Finance and Health Care Financial factors depict a vital role in today’s health care system. Presently, the United States spends on health care services than any other country; trillions of dollars were spent over a five-year period. The rising costs of healthcare continue to grow and affect Americas all over the world. The Affordable Care Act is a law that was passed to make healthcare and health insurance more affordable and available to Americans. “The Affordable Care Act put in place comprehensive health insurance reforms that have improved access, affordability, and quality in healthcare for Americans.” (ACA, 2015) Relationship between socioeconomic status and health outcome Socioeconomic status is an important factor that can affect …show more content…
Some pros that are very beneficial to Americans is that as said above more Americans have health insurance, health insurance is more affordable, people with pre-existing health conditions can no longer be denied coverage, no time limit on care be provided, more screenings are covered, and lowered cost on prescriptions. More screenings being covered is extremely beneficial because early treatment can help with preventative care. Therefore these American are no able to purchase individual health care at an affordable cost and being free of being denied because of a pre-existing condition now allows them to live stress less at …show more content…
Emergency rooms would also serve for emergency purposes only to minimize wait time and mitigate the accumulation of patients with non-emergency services. Physicians, hospitals, and other providers meet strict government controls and “red tape”. Health care providers should also have sufficient autonomy to focus on consumers’ goals. Lastly, our education system from a young age would incorporate health related issues such as nutrition, diet, and exercise, and risk factors to inform preventative measure and most importantly a healthy
While most countries around the world have some form of universal national health care system, the United States, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, does not. There are much more benefits to the U.S. adopting a dorm of national health care system than to keep its current system, which has proved to be unnecessarily expensive, complicated, and overall inefficient.
On a global scale, the United States is a relatively wealthy country of advanced industrialization. Unfortunately, the healthcare system is among the costliest, spending close to 18% of gross domestic product (GDP) towards funding healthcare (2011). No universal healthcare coverage is currently available. United States healthcare is currently funded through private, federal, state, and local sources. Coverage is provided privately and through the government and military. Nearly 85% of the U.S. population is covered to some extent, leaving a population of close to 48 million without any type of health insurance. Cost is the primary reason for lack of insurance and individuals foregoing medical care and use of prescription medications.
The pros of PPACA include providing insurance to the "32 million" people that do not have insurance (Amadeo). These are the people who consistently show up in the "emergency room" and usually do not pay their bill, creating a rise in the cost of health insurance for everyone else (Amadeo). The law requires all insurance plans to cover certain preventative care in order to diagnose illnesses before they reach the costly state (Amadeo). PPACA also makes coverage available to those with pre-existing conditions (Amadeo). This has been an issue in the insurance industry because of adverse selection, which is caused when insurance is purchased by those who will use more than what they are paying (Stone 85). Insurance companies would off-set their costs by offering several plans with different deductibles or co-pays based on asymmetric information (85). PPACA will protect individuals from cost increases because of a pre-existing condition (Tate 14).
The U.S. spending on health care is an outlier compared to other industrialized countries. On an individual basis heath care in the U.S is approximately double what other industrialized countries spend. On a total spend basis, the $3 trillion currently consumed in this sector represents the world’s fifth-largest economy. This high spending on healthcare is unsustainable in the long term. Businesses, individual consumers, and the government are consequently not insulated from the shrinking economic growth due to the ramifications of the high healthcare costs. In a global competitive market the U.S. business will lag behind other industrialized countries unless these high healthcare costs are curtailed. In addition, individuals, even those with insurance face the grim prospect of bankruptcy due to the high cost of care.
To begin, one of the common reasons cited in support of Obamacare is a decrease in health and gender-based discrimination by insurance companies. The changes in requiring all Americans to have affordable coverage, as well as changes in how insurers can set premiums, will allow those with medical conditions and disabilities, as well as women who need pregnancy care the ability to have healthcare insurance without having to potentially be denied coverage or forced to pay a much higher than average price (The Pros and Cons of ObamaCare 1).
The first side to the health care system is the Single Payer system. Many European countries, and our neighboring country Canada, have this type of system. This system has every citizen put his or her money into a fund that would be controlled by a federal agency. That agency would then pay for the treatment. Private insurance companies would basically be die off. The difference from this and our current health care system...
