Healthcare Costs and Families

Healthcare Costs and Families

Introduction

The prospect of health reform in the United States is a daily topic in the media, part news, and part conjecture. While the outcome of the current debate about moving closer to universal coverage is unknown, we do know we've been down this road before, many times. The United States has the most technologically intensive medical practice in the world. It also spends more than any other nation on medical care, but health outcomes in the United States are inferior to those in most other developed nations. This inefficiency, spending more with poorer results, stems partly from failure to provide effective access to medical care to a substantial share of the population. Lack of access leads to wider disparities in health in the United States than are experienced by the populations of other developed nations. The fragmented delivery system also leads to cost shifting (insurers' attempts to transfer costs to other payers), administrative waste, and an imbalance between spending on medical care and spending on population health initiatives (Iglehart, 2010).

Discussion

There is general agreement that the US health care system should be more efficient as well as more equitable. Most comprehensive proposals for reforming the system recognize the need for universal coverage that is independent of employment status, disability status, or age, although some would continue to rely on employers to collect health insurance payments. Although universal insurance is important, it is not the only urgent issue. A reformed system should integrate personal preventive and therapeutic care with public health and should include population wide health initiatives. Coordinating personal medical care with population health will require a more structured system than has ever existed in the United States. It is argued in this paper that a reformed health care system not only should provide health insurance coverage for all but should also be organized and funded to take advantage of new knowledge about medical and non medical determinants of health (Iglehart, 2007).

As stated above healthcare system in the United States is one of the imperative issues which is extensively debated and discussed. It is not public, unlike the majority of developed and developing countries. This means that the state does not offer cheap or free healthcare services. If we talk about the Great Britain or Canada, then the corresponding government funds providers of healthcare through taxes. In contrast, the United States chose a different route by passing the load of healthcare spending on not only private customers but also other institutions like insurers, employers etc (Friedman, 2008).

Statistics of healthcare spending demonstrated dramatic increases over the past few years. According to Economist (2006), healthcare system of United States is the most expensive health care system in the world. United States spent approximately 16% of its Gross Domestic Product on healthcare services in 2004, which is about $1.9 trillion. Moreover, per annum spending keeps on growing from 10 to 15 percent every year, which is quicker than the growth rate of national inflation (Davis et ...