Synthesis Essay On Health Care

Is the health care that citizens are paying for affordable? Is every one of our citizens getting decent coverage? What about the elderly people who pay hundreds of dollars for one prescription, or people in poverty who cannot afford to even go to a doctor when they’re sick to get treatment? Health care should be affordable to all taxpayers in the United States. Health care effects everyone from elderly’s to people who can’t afford it, and people who are sick or injured. The cost of health care is an issue because it is so expensive and most of the money we spend on health care does not go to benefit us. There are many ways that this could be fixed, because other countries are leading an example, and the United States could follow. The population
of kids are causing an increase of health care, especially in families who can’t afford it to go up. Immigrant pay taxes but almost all of them are denied health coverage. How come we are the country that spends the most on health care, but we are also a country with one of the highest rates of people with uncovered people for health insurance.
Many adults in the United States do not have health care, the number of adults without health care continues to rise each year (Levey). The Gallup Report noted that “It seems that the uninsured rate will rise further in years ahead.” Last year 2017, The uninsured American rate climbed to 12.2 percent, also in 2017 3 million Americans lost health coverage. Many of the uninsured Americans live in fear that the Government will punish them for not having healthcare. The percent of the population that does have health care you’ll find that many bought from an employer or bought Medicare or Medicaid. Trumps administration had plans to expand health coverage, but later President Trumps plans were found to destabilize the country more, than previously was (Levey). Trumps administration has announced an idea of “Gains” to expand health care across the country for people in need. Later in the year, the administration discontinued the gains, leaving multiple people in the country without health coverage (Levey). President Trump claimed the gains to be “meaningless.” Two states in the country have their own laws and expanded the health coverage across the state to people with chronic illnesses to seek care (Levey). Nationwide there is a significant decrease in improvements in illnesses in states that haven’t somehow expanded coverage. Around our entire country health insurers weakened, it was significant in areas with higher prices and very few insurers (Levey). The decrease in insurance is also mainly in areas with citizens commonly making 36 grand a year, or less. Citizens that try to go to the doctor and seek care, are people who will pay out of pocket. Doctors, nurses, receptionists, etc are people who constantly stress that “Prices are too high or patients face too many restrictions due to the doctors that they are able to see” (Levey).
The cost of medicine for some patients are too expensive, especially for taxpayers in rural areas.
Tax payers in rural areas typically can’t afford with the prices of medicine, while taxpayers in urban areas generally can. (Source 5) In other countries such as China, they spend approximately spent 3.1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health care in 2016. (Source 2) Indias’ government spent approximately 1.4% of their GDP on health care in 2014 (Source 2) The United States should try to take initiatives from other countries to try in our country. India is giving half billion citizens in their country free health care. India is not just giving out health care for free, they are giving it to citizens there in need who live in poverty, and to make sure they get the health care they need to remain healthy. Many taxpayers in America believe that our country is a rich country so we need to spend more on health care than we are. (Source 5). Our country needs to spend more on health care because we consume so much more of it (Source 5).We are a leading country in obesity and diabetes, we consume more of medicine needed because a lot of the medicine is based on body weight, and insulin for diabetics is not cheap especially to people who live in rural areas for
example. The United States has risen costs for life-extending medicine, which is not affordable for many patients. A brain tumor supply of medicine out of the patients’ pocket would cost around $2,185 per supply (Loftus). Cancer doctors have noticed how outrageous the prices are getting They state, “Old drugs become more expensive including those to treat ear infections and cancer” (Lupkin). Life extending medicine is not the only type that is expensive. Children are prone to ear infections especially infants. Parents have to keep purchasing medicine to get rid of the childs’ ear infection each time, and the prices keep raising making it almost impossible for some children. The United States has high rates in obesity and diabetes. The drugs prescribed for obese patients or diabetics, the doses are based off body weight, causing obese patients to spend more (Loftus).
