The costs associated with health care are a major factor that influences an individual’s decision to obtain care. Thus, affordability alone is a major barrier in an individual’s pursuit to access care. In fact, recent estimates show that an average of $9,695 is spent on health care for every man woman and child in the United States (Jost, 2016). This means and average household of 2.5 persons spends over $24,625 per year for health care (Jost, 2016). In 2014, the average household income in the United States was $53,697, so the average household would spend closely to half their income on healthcare (Jost, 2016).
Unfortunately, in the United States health care costs are not evenly distributed. At any given time approximately, one percent of the United States population is responsible for 21 percent of health care costs. Additionally, more than half of health care utilization is consumed by only five percent of the population (Jost, 2016). On the other hand, almost half of the United States population spends almost nothing for health care. It is due to this overwhelming disparity that forces many to depend on health insurance.
Health insurance is a means to cover medical expenses by placing consumers into a common pool that moves money around from the healthy to the sick. Thus, is provides an avenue for those that are ill to gain access to health care. For health insurance is vital to the overall population health due to the fact that many Americans would not be able to
Steven Brill’s Bitter Pill: “Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us,” by Angelina Salikhbaeva Summary: Steven Brill in the article “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us” clarifies his opinion about the costs of healthcare services in the United States. The author writes about different stories of how families become bankrupt or unable to pay the total cost of the treatment to the US hospitals and related medical facilities. According to Steven Brill’s article, the US hospitals prescribe too much health care to patients.
It shouldn’t be but it is. The reality of this issue is that it requires policy change. Right now we are subject to the same marketplace influences of other commodities. The pro to this argument is that citizens of the richest nation in the world should not go without healthcare.
Fast-forward almost seven years since the enactment of the ACA, and the percentage of uninsured adults in the United States has dropped over 3%, as roughly twenty million people are currently enrolled in some sort of
The United States is the only Western nation that does not authorize free health services to its people. The cost of healthcare to the uninsured is beyond prohibitive, and insurance plans are far more captivated with profit costs, rather
According to the U.S. census, in 2013, 42 million Americans or 13.4% of the population were uninsured. The Keiser Family Foundation analysis of 2014 Survey of Low-Income Americans and the ACA, states that in 2014, 27 % of the uninsured went without having necessary care for major health conditions or chronic diseases. Health care is a fundamental right regardless of status or health. The United States should look to other countries and examine their successes in providing universal healthcare.
Health Care in the US is arguably available to all who seek it but not everybody has had the same experience and treatment when walking through the doors of a healthcare facility. In many cases, people are discriminated against due to their gender, race/ethnicity, age, and income and are often provided with minimal service. Differences between groups in health coverage, access to care, and quality of care is majorly affected through these disparities. Income is a major factor and can cause groups of people to experience higher burden of illness, injury, disability, or mortality relative to another group.
Expanding accessibility to affordable healthcare insurance is one way in which our country can begin to increase healthcare that is patient and family centered. One reason for existing disparities are the expenses associated with seeking healthcare. For some people, while the actual monthly payments of their health insurance is affordable, patients still face high deductibles or high out of pocket maximums. By making health insurance attainable for the majority of Americans, this alone is only the first step toward reducing some of the existing health disparities. Money alone is a factor that can deter people from seeking preventive treatment and screenings.
46.8 million Americans were reported as uninsured in 2013, which equivocates to one sixth of the population. Those without insurance have revealed that they risk “more problems getting care, are diagnosed at later disease stages, and get less therapeutic care” (National Health Care Disparities Report) and those insured risk losing their insurance. Inadequately covered citizens are often working-class individuals who simply cannot receive insurance due to uncontrollable inconveniences and therefore jeopardize having medical coverage. In these instances, Americans have a chance of being diagnosed with diseases that they had no opportunity to prevent or could not diagnose them at an early stage of the illness. Patients have suffered unnecessarily due to lack of health care, and “18,000 Americans die every year because they don't have health insurance” (PNHP).
Before the Affordable Care Act, Health Care in the United States was obtained in multiple ways. Approximately 33% of Americans received their health care from Medicare which is Health Care for the elderly, Medicaid which is Health Care for the poor, Tricare, and VA. Privately provided Health Care accounted for 50% of Americans, and 16% of Americans were uninsured. 16% equates to about 50 million people. Two major problems faced in the American health care system before the Affordable Care Act, 16% of the population was uninsured and health care costs were rising rapidly.
The majority of American healthcare are the low income consumers, is a total of 55% who receive health insurance are through their employers and 32% receive health insurance through a government programs. Some of the Federal health care officers were aiming low-income consumers with new advertisements. For most of the
With the proposed tax adjustments and the payment plan involving both the individual and employer, Senator Sanders’ health care plan becomes not only viable but also cheap when held against most Americans insurance deductibles. Compared with most so called first world countries, the United States as a whole spends far more on healthcare; “At 17.4% of GDP in 2009, US health spending is half as much again as any other country, and nearly twice the average”(OECD 1). OECD stands for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes such countries as Britain, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands among others. The fact that the U.S. spends comparatively more than these other “socialist” countries displays that having a streamlined, national healthcare system can in fact be run without breaking the bank or creating unmanageable costs.
Healthcare is something everyone needs and should be able to get, but right now that is not happening. In America there are millions of people who don’t have healthcare insurance. This is because some can’t afford the insurance plan. There are also millions more who have health insurance, but can’t afford using it. This means that they are paying for an insurance plan, but the deductibles are so high they can’t afford to go to the doctor.
Many Americans were led to believe that the introduction of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2009 would put an end to disparities in health care access. While it did improve the situation for a small percentage of the population there are still many Americans who lack access to good quality health care. Health care access in America is determined by money and those in lower socioeconomic groups frequently tend to miss out on adequate care. In a recent health care report by the national health research foundation Kaiser Family Foundation, it was noted “health care disparities remain a persistent problem in the United States, leading to certain groups being at higher risk of being uninsured, having limited access to care, and experiencing poorer quality of care” (Kaiser Family Foundation). The current health care
As Bernie Sanders once said, “Health care must be recognized as a right, not a privilege.” Most developed countries choose to live by this quote while the United States of America chooses to go against it. Universal health care has benefits on multiple levels, whether it’s a single individual or the people in a whole. The U.S is one of the few developed countries that doesn’t offer universal health care to their people, yet the U.S spends more than seventeen percent of their GDP on health insurance. Many people believe that universal health care is a simple one solution problem, but the truth is that there are multiple forms of universal health care that provide all citizens with the health insurance they need.
Among the 115.4 million people who were insured, 36.5% of the population received coverage through the U.S. government by Medicare, Medicaid, or the VA. In 2014 alone there were 32.9 million people with no sort of health insurance (DPE, 2016). In the span of 16 years from 1997 to 2013, the United States doubled the amount of money spent per person on health care, about $8,713 or 16.4 percent of its Gross Domestic Product. The second highest was the Netherlands at 11.1 percent and average is 8.9 percent.