Universal Healthcare Research Paper
Many families across the United States are spending more and more time receiving unpleasant medical testing, chemotherapy treatments, and long waits to see the doctor. What is the most troubling is that many of these families cannot afford the healthcare costs they encounter. Healthcare has become crucial in defining our quality of life. Without proper healthcare many people are not able to maintain a high quality of life. Many families are making crucial choices in regards to paying the rent, buying food, or buying their medicine he/she needs.
In 2011 the United States Census Bureau reported “forty-five million people in the United States of America as being without a form of healthcare coverage, and around twelve million are children” …show more content…
(DeNavas Walt, Proctor, and Smith). In the United States we have Medicare for our elderly and Medicaid for the young who are accepted. Medicare was designed to provide access to medical services for those who are sixty-fix years of age and older. While covering “forty-eight million people,” Medicare does not cover all the costs (census.gov). Around fifty-two percent of cost is put back on the enrollees and this is not acceptable, because most people sixty-five years of age and above live on a strict income and cannot afford extra bills. Medicaid is a state/federal ran program in which service is provided to people/families of low income. “To qualify for Medicaid cost free a family of four must earn less than 22,350 dollars of income annually” (medicaid.gov). Many families earn more but not much more, which excludes these families from getting coverage. Both programs were implemented to provide access to those Americans who cannot afford to purchase private insurance, but these programs only reach so far. Americans need to reach further, Americans need Universal Healthcare. Universal Healthcare is defined as ensuring that all people have access to needed health services: prevention, promotion, treatment and rehabilitation; without facing financial ruin because of the need to pay for them.
“Thirty-two of the thirty-three largest developed countries have some form of universal healthcare coverage”; we are the exception (www.who.int/en/). The United States healthcare costs are the highest of all developed nations, as well as the highest death rate for people who are uninsured. Healthcare has always been a for profit industry in America. The industry has maintained record profits each year while more people face financial ruin because of their healthcare costs. Healthcare costs are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States, and there continues to be many families on the verge of filing. Healthcare costs cannot be managed by middle/lower class individuals in the United States. The private market has failed to provide affordable access as well as quality of care; Universal Healthcare will provide preventable care, access without having to pay, and peace of mind to American citizens. We currently offer two federal/state programs to help those who need healthcare coverage: Medicare, for those sixty-five years of age and above, and Medicaid for low income people/families. Both of these programs cover medical costs, but they do not cover all medical costs or preventable care. Our country needs to eliminate these two programs and …show more content…
shift focus on creating a single-payer national healthcare program, which will cover each citizen regardless of economic status. By having a single-payer healthcare system all Americans are covered, even those who cannot afford to pay into the system. The program will be covered mainly through federal taxes. By eliminating Medicare and Medicaid, as well as loopholes and deductions, we will not have to raise the federal tax rate. Our nation is sick and one the most effective way to pick up the pieces is creating a Universal Healthcare system. Now having a Universal Healthcare in the United States has often been an idea proposed by many people. We see countries across the world that have developed socialized medicine for their citizens and Americans wonder if that is the direction we need to be taking in healthcare? There is no secret that the United States healthcare issues are spiraling out of control, and many people feel creating a single-payer system through the federal government will magically fix our healthcare issues; however opponents argue this is not an effective solution. There are many people in the United States who cannot afford basic health insurance, but in many cases, those who have insurance are not much better off either. Those who pay an extreme high insurance premium often receive poor medical care. America needs to focus on driving down costs which only true free market competition can do. Our freedoms are currently controlled in regards to our health. Government-enforced monopolies such as HMOs and the pharmaceutical companies are suppressing cost effective treatments; reason being these low cost treatments will cut into the record profits these companies are making. The more taxes the government receives, less money goes into the private sector. We see countries like Canada who have government run health services and time and time again we see long wait times in the emergency rooms, long wait times to get into see a family doctor, long wait times surgeries. “In Halifax people reported waiting up to sixteen weeks to see their family doctor” (www.medicare.ca). “Another report out of Manitoba found patients on a wait list of ten to possibly sixteen weeks to see their doctor for surgeries such as cataract surgery” (www.medicare.ca). “Even emergency room wait times are close to five hours per patient in the Canadian system” (www.medicare.ca). None of this can be accepted in the United States, but this is the result of having a public socialized healthcare system.