The United States (U.S.) has a health care system that is much different than any other health care system in the world (Nies & McEwen, 2015). It is frequently recognized as one with most recent technological inventions, but at the same time is often criticized for being overly expensive (Nies & McEwen, 2015). In 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) (U. S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.) This plan was implemented in an attempt to make preventative care more affordable and accessible for all uninsured Americans (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.). Under the law, the new Patient’s Bill of Rights gives consumers the power to be in charge of their health care choices. (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.).
In order to make ones’ health care coverage more affordable, the nation needs to address the continually increasing medical care costs. Approximately more than one-sixth of the United States economy is devoted to health care spending, such as: soaring prices for medical services, costly prescription drugs, newly advanced medical technology, and even unhealthy lifestyles. Our system is spending approximately $2.7 trillion annually on health care. According to experts, it is estimated that approximately 20%-30% of that spending (approx. $800 billion a year) appears to go towards wasteful, redundant, or even inefficient care.
The U.S. expends far more on healthcare than any other country in the world, yet we get fewer benefits, less than ideal health outcomes, and a lot of dissatisfaction manifested by unequal access, the significant numbers of uninsured and underinsured Americans, uneven quality, and unconstrained wastes. The financing of healthcare is also complicated, as there is no single payer system and payment schemes vary across payors and providers.
It is essential for the United States government to provide its entire citizen with a free health care. This system ensures that everyone has an access to medical services regardless to his or her social status. It is an important way of preserving life as free health care plan ensures free treatment to the entire citizen. In addition, it can play a big role of ensuring that there is an improved access to health services. Ensuring that all American citizens have an access to the right health care will in turn decrease health care costs. It can also help to stop medical bankruptcies in the entire nation. Lastly, it is one way of reducing poverty as it will lower the debt of the US which would then increase employment.
Ans 1) To mandate the insurance or not is a big question to be answered and still there are a lot of problems associated with mandating the Health Insurance in United States. A lot of views have been given by people regarding whether there is need of mandating the Health Insurance or not.
As American transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “money often costs too much”. This famous quote can be interpreted in many different ways; it seems very logical in parallel to the idea that money can result in a high social and moral cost. As individualistic as American society is, the preference for monetary stability has become a higher priority for Americans than general societal health and stability. It is then not a surprise that the Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known as ObamaCare) has become one of the most controversial health care reforms as it looks to improve the health care system for the country whilst conflicting with cost reform at the same time. Essentially, the ACA is a program that works to entirely reform the government’s health insurance by raising taxes in order to improve quality and affordability. This taxation is done in order to provide everyone, those from different socioeconomic backgrounds, with a good and competent health care plan. The purpose of this essay is to show the importance of the ACA, as general health is more important than monetary cost.
Rising medical costs are a worldwide problem, but nowhere are they higher than in the U.S. Although Americans with good health insurance coverage may get the best medical treatment in the world, the health of the average American, as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality, is below the average of other major industrial countries. Inefficiency, fraud and the expense of malpractice suits are often blamed for high U.S. costs, but the major reason is overinvestment in technology and personnel.
The main ones are increasing taxation, the effect it will have on the type of government in America, it will limit the choice in medical care, cause a longer wait for care, and there is the issue of people that are already "grandfathered" into plans that they have already purchased. There are many people that are concerned about the constitutional authority of the country by forcing universal health care upon the citizens. Maybe people believe that by doing this, the government of the United States is heading more toward a democracy and less of a constitutional republic. The next major problem is how the government will pay for the program that provides healthcare to every citizen. The two options are, the government pays for it with their own revenue or the taxpayers money goes towards it. The government is already in debt, which leaves the cost up to the taxpayers money. There is no possible way for medical care to be free and taxes to go up. The other major concern is how the people who have already purchased health insurance, or are grandfathered into a plan, get reimbursed for their
The cost of US health care has been steadily increasing for many years causing many Americans to face difficult choices between health care and other priorities in their lives. Health economists are bringing to light the tradeoffs which must be considered in every healthcare decision (Getzen, 2013, p. 427). Therefore, efforts must be made to incite change which constrains the cost of health care without creating adverse health consequences. As the medical field becomes more business oriented, there will be more of a shift in focus toward the costs and benefits, which will make medicine more like the rest of the economy (Getzen, 2013, p. 439).