U.s. Health Care Policy

The United States has a very unique healthcare system. Does this mean that we are simply leagues ahead of the rest of the world in healthcare? Unfortunately, not at all. The ideal of American exceptionalism is apt to describe our healthcare system. That is, our current system is exceptionally bad. Per capita, the United States spends “twice the average of other developed countries” on healthcare ("United States Per Capita Healthcare Spending Is More Than Twice The Average Of Other Developed Countries"). Yet, in the World Health Organization’s ranking of healthcare systems by nation, the U.S. comes in at a dismal 37th place, despite spending the most per person of any country on Earth on healthcare ("World Health Organization’s Ranking of the World’s Health Systems").

Many people believe that the current of health care in the United States is the best health care in the world however it has major shortcomings that has become more visible for the whole world to see. The United States has the most expensive health care system in the world based on health expenditure per capita and on

America: The Land of the Free. Or, as someone who is familiar with the US health care system would call it, America: The Land of Overpriced Health Care That Covers a Fraction of it’s People. The US spends more money on their health care than any other country, yet there is a myriad of problems that exist within the system preventing it from being efficient. Billions of dollars are poured into the system for medication and treatment, when a lot of this spending is unnecessary.

Health care is meant to provide medical or psychological care for the entire human population. In order to pay for health care, one must have health insurance or be able to pay out of pocket. However, health care in the United States are nowhere near cheap. In fact, America has the worst healthcare system in the world. America’s health care system is a direct-fee system. A majority of countries around the globe are government controlled. Taxes primarily finance their health care access and delivery. Unfortunately, for America, the US government does not pay for most of its citizens’ health care (Health Care Issues, 2015). America’s health care system is in jeopardy due to increasingly high prices and lack of access.

In 2014, the U.S. health care spending increased 5.3% to $3.0 trillion, or $9,523 per person, a faster increase than the 2.9% in 2013. The spending increased due to extensive coverage expansions under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2014b). In 2014, Medicare spending grew 5.5% to $618.7 billion and represented 20% of the national health expenditure, a faster increase than the 3% growth in 2013. The spending increased due to prescription drugs, physician and clinical services, government administration, and insurance (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2014b). In 2014, Medicaid spending grew 11% to $495.8 billion and represented 16% of the national health expenditures, a faster increase

In 1998, the United States devoted 13% of its economy to health care, and this figure rose to 16% by 2008. However, despite this rise in government expenditure on health care, outcomes for patients remained the same (Obama, 2016). The quality of the health care system in general was not great; health care

According to data presented by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the US health care cost exceeded $ 8,000 per capita, in 2010, comparing to the next most expensive system (Norway) $5,000 per capita (OECD Health Data, 2012). Despite being the most expensive system in the word, US healthcare system has failed on many areas of performance and quality. According to OECD data, US has much lower life expectancy than other industrialized countries, also the infant mortality rate is higher than those countries. Moreover, the US is the only industrialized country that does not provide its citizens a protection of a universal health care coverage.

According to data presented by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the US health care cost exceeded $ 8,000 per capita, in 2010, comparing to the next most expensive system (Norway) $5,000 per capita (OECD Health Data, 2012). Despite being the most expensive system in the world, US healthcare system has failed in many areas of performance and quality. According to OECD data, US has a much lower life expectancy than other industrialized countries, also the infant mortality rate is higher than those countries. Moreover, the US is the only industrialized country that does not provide its citizens a protection of a universal health care coverage.

The health care, policy-making process is composed of three major stages; the formulation stage, legislative stage, and the implementation stage. The policy process refers to the specific decisions and events that are required for a policy to be proposed, considered, and finally either implemented and/or set aside. It is an interactive process with multiple points of access providing opportunities to influence the multiple decision makers involved at each stage (Abood, 2007). Each stage presents a unique set of events for a policy to be proposed, considered, and either implemented or rejected. In the formulation stage there is

The United States healthcare system has been the topic of much debate lately, with many propositions and reforms introduced to the public to remedy the many complaints made against the current system. The U.S. spend entirely too much money on health care. Based on data released by the World Health Organization (WHO), the "U.S. spent more on health care per capita ($4, 849) and more than 17 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to health care" (Squires, 2012).

The U.S. is an industrialized nation that continues to be behind on providing health care coverage to all citizens. However, the German health care system came up with a plan that ensured all citizens are provided with some form of health care coverage; nevertheless, the U.S. continues to dispute health care reform and how to provide coverage to all citizens. “Health spending per capita in the United States is much higher than in other countries – at least $2,535 dollars, or 51%, higher than Norway, the next largest per capita spender. Furthermore, the United States spends nearly double the average $3,923 for the 15 countries ("Health Care Cost," 2011, table 1)”.

Clearly, health care in the United States has become far too expensive, we spend more on health care than any other country in the world. Recent data indicates that we spend over two trillion dollars annually on health care, representing over seventeen percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and these numbers are growing fast. It is estimated that by the year 2025 health care spending will be twenty-five percent of the US GDP. This spending level is over two and a half times more per capita than the average of the thirty four countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes most of the developed countries of the world. Yet, despite these high levels of spending, of the countries in the OECD only the United States, Turkey, and Mexico do not have universal healthcare coverage for their citizens.

In March 23rd 2010, the Obama administration enacted a major development of federal health care policy. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly dubbed “Obamacare”, was planned to guarantee that millions of Americans who could not afford health insurance would have access to at least basic coverage. The law sought to make access to health care universal: it required individuals without insurance to purchase insurance (individual mandate), it required businesses to provide insurance (employer mandate), it set up insurance pools to allow those without care to purchase inexpensive insurance (healthcare exchanges), it required states to extend their Medicaid coverage (Medicaid expansion clause), and it forbade insurance

United States of America (USA) is a leader in healthcare spending (Holtz, 2013). The cost of the healthcare per capital is the highest in the world. The USA pays about $5267 per person annually for healthcare (Holtz, 2013). Insurance-based healthcare system is not working to the fullest potential, and this system is not cost-effective. Even though Americans have a variety of coverage options such as out-of-pocket, private insurance, Medicaid, and Medical, the money spent on medicine does not ease the financial burden of the population. However, it is not inappropriate to compare the USA with developing

The notion of universal health care leads to a diminished flourishing society is one of the many unsubstantiated reasons why the United States cannot offer universal health care. Universal health care is a government funded national health care delivery system, which has succeeded in high-income industrialized nations like the United Kingdom. While the United Kingdom ranked 9th in overall health care systems and the United States 17th, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reported United States health care expenditures are exceedingly more than that of other high-income countries (Bentley et al., 2017). This suggests that affordability is not the sole issue preventing the United States government from adopting a universal health care model. Despite their exceedingly high health care expenditures, the United States population suffers greater morbidity and mortality of preventable conditions than the United Kingdom population(Bentley et al., 2017).The UNITED STATES health care infrastructure is very unique compared to the United Kingdom, regardless of their similarities in health care delivery.