Us Vs Us Healthcare System

As Americans we should all be afforded access to healthcare. Access to healthcare is an individual right according to the human rights amendment. The human right to health guarantees a system of health protection for all. The human right to health means that everyone has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, which includes access to all medical services, sanitation, adequate food, decent housing, healthy working conditions and a clean environment (What is the Human Right to Health and Health Care, 2015). However there are strengths and weaknesses to every healthcare system and the U.S. Healthcare system is not exempt. I plan to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the U. S. Healthcare system (What is the Human Right to Health and Health Care, 2015).

The economics of healthcare is not at all simple. What you put in is certainly not necessarily indicative of what you get out, as shown by the striking discrepancy between what we pay and what we get out of our healthcare system. This is demonstrated further by comparing our system to those of France and Italy, who come in first and second, respectively, in WHO’s international ranking of healthcare systems (“World Health Organization’s Ranking of the World’s Health Systems”). Counter to what many Americans may believe, a number of European nations do not have completely socialized medicine.

In the contemporary world, America is one of the greatest countries. From the polio vaccine to Coca Cola, United States is mother to many inventions. As Americans, we enjoy higher quality living standards than most other parts of the world. This pleasure-oriented lifestyle makes a lot of other nations envious of us. And with the envy comes antipathy. For the time it has existed, the American healthcare system has been a subject of scrutiny and debate.

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 country that I pick to compare to the U.S. healthcare system is Great Britain.

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,

Everybody talks about how bad the US healthcare system is, which it might be a little bad, but it is not all bad. In the last one hundred years, the life expectancy went from 47 to 78, and 3.5 years in the last decade. That is a huge difference. Since 1960 heart disease went down 56 percent. Doctor visits used to be for when people knew they were going to die, but now they will not die when they go to the doctor. Even though all of those good things have happened, there is still a lot of bad things about the US healthcare. There is an average of 101,000 preventable deaths per year in the US. Most of those deaths happened because of the way the healthcare system is organized. Race, income, and environment influences who gets access to healthcare and who does not, which is just wrong. Even though the life expectancy rate went up, it is still significantly lower than other countries. Over half of people who do not have healthcare are African-American. There are more hospitals in wealthier area, and public hospitals are closing where they are most needed.

Here, the hospitals and such are owned and operated by the government, opposite that of our country’s ideals. Also, different from the U.S. is the amount of preventative medicine which is working wonders for Britain. That has me considering how we tend to not prioritize preventative measures; this relates back to our focus on the medical model rather than the wellness model. Sadly, I believe the lack of prevention in the United States is merely due to privately owned healthcare systems being businesses, more focused on earning rather than helping people stay healthy. Britain has high satisfaction among the people, no bankruptcies from medical debt, and short waiting lists.

A big benefit for the US is we don’t have to wait a ridiculous amount of time to receive help. The Uk is good at timing but only when it comes to primary and preventative care. On the other hand, when it come to non-emergency it can take up to 20 weeks to be seen by a specialist. Of course the cost is a lot cheaper in the UK with Universal healthcare than it is in the US. In the UK money is determined how it spent by the government, Department of Health (DOH), and administered locally by NHS organizations.

The differences between a universal healthcare system and a private healthcare system are many. Like anything else, there are strengths and weaknesses to each system. Some of the strengths of the U.S. type of healthcare system are; “choice, responsiveness, availability to customers willing to pay for coverage and control over decisions related to your healthcare (Bolnick, 2002).” The strengths of a universal healthcare system are; “universal coverage, cost control, low overhead costs and you pay a tax based on your earnings (Bolnick, 2002).” Of course, both systems have weaknesses as well. According to Bolnick, the weaknesses of the private systems are; no universal coverage, excessive costs, risk related premiums and challenges to limit costs. The weaknesses of the public healthcare system are; “unresponsiveness, not all

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).

In this paper, the USA healthcare system is being compared to the Canadian healthcare system. The U.S. health system has been described as the most competitive, heterogeneous, and inefficient, fragmented, and advanced system of care in the

It’s common for countries to compare each other in different fields that play major roles in their status overall. One of the more valuable of fields being health care systems, a field that provides for the everyday lives of citizens. This field is heavily funded by the economy and with this comes the comparison between the US and UK. The comparison being, who’s system is better in terms of economics? Both fueled by the incentive of saving lives, yet with different uses of resources, prices, benefits, drawbacks and role that their select government plays.

Many would argue that here, in the United States, we have the best healthcare in the world. We benefit from the most up to date medical technologies, medications, and services. People come from every corner of the world to take advantage of our top notch physicians and facilities. But is this reputation warranted, and if so, at what cost? The average annual cost per US resident is $7,681; this comprises 16.2% of our gross domestic product. These costs rank us among the highest of industrialized nations (Lundy, 2010). Does this high expenditure equate to better outcomes? According to the National Scorecard on US Health System Performance (2008), the US received a 65 out of 100 possible points.

U.S. doctors must deal with many private insurance companies, Medicare, and Medicaid. It standardizes billing procedures and coverage rules. Companies don't have to hire staff to deal with different health insurance company rules. It forces hospitals and doctors to provide the same standard of service at a low cost. In a competitive environment like in the United States, health care