Despite the previous arguments, there are countries who have efficiently maintained a Universal Healthcare system; countries like France have been running a system that has effectively provided healthcare to the citizens through the government. By having a single payer system in the United States, we will create a uniform policy similar to the system of the French. The World Health Organization “studied 191 countries in 2000 and ranked them based on health care and France came in first and the United States came in 37th” (www.who.int/en). France relies on both private insurance and public insurance; regardless of social economic status, everyone gets health care. “The national insurance program in France pays for 70% of a patient’s doctor bill and is funded by payroll, and income taxes by workers paying 21% of their income into the national health care system” (Brunner). Even though the French are putting a higher percentage of their income into the health care system up front, overall they are spending half of what Americans pay per person. “In 2005, the average person in the United States spent $6400 per person compared to $3300 of a French citizen” (Brunner). Most of the remaining 30% is paid by private insurance that almost everyone has in France because it’s affordable, and much of it gets paid for by the employer. Almost never does a person in France go uninsured, and there are no reported cases of citizens going broke in regards to healthcare costs. Surely, there is a lesson to be learned from the structure of the health care system used in France.
Just like France, all European countries have Universal Healthcare. These same European countries show no signs of having issues with people dying because they do not have access to proper medical care. Having a single-payer option in the United States will generate a decrease in avoidable and preventable mortality. Despite spending more on health care than other industrialized countries the United States is doing a poor job at keeping citizens with illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes from dying a preventable death. Without proper access to health care, people in the United States are not utilizing preventative services to keep them healthy. The United States has the highest mortality rate in comparison to Western European countries, such as Germany and the United Kingdom; with the rate double that of France. “According to data from the World Health Organization’s mortality database, rates of potentially preventable death were the highest in the United States; a number that is double when compared to France, Germany, and the United Kingdom” (www.who.int/en). “In 2010, there were a reported 502 deaths per week in the United States” that will be prevented if we had a public healthcare system (www.cdc.gov). By having a public system, we put the sickest citizens at the top of the list. Currently in the United States the richest people have access to proper services, because our system is for profit only. People are not getting the type of care they need due to a lack in medical coverage. People without medical coverage often forgo medical treatment necessary to prevent and treat conditions leading to an impending death. Under a universal health care plan, patients will not need to put the fear of high medical bills before the fate of their life.
As mentioned earlier, European countries such as France do not have citizens filing for bankruptcy because of their healthcare costs. In the United States, our leading cause of bankruptcy is citizens not being able to afford their healthcare costs. If the United States imported a universal health care system, we will see a decrease in the number of bankruptcies filed. If you consider the cost of treatment for cancer or heart disease coupled with the number of people under or uninsured, it’s no wonder “62% of all United States bankruptcies were related to medical expenses in 2007” (Himmelstein, Thorne, Warren, and Woolhandler). More and more citizens are facing financial hardship to pay for medication and treatment. Most are one major surgery away from economic destruction. Compared with the general population, cancer patients are twice as likely to file for bankruptcy even if they have health insurance. “The average out of pocket cost for cancer patients is $1,266 per month” (Himmelstein, Thorne, Warren, and Woolhandler). A person who is detrimentally ill with a long term illness will most likely face gaps in their insurance policy. With the implementation of a health care system similar to that in France, financial ruin stemmed from medical bills will decrease. In France the sicker they are, the more coverage they get. Patients who require surgeries, therapies, and drugs for long term illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes are covered 100% by the government. A majority of Americans are going broke to stay alive.
Being that most Americans are going broke to stay alive, most rational people can see we have a major issue in our current healthcare system. Private insurance seeks out to accomplish one thing and that is to make money. Making money in regards to someone having health issues is unacceptable and morally wrong. As we noted countries like France have maintained proper healthcare for their citizens by providing services through the government. Countries like France offer incentives to keep patients healthier, as well as seeing patients less. In America politics and corporate greed run our healthcare system. Costs are out of control, more people are sick because of bad practices, and people are dying because they cannot afford their healthcare costs. We need a single-payer system, so that citizens can have peace of mind and not fear their own health. Certainly we can look at the French system and learn that government healthcare can be efficient. Our greatest obstacle in the United States is not convincing our citizens that our healthcare system is broken, but convincing our people healthcare is a moral right. Breathing air is certainly not a privilege; breathing is a human right because we need air to survive; however we still argue healthcare is a privilege, yet we cannot live a healthy life without proper healthcare. Our leaders need to send a strong message to our people; present the facts to our people, and then we can move forward with the change. America will have Universal Healthcare.
Works Cited
DeNavas-Walt, Carmen, Bernadette D.
Proctor, and Jessica C. Smith. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2011. Rep. United States Census Bureau, Sept. 2012. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.
Census Bureau Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.
Eligibility Medicaid. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.
WHO. N.p., 2012. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.
RSS. Canadian Health Coalition, 2009. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.
Brunner, Stephanie. "The French Health Care System." Medical News Today. MediLexicon International, 08 June 2009. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.
