Why The Healthcare Industry Is Broken

Healthcare is a sensitive topic in most American households. For decades, America has been struggling to find the perfect the healthcare system and to this day, it sparks debates in government and in ordinary citizens. Healthcare is something, we as Americans want and need but the healthcare industry is broken and has been broken for years, even the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is broken. Health care in American is expensive and it continues to grow. Cost of insurance, cost of services and cost of medicine is growing at rate where most American citizens can afford to buy them. “Health care is costly and the vast majority of uninsured have limited financial means, many uninsured often cannot pay their medical bills. Recognizing the need for and
It is the sum of a hospital's bad debt and the financial assistance it provides. Financial assistance includes care for which hospitals never expected to be reimbursed and care provided at a reduced cost for those in need. A hospital incurs bad debt when it cannot obtain reimbursement for care provided; this happens when patients are unable to pay their bills, but do not apply for financial assistance, or are unwilling to pay their bills. Uncompensated care excludes other unfunded costs of care, such as underpayment from Medicaid and Medicare.” (Uncompensated Hospital Care Cost Fact Sheet, 2016) Before the ACA, the cost of uncompensated care was in the billions. In 1990 the American Hospital Association reported that uncompensated care cost up to $12.1 billion in the United States and in “2013, the cost of “uncompensated care” provided to uninsured individuals was $84.9
Uncompensated care includes health care services without a direct source of payment. In addition, people who are uninsured paid an additional $25.8 billion out-of-pocket for their care.” (Coughlin,Caswel, Holahan & McGrath, 2014) With a staggering prices and debt, who bears the burden of uncompensated care. Everyone bears the burden of the uncompensated care. Most of the burden falls on hospitals and physician who treat people who can’t afford to pay. “Fifty-five percent of emergency care goes uncompensated, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Health care costs for both the full-year and part-year uninsured will total $176 billion dollars this year - $86 billion of which will be incurred when they are uninsured.” In the past hospital and physicians would shift cost to insured payers but that is no longer an option so now insurers and other government agencies bear the burden of the cost that hospitals and physicians can’t pay for. Federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Indian Health Services help off-set the cost of uncompensated care. Every state and local agencies also shoulder the burden of uncompensated cost. The real carriers of uncompensated care are the American