Non-named brand drugs also known as generic brand, has caused tax payers an extra $258 million dollars (Lupkin). Generic drugs are hard to pull off and they had a 1400% increase overall (Loftus) Even though generic drugs had a large increase, without generic drugs the price of the medicine needed will continue to rise further. (Loftus) Generic metformin hydrochloride was previously 10 cents a pill, but now raised to 13 cents a pill. The three-penny increase may not seem like much but has collectively cost Medicaid an extra $8.3 million dollars (Lupkin). A gram of Ventolin, went from $2.58 to $2.90. Medicaid paid $54.5 million extra for the price increase of Ventolin (Lupkin). Naproxen Sodium was $0.72 a pill, but is now $1.70 a pill, which is a 136% increase. Naproxen Sodium cost Medicaid an extra $10 million dollars, for the less than $1 increase in the medication (Lupkin). Fluphenazine Hydrochloride increase cost Medicaid an extra $8.5 million which is a 347% increase (Lupkin). Depo is a form of birth control, and last year doubled the price to $37 dollars a unit (Lupkin). Potassium Phosphates cost Medicaid an extra 1.8 million, which was a 290% increase, charging now $6.70 a unit (Lupkin). Drug prices are already high but Fox stated, “Drug prices could also jump when a pharmaceutical product changes ownership, new packages, or haven’t had a price jump in a while.” Nobody including pharmacies, patients, and doctors don’t receive warning and can’t predict when they will get a price jump (Lupkin). Not knowing when the medicine you need is going to take a price jump can make people who need it financially unstable. If the medicine you need takes a huge price jump, people who are not wealthy can be put into financial debt. Lomustine capsule was previously $50 a capsule, now the price has jumped to $768 (Lupkin). Gleostine raised the price by 12% last November.
There have been conferences about cutting off health care provided by businesses completely.
Taxpayers in the United States have labeled “Health Insurance” as “Health Unsuracne” Many people get insurance from businesses, just simple health insurance that will protect them and allow them to get treatment if needed, and thousands of people will lose insurance by cutting it off completely (Unsurance). Trump has new strategies that end up hurting people who work for small businesses or own them. In urban states they have low premiums making the cost of insurance not too expensive, but Obamacare has made matters worse in rural states (Unsurance). For example, an Oklahoma oil farm had canceled their insurance because the premiums were too high. Mr. Smith the owner of the oil farm had a $9,000 deductible and was paying $400 a month, he was one of the 30,000 Oklahomans to do so (Unsurance). Businesses offer health insurance to employees, but in the end spend more because some employees abuse drugs, for example Opioids. Employees abusing opioids costs businesses twice as much in medical expenses because a lot of abusers participate in unsafe activities while on the high (Opioids Abuse Cost). Employers on average pay $19,450 in medical bills for opioid abusers (Opioids Abuse Cost). Businesses spend thousands of dollars for people who abuse the system, but there are taxpayers in our country who are denied health care because they are unemployed and cannot afford it. The Congressional
Budget Office stated that discontinuing payments to insurers will raise the premiums for them by 20% in the upcoming year (Unsurance). Premiums affect 18 million Americans insurance who they get from businesses or other sources of insurance (Unsurance). For example, the premiums were raised so drastically that only one insurer remained and charged $18,500 approximately per year (Unsurance).
Children are one of the main factors of insurance rising. The Federal Regulations allow insurers to recalculate childrens’ risks. Health insurance rates will begin to increase every year for children ages 15-20 years old, beginning with a drastic increase in 2018 (Perkes). In 2018, the cost of insurance for a 15-year-old will have a 31.2% increase, and for a 20-year-old the increase will be 52.8% (Perkes). The law Obama passed now allows insurers to charge higher rates for teens than for younger adults. The price jump will start for children at 15 years old (Perkes). For example a family claimed their Blue Shield PPO will raise $391 a month beginning in 2018 (Perkes). We are well into 2018, and by now many people have had their insurance go up monthly, just for something as simple as having kids. High school children especially are into more contact sports than children in middle school age which is why 15 is the start age for rising insurance because by that time they are entering high school, and joining sports such as