Himmelstein, David U., Deborah Thorne, Elizabeth Warren, and Steffie Woolhandler. "Medical Bankruptcy in the United States, 2007: Results of a National Study." The American Journal of Medicine 122.8 (2009): 741-46.
Print.
In 2011 the United States Census Bureau reported “forty-five million people in the United States of America as being without a form of healthcare coverage, and around twelve million are children” …show more content…
(DeNavas Walt, Proctor, and Smith). In the United States we have Medicare for our elderly and Medicaid for the young who are accepted. Medicare was designed to provide access to medical services for those who are sixty-fix years of age and older. While covering “forty-eight million people,” Medicare does not cover all the costs (census.gov). Around fifty-two percent of cost is put back on the enrollees and this is not acceptable, because most people sixty-five years of age and above live on a strict income and cannot afford extra bills. Medicaid is a state/federal ran program in which service is provided to people/families of low income. “To qualify for Medicaid cost free a family of four must earn less than 22,350 dollars of income annually” (medicaid.gov). Many families earn more but not much more, which excludes these families from getting coverage. Both programs were implemented to provide access to those Americans who cannot afford to purchase private insurance, but these programs only reach so far. Americans need to reach further, Americans need Universal Healthcare. Universal Healthcare is defined as ensuring that all people have access to needed health services: prevention, promotion, treatment and rehabilitation; without facing financial ruin because of the need to pay for them.
“Thirty-two of the thirty-three largest developed countries have some form of universal healthcare coverage”; we are the exception (www.who.int/en/). The United States healthcare costs are the highest of all developed nations, as well as the highest death rate for people who are uninsured. Healthcare has always been a for profit industry in America. The industry has maintained record profits each year while more people face financial ruin because of their healthcare costs. Healthcare costs are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States, and there continues to be many families on the verge of filing. Healthcare costs cannot be managed by middle/lower class individuals in the United States. The private market has failed to provide affordable access as well as quality of care; Universal Healthcare will provide preventable care, access without having to pay, and peace of mind to American citizens. We currently offer two federal/state programs to help those who need healthcare coverage: Medicare, for those sixty-five years of age and above, and Medicaid for low income people/families. Both of these programs cover medical costs, but they do not cover all medical costs or preventable care. Our country needs to eliminate these two programs and …show more content…
shift focus on creating a single-payer national healthcare program, which will cover each citizen regardless of economic status. By having a single-payer healthcare system all Americans are covered, even those who cannot afford to pay into the system. The program will be covered mainly through federal taxes. By eliminating Medicare and Medicaid, as well as loopholes and deductions, we will not have to raise the federal tax rate. Our nation is sick and one the most effective way to pick up the pieces is creating a Universal Healthcare system. Now having a Universal Healthcare in the United States has often been an idea proposed by many people. We see countries across the world that have developed socialized medicine for their citizens and Americans wonder if that is the direction we need to be taking in healthcare? There is no secret that the United States healthcare issues are spiraling out of control, and many people feel creating a single-payer system through the federal government will magically fix our healthcare issues; however opponents argue this is not an effective solution. There are many people in the United States who cannot afford basic health insurance, but in many cases, those who have insurance are not much better off either. Those who pay an extreme high insurance premium often receive poor medical care. America needs to focus on driving down costs which only true free market competition can do. Our freedoms are currently controlled in regards to our health. Government-enforced monopolies such as HMOs and the pharmaceutical companies are suppressing cost effective treatments; reason being these low cost treatments will cut into the record profits these companies are making. The more taxes the government receives, less money goes into the private sector. We see countries like Canada who have government run health services and time and time again we see long wait times in the emergency rooms, long wait times to get into see a family doctor, long wait times surgeries. “In Halifax people reported waiting up to sixteen weeks to see their family doctor” (www.medicare.ca). “Another report out of Manitoba found patients on a wait list of ten to possibly sixteen weeks to see their doctor for surgeries such as cataract surgery” (www.medicare.ca). “Even emergency room wait times are close to five hours per patient in the Canadian system” (www.medicare.ca). None of this can be accepted in the United States, but this is the result of having a public socialized healthcare system.
Despite the previous arguments, there are countries who have efficiently maintained a Universal Healthcare system; countries like France have been running a system that has effectively provided healthcare to the citizens through the government. By having a single payer system in the United States, we will create a uniform policy similar to the system of the French. The World Health Organization “studied 191 countries in 2000 and ranked them based on health care and France came in first and the United States came in 37th” (www.who.int/en). France relies on both private insurance and public insurance; regardless of social economic status, everyone gets health care. “The national insurance program in France pays for 70% of a patient’s doctor bill and is funded by payroll, and income taxes by workers paying 21% of their income into the national health care system” (Brunner). Even though the French are putting a higher percentage of their income into the health care system up front, overall they are spending half of what Americans pay per person. “In 2005, the average person in the United States spent $6400 per person compared to $3300 of a French citizen” (Brunner). Most of the remaining 30% is paid by private insurance that almost everyone has in France because it’s affordable, and much of it gets paid for by the employer. Almost never does a person in France go uninsured, and there are no reported cases of citizens going broke in regards to healthcare costs. Surely, there is a lesson to be learned from the structure of the health care system used in France.
