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Universal health care introduction
Outline universal healthcare
Studies on universal health care
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In April of 2006, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts enacted a type of universal health care. Every citizen in the commonwealth had to acquire some form of health care. Companies of eleven or more people were also required to purchase healthcare for their employees. This provides people with many options of health care, while still requiring them to have health care. Massachusetts has successfully used this system for the past four years, but it is not without problems. There is a severe lack of primary care physicians. While many of those uninsured before the plan was passed have now gained health care, they cannot find a primary physicians. This has caused a large influx in people using the emergency room for basic care rather than using a doctor more appropriate for the situation. In actuality, the health care program in Massachusetts was supposed to prevent the use of emergency rooms for non-emergency situations. Insurance is also still very expensive; the necessity for everyone to have insurance has not lowered the price of healthcare. It is also not a priority for many of those who live in the commonwealth. Those who would rather pay the tax fee do not end up buying insurance. The compulsory healthcare system of the commonwealth of Massachusetts does make insurance more readily available to their citizens, but it does not create a more affordable or more useful health care system. The commonwealth of Massachusetts has a revolutionary heath care system, but it needs to create more doctors, better affordability, and encourage more people to get ‘buy in’ to the health care plan.
The commonwealth of Massachusetts’ compulsory health care system does make health care mandatory for all its inhabitants, but it cannot provide prima...
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...to be fixed before it can spread to larger, more populated states. Many of these issues compound upon each other. For example, the costs of health care would go down if more primary care physicians were available for patients to visit, and thus more people would sign up for health care because the costs would be lower than the taxes that exist. While solutions to these problems will increase the number of people ‘buying in’ to health care, nothing will convince everyone that it is necessary. Thus, people need to be constantly educated, at a young age, so they will assume that health care is mandatory. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ health care plan does have a very important aspect that needs to be copied throughout the union - they require health care for all of their inhabitants and that all the decent sized companies provide health care for their employees.
The Scope of the State's Power in Matters Affecting Health: The Case of Jacobson v. Massachusetts 1905
Healthcare in the United States is an extremely often discussed topic on whether it is morally a right or just a charity to those who cannot afford it. Plenty claim that health care is too expensive and not affordable so they demand aid from the government. On the other hand, the rest presume that the state is not morally accountable to take this type of action, since not every citizen and human being is equally eligible to receive the same healthcare.
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.
For decades, one of the many externalities that the government is trying to solve is the rising costs of healthcare. "Rising healthcare costs have hurt American competitiveness, forced too many families into bankruptcy to get their families the care they need, and driven up our nation's long-term deficit" ("Deficit-Reducing Healthcare Reform," 2014). The United States national government plays a major role in organizing, overseeing, financing, and more so than ever delivering health care (Jaffe, 2009). Though the government does not provide healthcare directly, it serves as a financing agent for publicly funded healthcare programs through the taxation of citizens. The total share of the national publicly funded health spending by various governments amounts to 4 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, GDP (Jaffe, 2009). By 2019, government spending on Medicare and Medicaid is expected to rise to 6 percent and 12 percent by 2050 (Jaffe, 2009). The percentages, documented from the Health Policy Brief (2009) by Jaffe, are from Medicare and Medicaid alone. The rapid rates are not due to increase of enrollment but growth in per capita costs for providing healthcare, especially via Medicare.
Hicks, L. (2012). The Economics of Health and Medical Care (6th Ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Within the previous four years, the number of uninsured Americans has jumped to forty five million people. Beginning in the 1980’s, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has been trying to fix this problem of health insurance coverage for everyone with a basic reform. The AAFP’s plan imagined every American with insured coverage for necessary improved services that fall between the crucial health benefits and the surprising costs. (Sweeney) They expect by fostering prevention, and early prevention, with early diagnosis with treatment, the program would result in decreased health system costs and increased productivity through healthier lives. The way to achieve health care coverage for all is pretty simple. This country needs the United States congress to act out legislation assuring essential health care coverage for all.
