1: Complete a one page position paper (your opinion) about current health and human services reimbursement.…
Dr. Don Berwick, Head of Medicare/Medicaid 2010-2011 whom talks about how unsustainable the healthcare system is. We’re spending almost twice as much in America as any other country on earth. Yearly, we have been spending $2.7 trillion in healthcare. The average per capita cost of healthcare in the developed world is about $3,000, but in the United States, it was around $8,000 annually, more than double. Due to these astronomical amounts, healthcare has not become affordable anymore. Insurance companies are raising their rates they are charging for premiums, covering less on patient care, which in turns takes even more money out of our pockets because we now not only have to pay the premiums, but are now left with the portion of the care given that we must pay for out of our pockets.…
Health care costs have become a major issue in the United States, both socially and politically. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 50.7 million people, or nearly one in six U.S. residents, were uninsured in 2009 (Kaiser Health News, 2010).This is because the high cost of health care has driven the cost of insurance out of the reach of many Americans. Contributing factors to the continuing increase in the cost of health care are the generally unhealthy…
some people believe; it is not just the unemployed or impoverished who have trouble getting adequate healthcare for themselves and their families. In fact, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), more than “45 million Americans did not have health insurance during the first nine months of last year” (Young, 2013). A staggering eight in ten working families cannot afford health insurance; and most are not eligible for public programs. Nearly 20 percent of the uninsured are children. (“The…
Many studies have show that people without health insurance do not get the health care they need. The sicker they become, the more tests, surgeries, and other health care services they need. This scenario increases costs to the health care…
Health care system in the United States is on an unsustainable way and in need of transformation. Even if, it has both private and public insurers like in other countries but the uniqueness of this system is dominant of the private component. The United States spends more on health care than any other nation but the nation is less healthy than the average population in other developed countries. Additionally, many people stay uninsured and do not have access to health care.…
In contrast to most industrially developed countries, American private-public health care system is far from being universal. However, health care system makes a difference in whether and when people get necessary medical care, where they get their care, and ultimately, how healthy people are. Research has repeatedly shown that the lack of insurance ultimately compromises a persons’ health because they are less likely to receive preventive care, are less able to afford prescription drugs, are more likely to be hospitalized for avoidable health problems, are more likely to be diagnosed in the late-stages of disease and once diagnosed tend to receive less therapeutic care (1).…
Many factors contribute to the growing number of uninsured or underinsurance people in the U.S. The welfare reform proposal created limited access to Medicare coverage for many individuals who are unemployed or of a low-income status. These individuals may also lack the ability to obtain insurance due to the cost of many health insurance plans. Some healthcare plans have high deductibles that can prevent people from seeking medical assistance. Life saving medications can be more costly than an individual can afford even if they have a medication plan. Many plans limit how much they will pay for medications, where you can fill a prescription and may even have clauses against certain types of medications. The financial burden of an acute or…
Imagine living in a country where when you are sick or hurt, you pick up the phone, make an appointment with your family doctor, and go get medical attention without having to worry about paying for co-pays, deductibles, prescriptions or any other health care related expense. Does this scenario sound too good to be true? Some Americans are lucky enough to have insurance that pays for at least part of their medical bills, but there are people in the United States that do without healthcare because they cannot afford health insurance or doctor bills. When these people do have a non-emergency medical situation, they end up going to an emergency room for care, causing overcrowding and long wait times in our hospitals. Most civilized countries in the world offer citizens health coverage, whether they work or not. Everyone is treated equally without regard to his or her income, race, or beliefs. Why does the United States not offer this for its citizens? Even though universal health coverage would make health care available to everyone, the United States does not have universal health coverage because the majority of the citizens do not want it. Americans feel that if the United States had universal health coverage they would pay higher taxes, the government would be moving away from democracy, and the quality of healthcare could decline for patients.…
Daniels, M. R. (1998) Medicaid Reform and the American States. West Point, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.…
Affordable Care Act is the notion of affordability and the role of health insurance in making otherwise unaffordable health care affordable (Nyman and Trenz 264). The Affordable Care Act gives every American a right to health care through Obamacare. Millions of Americans have benefitted by receiving insurance coverage through the ACA. Many of these people were unemployed or had low-paying jobs. Some could not work because of a disability or family obligations. Others could not get decent health insurance because of a pre-existing medical condition, such as a chronic disease. The ACA has been highly controversial, despite the positive outcomes. Even though, the…
According to health care statistics published by HealthCareProblems.org in June 2008 nearly 50 million Americans is not covered by insurance companies. Another 25 million are underinsured, which means they pay for coverage often very high rates and still encounter hardship paying for medical bills. Many of these people have major health issues and amount of money they owe for medical services is substantial. Among them are people that due to chronic medical conditions or serious illness are not able to change insurance companies and shop around to get better premiums. To keep coverage they have to agree to pay higher premiums, deductibles and…
Without a doubt healthcare costs are rising out of control. Not one of us are happy with the increases, but we have to understand what the reasons are for the increases in healthcare. American people look at their insurance bills, co-pays and drug costs, and do not understand why they continue to increase. The insured should consider all reasons behind the increase before getting upset. In 2004, employer health care premiums increased over 11 percent, four times more than the rate of inflation. In 2003, premiums rose 10.1 percent and in 1002 they rose 15 percent. Employee spending for coverage increased 126 percent between 2000 and 2004. These increases were lower than expected. The site to look up information on the cost of health care coverage and the breakdown on the cost is (National Coalition on Health Care, Facts on health care costs). Premiums have risen five times faster than workers’ wages, if medical spending continues to rise by just two percent more than a person’s personal income, by 2040 Medicare and Medicaid will rise 8.4 percent of gross domestic product this year’s 15.6 percent by 2040, according to Congressional Budget Office projections. If all government programs stay at the same size relative to the economy, the budget will grow from 19.9 percent of GDP in 2003 to 27.1 percent by 2040, (http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/tbb-0306-15.pdf). There are huge impacts of the rising costs of healthcare. Many people cannot afford health insurance today and struggle to pay for their medical needs. Of the families that do have health coverage, 50 percent are concerned about having to pay more for the coverage in the future, while 42 percent fear they will not be able to afford coverage at all if the rate increase keep s going the way it is. This leads to believe one of the reasons for health care cost increases: cost sharing or cost shifting. When an individual or a family does not have insurance, and cannot…
By Scott Cooney On March 3, 2012 · 1 Comment · In Policies of Sustainability…
The United States is the only developed nation without universal health care coverage, and the current state of affairs is bankrupting millions.…