Just like France, all European countries have Universal Healthcare. These same European countries show no signs of having issues with people dying because they do not have access to proper medical care. Having a single-payer option in the United States will generate a decrease in avoidable and preventable mortality. Despite spending more on health care than other industrialized countries the United States is doing a poor job at keeping citizens with illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes from dying a preventable death. Without proper access to health care, people in the United States are not utilizing preventative services to keep them healthy. The United States has the highest mortality rate in comparison to Western European countries, such as Germany and the United Kingdom; with the rate double that of France. “According to data from the World Health Organization’s mortality database, rates of potentially preventable death were the highest in the United States; a number that is double when compared to France, Germany, and the United Kingdom” (www.who.int/en). “In 2010, there were a reported 502 deaths per week in the United States” that will be prevented if we had a public healthcare system (www.cdc.gov). By having a public system, we put the sickest citizens at the top of the list. Currently in the United States the richest people have access to proper services, because our system is for profit only. People are not getting the type of care they need due to a lack in medical coverage. People without medical coverage often forgo medical treatment necessary to prevent and treat conditions leading to an impending death. Under a universal health care plan, patients will not need to put the fear of high medical bills before the fate of their life.
As mentioned earlier, European countries such as France do not have citizens filing for bankruptcy because of their healthcare costs. In the United States, our leading cause of bankruptcy is citizens not being able to afford their healthcare costs. If the United States imported a universal health care system, we will see a decrease in the number of bankruptcies filed. If you consider the cost of treatment for cancer or heart disease coupled with the number of people under or uninsured, it’s no wonder “62% of all United States bankruptcies were related to medical expenses in 2007” (Himmelstein, Thorne, Warren, and Woolhandler). More and more citizens are facing financial hardship to pay for medication and treatment. Most are one major surgery away from economic destruction. Compared with the general population, cancer patients are twice as likely to file for bankruptcy even if they have health insurance. “The average out of pocket cost for cancer patients is $1,266 per month” (Himmelstein, Thorne, Warren, and Woolhandler). A person who is detrimentally ill with a long term illness will most likely face gaps in their insurance policy. With the implementation of a health care system similar to that in France, financial ruin stemmed from medical bills will decrease. In France the sicker they are, the more coverage they get. Patients who require surgeries, therapies, and drugs for long term illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes are covered 100% by the government. A majority of Americans are going broke to stay alive.
Being that most Americans are going broke to stay alive, most rational people can see we have a major issue in our current healthcare system. Private insurance seeks out to accomplish one thing and that is to make money. Making money in regards to someone having health issues is unacceptable and morally wrong. As we noted countries like France have maintained proper healthcare for their citizens by providing services through the government. Countries like France offer incentives to keep patients healthier, as well as seeing patients less. In America politics and corporate greed run our healthcare system. Costs are out of control, more people are sick because of bad practices, and people are dying because they cannot afford their healthcare costs. We need a single-payer system, so that citizens can have peace of mind and not fear their own health. Certainly we can look at the French system and learn that government healthcare can be efficient. Our greatest obstacle in the United States is not convincing our citizens that our healthcare system is broken, but convincing our people healthcare is a moral right. Breathing air is certainly not a privilege; breathing is a human right because we need air to survive; however we still argue healthcare is a privilege, yet we cannot live a healthy life without proper healthcare. Our leaders need to send a strong message to our people; present the facts to our people, and then we can move forward with the change. America will have Universal Healthcare.
Works Cited
DeNavas-Walt, Carmen, Bernadette D.
Proctor, and Jessica C. Smith. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2011. Rep. United States Census Bureau, Sept. 2012. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.
Census Bureau Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.
Eligibility Medicaid. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.
WHO. N.p., 2012. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.
RSS. Canadian Health Coalition, 2009. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.
Brunner, Stephanie. "The French Health Care System." Medical News Today. MediLexicon International, 08 June 2009. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.
Himmelstein, David U., Deborah Thorne, Elizabeth Warren, and Steffie Woolhandler. "Medical Bankruptcy in the United States, 2007: Results of a National Study." The American Journal of Medicine 122.8 (2009): 741-46.
Print.