responsibility of financing health care services is shared by private insurance firms and the government, which means that the health sector can be regarded as a multi-payer system.

There are two main points of view of the US health care system among health debates. On one side, there are those who proclaim that America’s health care is the ‘best medical care in the world’, as there is easy access for the patients to very advance medical technology and the facilities they offer are completely dedicated to please the patient and for comfort of doctors. However, not everyone looks positively to the US health care. Those who attack this system judge it of inefficient and fractured. They argue that even though America does spend more government and public money on healthcare than any other country in the world, the administrators and expenditures are completely uneven around the states, stating that the quality of many American hospitals is much lower compared to the European systems. During Obama’s new administration projects in 2010, the president of the US decided to introduce a new health care act, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. In the time from its approval, the effectiveness of this act has been heavily discussed, and many have claim that this new system might actually be a counterproductive.