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¶ … wealthiest nation that the world has ever seen is presently witnessing a situation in which over 47 million of its citizens have no health insurance (O'Neill, 2011). This is a number that is staggering but it is also a number that promises to keep growing and it is only the tip of the iceberg in regard to the delivery of health care services in America. As the economic conditions in the United States change, health insurance premiums continue to increase, and businesses alter their practices relative to providing health coverage to their employees the overall health care of the country is in peril.
The availability and cost of health insurance is only one of the problems facing American society relative to health care (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2011). The actual cost of health care has risen geometrically over the past decades to the point that may millions of families delay seeking needed medical care. With the cost of medical care rising at rates five times the rate of inflation the rank and file American faces deciding between medical care and paying the mortgage.
Among the country's most vulnerable, children and the elderly, the health care situation is particularly acute....
Children constitute nearly 9 million of the uninsured while the elderly find their source of health care coverage, Medicare, under increasing attack by the national government (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008). As an example, in the latter days of the Bush administration a Medicare prescription bill was passed by Congress that significantly raised the overall prescription costs for the 30 million plus Americans relying on Medicare for payment of their bills (Connolly, 2005).
All of these problems are the result of the fact that the United States spends a higher percentage of its Gross Domestic Product on healthcare than any other industrialized country while at the same time the United States joins South Korea as the only industrialized country that does not provide some form of universal health care to its citizens (Instiute of Medicine, 2009). A large measure of these costs is due to the high costs of technology and prescription drugs but nearly a full third of all health care dollars in America are spent on administrative costs. These high administrative costs have contributed to significant increases in health insurance premiums for those fortunate enough to have insurance and caused many…
References
Connolly, C. (2005, February 9). Medicare Drug Benefit May Cost 1.2 Trillion. Washington Post, p. A01.
Haren, M.C. (2009). Increased Patient Cost-Sharing, Weak U.S. Economy, and Poor Health Habits: Implications for Employers and Insurers. American Health & Drug Benefits, 134-141.
Instiute of Medicine. (2009). Health Insurance Essential for Health and Well-Being. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies.
Kaiser Family Foundation. (2011, April). Health Care Spending in the United States and Selected OECD Countries. Retrieved August 23, 2011, from Health Care Costs: http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/OECD042111.cfm
U.S. Health Care System is a series of geographically-determined networks. Established according to American beliefs and values, the system provides essentially two models of health care: the Market Justice Model, based on free enterprise and individual responsibility and ability/willingness to pay; the Social Justice Model, based on the public and equitable provision of basic health care services to all members. The two models are often in conflict with each other,
U.S. Health Care System 2010 saw the passage of the landmark Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the most striking transformation to the health care landscape since Medicare's enactment in 1965. The bill focuses on two critical issues facing the overall U.S. health care system: cost and coverage. Because the U.S. health model is not defined by a single payer or "socialized medicine"; the delivery system has created a significant lacuna
Where, it will reduce the total amount by $138 billion in ten-year. This is despite, the fact that $950 billion is going to be spent implementing such changes. What this shows, is that when implementing the strengths of the French system with that of the American system, you can have high quality health care services and maintain costs. Bibliography Health Care Bill to Cut Deficit. (2010, March 18). Retrieved April 12,
U.S. Health Care System 1 With the population in America aging, there is a question of how well prepared the nation is to handle care for the elderly. As Dall et al. (2013) point out, the increasingly large elderly population will require an increasingly large and specially trained health care workforce within the next decade to ensure quality care is available. LTC beds are certainly not the only place to put the
While patients are currently being treated unethically by the U.S. system that values patients by their ability to pay, a 2004 study showed that patients receiving health care in a variety of nations with nationalized services were generally satisfied with their health care (Wensing and Szecsenyi, 2004). According to a 2004 ABC News poll, Americans were not satisfied with the current health care system. In fact, sixty-two percent favored a
(Gigante, S. February 22, 2010). These numbers suggest a population which will demand a high level of services over their retirement lives, and as such place enormous pressure on premiums and fees. The result of this excess demand will be a rejoinder by physicians, hospitals, and other service providers to increase prices. The issue will be how Medicare and Medicaid policy makers will treat these price increases. If history serves