Topic: U.S. HEALTHCARE SYSTEM REFORM Course Project T. Wise DeVry HSM 534 Health Service Finance February 23, 2013 Week 7 Professor Alison Williams Background The United States, being the most diverse society in the world, has a long and unsuccessful history of attempts at healthcare reform. We spend almost $2 trillion dollars per year on healthcare, yet not all American people have medical coverage (Barton, 2007). A huge percent of the population have to rely on outside sources, such as benefit health care from an employer or from government programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid. As compared to other nations, our society has people that are more overweight, live under more stress, and are less in physical …show more content…
Reforming the system, like any major redesign project of change, would be difficult to implement. We see this example today as Congress and super-committees cannot even agree on budget reform. Likewise, many in Congress have different views of health care, thus preventing any type of effective reform. The increase of expenses - As politicians continue their dissension amongst each other, the situation is worsening in our healthcare system. According to the World Health Organization, to achieve universal health coverage, countries need a financial system that enables people access to all types of health services without incurring financial hardship (Carrin, Mathauer, Xu, & Evans, 2011). This idea would be the foundation of innovative ideas that the U.S. could reform its healthcare system, but too many ideas are sabotaging any valid efforts. In the mean time, the U.S. healthcare system continues to deal with issues such as the increasing uninsured Americans (over 49 million), expensive administrative procedures and the inability to measure the accuracy of quality of care, access of care, and the increasing healthcare spending and financing that limit our ability to efficient utilize resources. Literature Review Is U.S. Healthcare deteriorating? - One must ask the question of healthcare stability into the future and analyze if the U.S. healthcare system is improving or deteriorating. Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau reported: * The number of uninsured
The United States health care system ranks 37th in the world. Statistically, it’s bizarre how United States is amongst one of the most advanced nations in the world and the fact that it spends more on its healthcare
Health System Reform in the United States: Impact of Rising Premiums and Opportunities for System Improvements to Enhance Access to Healthcare Services
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.
Americans have been faced with a new health care reform act known as Affordable Care Act initiated in 2010. Why was it so important for this nation to reform is health care system? How are we sure the ACA is improving our system for the American people? For many years, the health care industry has left many Americans uninsured. With health care costs on the rise and very few able to afford costs, and the quality of care in underserved areas not what it should be has left this nation largely unhealthy. Several landmark reports, including the Center for Disease Control factsheets and the Healthy People 2020 have astounding statistics confirming these alarming rates and clearly identifying the need for reform. The Affordable Care Act is the starting foundation for Americans to start investing in their own promotion of wellness and disease prevention. By choosing healthier lifestyle changes, individuals can make a difference which in turn will improve our nation’s overall health for the better.
Political disagreements - How can we get better value on the money we spend on healthcare while ensuing all Americans are medically covered? Moving towards universal health coverage will help the United States to progress towards answering this question. However, a major hurdle is the idea of letting our government manage the country's healthcare system. Likewise, officials in Congress cannot agree on how to administrate a healthcare system. Over 60% of the Republicans say it is not the government's job to provide health care; yet, over 80% of the Democrats think the government does have this responsibility (CBSNews.com). Reforming the system, like any major
If there is one thing that most Americans are in agreement with, it is the vile shape of our U.S. health care system. There is no argument that the U.S. health care system is in need of an overhaul, however, there is much debate over just how to effectively go about the process. The public have voiced greatest concern in the health care areas of costs, quality and access. Many presidents have pondered the idea of health care reform; a few even made attempts to start the ball rolling. The first
The problem of rising healthcare costs is to be addressed because of its nation-wide significance. Predictions given by economic analyst suggest that funding for Medicare will run out of money and will not be operate-able by the year 2024 if government remains the major payer for healthcare and the costs of Medicare continue to rise. Government will not be able to continue financing the healthcare system on its own (Gersh, 2011).
The single most important impetus for healthcare reform throughout recent history has been rising costs (Sultz, 2006). In the book called The healing of America: a global quest for better, cheaper, and fairer health care, Reid wrote that the nation’s health care system has become excessively expensive, ineffective, and unjust. Among the world’s developed nations, the US ranks near the bottom for healthcare access and quality. However, the US ranks at the top for health expenditure as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and average of $7,400 per person (Reid, 2010). Therefore, Americans are spending
C. As such, the financial situation here in the United States in regards to healthcare is only continuing to disadvantage millions as they wait for a resolution and reforms that have been promised to them, sowing how a strong two-tiered system with a foundation in government sponsored universal care would benefit the United States dramatically.
During the formation of the United States of America, the founding fathers had difficulty to agree on common issues due to their conflicting political stances. The intention of each political party is to form a solution that is in the best interest of the citizens in the U.S and of how to govern the US following its independence from Great Britain. It is safe to conclude that some Americans base their decisions on family affiliations rather than viewing each economic, social, and political problem differently to make an informed decision. The presidential nomination of then Senator Barack Obama marked the country's breakthrough in recent years during the 2008 election. Trends showed favoritism among the young, college-aged population when he ran for office his first time. He won their votes, along with other voters, based on general social and economic proposals he intends to solve. During the President's first and second term, his administration seeks to resolve the healthcare concern, a major political and economic problem, which is causing the country's deficit to swell. On March 23, 2010, President Obama (Whitehouse.gov, 2014) signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), commonly known as "Obamacare," into law. Unfortunately, the United States of America have not come to a unanimous agreement about Obamacare. All together it seems not every person will approve every presidential decision in the country, but Obama’s health care act has sparked some more
The subject of healthcare in the United States can be a contentious one, and it is also an area where peoples' perceptions don't always align with the facts given by policymakers. What makes healthcare spending so scandalous is the amount of money the United States pours into healthcare each year. Over $8,000 per-patient per-year costs, amount that has more than double any of the other nation. Yet 15 to 25% of the American population has no healthcare coverage due to a lack of any form of universal
The implementation of the healthcare reform to the people throughout the United States provides healthcare coverage to all Americans increasing the accessibility to quality healthcare coverage making it more affordable for families. Throughout this paper I will discuss how effective the healthcare reform has been for the state of Pennsylvania, describing what the positive and negative outcomes are, and how the it has impacted the community health within my state. I will further discuss what effects the health care reform has had on economics in health care within my state.
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)”.
U.S. health care reform is currently one of the most heavily discussed topics in health discourse and politics. After former President Clinton’s failed attempt at health care reform in the mid-1990s, the Bush administration showed no serious efforts at achieving universal health coverage for the millions of uninsured Americans. With Barack Obama as the current U.S. President, health care reform is once again a top priority. President Obama has made a promise to “provide affordable, comprehensive, and portable health coverage for all Americans…” by the end of his first term (Barackobama.com). The heated debate between the two major political parties over health care reform revolves around how to pay for it and more importantly, whether it
US health care expenditures have been rising quickly over the past few years; it has risen more than the national financial system. Nonetheless a number of citizens in the US still lack appropriate health care. If the truth be told, health care expenditures are going to continue to increase; in addition numerous individuals will possibly have to make difficult choices pertaining to their health care. Our health system has grave problems that require reform, through reforming, there is optimism that there will be an increase in affordable health care and high-quality of care for America. Medicaid, Medicare and private sector insurances are all going through trials and tribulations because of