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Health Care In The United States Essay

1658 Words7 Pages

Health Care in the United States
In 2010, after decades of failed attempts to bring regulation and control to the health insurance industry and the entire health care sector, the American people finally socialized medicine. At least, with the passage of the Affordable Care Act, they won the first major battle in the unfolding tragic economic war between “patients” and “providers.” The health insurance carriers themselves are in a peculiar role in this starkly-characterized conflict of interest. They ostensibly exist as risk pools to allow a lower average cost of care for individuals within the group. They are, however, often organizations which are engineered to return a profit to investors, and even when run under a “not-for-profit” regime, often spend money with other providers that are for-profit corporations, thus siphoning off value versus a government-run …show more content…

With these advances, the volume and quality of health care services have improved in ways that were unimaginable just a few decades ago. Life expectancies and survival rates from major diseases are dramatically improved, but these and many other positive changes in health care have come at a staggering cost. A “tipping point” seems to have been reached with the passage of the Affordable Care Act. While costs were still manageable by patients, there was insufficient political will to use government to take control of the market for health care. Under the increasing burden of unmanageable health costs, the American people grasped the only tool available to them –

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