The Pros And Cons Of Health Care

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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

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