United States 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.

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

In fact, many middle-class urban American’s can’t either. “In 2007, the number of underinsured persons was up to an estimated 25 million; up 60 percent from 2003.” (Schoen) This means that, all over the nation, there are more underinsured than unemployed. 25 million people in 2007 means that 12 out of every 100 people in this country are potentially unable to find the medical treatment they may require. It’s not just those who are out of work that, for whatever reason, do not have adequate health coverage. Many small businesses can’t afford to supply coverage to their employees, and larger corporations are moving away from the group plans they used to provide.

The U.S. health care system consumes a huge amount of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, and is a massive system that provides essential and world-class care to millions of people (Niles, 2016). As a result of this huge burden of cost associated with it, the U.S. healthcare system has been critiqued, and has played a major role in sparking debates about changes to the way the U.S. healthcare system is run and organized. Thus, healthcare has been on the forefront of many American and politician minds over the last decade and beyond, and many proposals and attempts have been made to change and adapt the complex and influential U.S. healthcare system. One such attempt, that brought about incredibly influential change to the U.S. healthcare

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.

Many Americans believe that their health care system is the finest in North America, and probably among the best in the world. This is not true. The American health care system ranked last out of 10 other developed countries’ systems, including Australia, Germany, Canada, France, Sweden, New Zealand, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, in a survey by the Commonwealth Fund in 2014 (Hellmann). Countries received ranks according to several factors, like access to a physician or quality of care (Hellmann). That same year, an estimated 42 million Americans under age 65 were without health insurance, according to a survey by the Congressional Budget Office (“Health Reform”). America also ranks 26th among 36 countries in the

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)”.

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.

When one hears the term healthcare it can evoke personal experiences in one’s mind, good and bad. When it comes to obtaining health insurance the system is complex, difficult to navigate and there is no guarantee of approval due to pre-existing conditions or not meeting some specific criteria. To simplify the health care process, there are two basic categories: privately owned insurance companies (i.e Humana, Cigna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, etc) and government-funded insurance (i.e Medicaid, Medicare). Most working Americans get health insurance through their employers or organization called group insurance. However, some employers and organizations do not offer group insurance so an alternative would be to directly purchase their own individual health insurance. A universal health care system would give everyone the same access to the same quality of care. America has some of the best researchers, doctors, and treatment options in the world yet, we spend more money on medical care than any other country, “45 million” (Rashford, 2007) Americans still live without health insurance every day. “Medical problems contribute to 54.5 percent of personal bankruptcies and threaten the solvency of solidly middle-class Americans” (Dranove & Millenson, 2006). In essence, the U.S health care system has become more focused on profit versus patient care. “The five largest

The United States and the United Kingdom are very different countries. They have fish n’ chips, we have a burger and fries. They drink tea and we drink coffee. They follow football and we follow (American) football. In terms of healthcare, we are still just as different. The United States healthcare is run by private sectors and the United Kingdom healthcare system is run by the government. People are able to make money off of insurance companies in the U.S. and you can’t make money off the healthcare system of the U.K.. This is why, economically speaking, the United States healthcare system is better. In terms of economics, the United States is a better healthcare system because how it is run.

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).

Over the years, there have been a lot of changes to improve healthcare. With all of the spending and advancements in health care, the United States is still very behind in health care costs compared to other countries in the world. According to Stoltzfus & Pollack (2016) “the median household income in the United States in 2014 was $53,657,10 so the average household with a median income would have spent almost 46 percent of its income on health care were costs and income evenly distributed across the population. These numbers are staggering in comparison to other countries and even worse put the United States at the bottom of the list for healthy countries.

The United States health care system is highly complex. While Japan 's health care system offers a national health care plan to all citizens and all costs and regulated through the government. This essay will discuss the different health care systems found within the United States and Japan, and whether the two countries have adequately established a health care system that positively benefits the health of all citizens, while keeping the cost of medical care at a reasonable rate.