Our healthcare system has developed into a burden for most people and has terrible consequences for others. It consists of everyone paying for healthcare as a whole, instead of people paying for themselves. This system of healthcare has burdened the people who take care of themselves and have money, but extends the life of people who do not take care of themselves and live in poverty. This is not pleasant for the one’s who decided to go to school and make well over minimum wage. In turn, they are the individuals who end up paying for the people who decided to make bad decisions in their life that put them in the minimum wage position. Clearly, laws regulate the insurance companies but these regulations do not make any sense to many. Balko explains that, “More and m...
In 2007 San Francisco began its Healthy San Francisco Plan designed to provide health care for all San Francisco citizens. In 2007, it was estimated that San Francisco had 82,000 uninsured citizens. Under the plan, all uninsured citizens residing in San Francisco can seek care at the city's public and private clinics and hospitals. The basic coverage includes lab work, x-rays, surgery, and preventative care. The city plans to pay for this $203 million coverage by rerouting the $104 million the city currently spends treating the uninsured in the emergency rooms, mandating business contributions, and requiring income-adjusted enrollment fees. The plan requires all businesses with more than 20 employees to contribute a percentage toward the plan. Many business owners consider this a burden and warn they will not stay in the city. The Mayor sees universal health access a moral obligation for the city. As a city, San Fransico has an obligation to provide it citizens with health access. The questions to be address are: What is the government's role in regulating healthy and unhealthy behavior? Has the balance between personal freedom and the government's responsibility to provide health and welfare of its citizens been eroded? Why or why not?
Health insurance, too many American citizens, is not an option. However, some citizens find it unnecessary. Working in the health care field, I witness the effects of uninsured patients on medical offices. Too often, I see a “self-pay” patient receive care from their doctor and then fail to pay for it. Altogether, their refusal to pay leaves the office at a loss of money and calls for patients to pay extra in covering for the cost of the care the uninsured patient received. One office visit does not seem like too big of an expense, but multiple patients failing to pay for the care they receive adds up. Imagine the hospital bills that patients fail to pay; health services in a hospital are double, sometimes triple, in price at a hospital. It is unfair that paying patients are responsible for covering these unpaid services. Luckily, the Affordable Care Act was passed on March 23, 2010, otherwise known as Obamacare. Obamacare is necessary in America because it calls for all citizens to be health insured, no worrying about pre-existing conditions, and free benefits for men and women’s health.
In recent years, the number of Americans who are uninsured has reached over 45 million citizens, with millions more who only have the very basic of insurance, effectively under insured. With the growing budget cuts to medicaid and the decreasing amount of employers cutting back on their health insurance options, more and more americans are put into positions with poor health care or no access to it at all. At the heart of the issue stems two roots, one concerning the morality of universal health care and the other concerning the economic effects. Many believe that health care reform at a national level is impossible or impractical, and so for too long now our citizens have stood by as our flawed health-care system has transformed into an unfixable mess. The good that universal healthcare would bring to our nation far outweighs the bad, however, so, sooner rather than later, it is important for us to strive towards a society where all people have access to healthcare.
Despite the established health care facilities in the United States, most citizens do not have access to proper medical care. We must appreciate from the very onset that a healthy and strong nation must have a proper health care system. Such a health system should be available and affordable to all. The cost of health services is high. In fact, the ...
What Seems To Be The Problem? A discussion of the current problems in the U.S. healthcare system.
Niles, N. J. (2011). Basics of the U.S. health care system. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
The need for universal health care within the United States has been evident, and needed to be addressed. The old healthcare system was plagued with issues, including expensive premiums that were on the rise, along with an inflated average infant mortality rate and limited average life expectancy, which ultimately led to many people being left uninsured (“Affordable” 2). In the 2012 presidential election, one key issue was how to reform America’s broken health care system, and to instate a successful universal healthcare system that has resolved the previous issues. Being one of the last influential and competitive countries in the world without universal healthcare, the pressure was on for the United States to develop their own system. Since Barack Obama became president, Obamacare, instead of the proposed Romneycare, was born.
With the United Nations listing health care as natural born right and the escalating cost of health care America has reached a debatable crisis. Even if you do have insurance it's a finical strain on most families.