Pluses:
High level of privatization as most companies offering health care insurance are private
The U.S. health care system is the most expensive in the world, meaning that the country spends most money on the health of its people; this is true in cases of both expenditure per capita as well as percentage from the gross domestic product (The Division of Lifelong Learning at the University of Maine)
Minuses:
47 million citizens in the United States are currently uninsured and their number is continuously growing; 8.7 million of the completely uninsured are children
The current legislation allows organizations to move the cost of health care to the employees, who unfortunately cannot afford these expenditures
More than 40 million people relay on the public Medicare support, but the Bush administration commenced a process of privatization of Medicare (AFL-CIO, 2009)
International comparison -- in a study conducted on the 14 most developed countries (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States), the results for the American health care pointed out that, despite the massive costs:
The infant mortality rate remains the highest from the group
The life expectancy of the people with disabilities is the second lowest among the group
Only 40 per cent of the population is satisfied with the quality of the health care system; this places the United States on the last but one position (The Division of Lifelong Learning at the University of Maine)
5. Solutions
Given the complexity of the problem, it becomes obvious that the solution has to be tailored so that it solves the root causes at the core of the health care situation. In this order of ideas, it is necessary for the health care reform to focus on at least the following:
Force employers to cover their...
Conclusions
There is an ongoing dispute relative to the quality of health care as a basic human right; people believe however that health care is a right
The U.S. health care system is the most expensive one at a global level, but the costs are not justifiable in terms of quality of health care, access to medical services or overall health of the population
At a global level, the U.S. health care system is situated at the bottom of the leading countries
The solution to resolving the current issues is a complex one and denotes the necessity for a reform to be simultaneously implemented on several channels.
