HLT 205V Week 1 Complete Work Latest-GCU

HLT 205 Week 1 Topic 1 Discussion 1

Compare and contrast the U.S. health care system to the health care system of another country.  What similarities or difference s exist?  Cite references to support your answer.

 

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The U.S. health care system

Introduction

The U.S. health care system is expensive, inadequate for many low-income people and hard to get into. You may have a hard time finding a doctor who will accept your insurance. Insurance companies are against universal care and employer insurance doesn’t work for everyone. The U.S.’s unique history as an industrialized nation means that some aspects of our health care system are better than others—but also provides us with opportunities for improvement in other areas where other countries lag behind us (such as providing universal coverage or making sure that everyone can see a doctor).

It’s expensive.

• The U.S. health care system is expensive.

• The cost of health care in the U.S. has risen faster than inflation and wages over the past decade, according to a recent report from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). In fact, KFF found that since 2013, per-person annual spending on health care rose by 5% while inflation only increased by 2%. During this same time period—and this is not uncommon—wages grew at only 3% annually.*

• This means most households are paying more for their doctor visits than they did before Obamacare took effect in 2010; even if you’re insured through an employer or government program like Medicare or Medicaid/CHIP/Medicare Advantage (MA), you’re still spending money out-of-pocket when seeking treatment from doctors and hospitals.*

It’s inadequate for many low-income people.

The U.S. health care system is inadequate for many low-income people, and it’s particularly problematic for those who work but don’t have access to employer-provided insurance. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, most people aren’t able to afford health insurance on their own—and those who do can face high deductibles and copayments that make it difficult for them to get the care they need.

There are several other reasons why some people may not be able to buy insurance:

• Some self-employed people don’t qualify for affordable coverage through an employer because they’re too small or young; their income isn’t enough to buy a decent plan; they’re uninsured even if they wanted one (because they don’t have access). This means that even if someone has no problem paying premiums every month, there’s still no guarantee that he’ll actually receive any benefits at all if something goes wrong with his body during his lifetime—or even just over a period of time like six months where he might need surgery or treatment right away (like when someone gets sick).

It’s hard to get into the system.

You may have to wait a long time for your health care.

The health care system is complicated, and it can take time to get the right treatment. You’ll probably have to wait a long time before you can see a doctor or go to the hospital. If you’re sick, there’s also likely to be a long wait for an appointment with specialists or tests and procedures—and sometimes even if you’ve seen one of those people, there’s still going to be another person who needs their opinion (or something else).

You may have a hard time finding a doctor who will accept your insurance.

If you have insurance, it’s still possible for a doctor to refuse to see you or charge more than the standard payment amount. You may have trouble finding a doctor who accepts your insurance plan and will accept the same one if you change employers or move to a new city.

If this happens to you, try contacting other doctors in your area with the same type of coverage as yours (for example: Blue Cross Blue Shield). Ask them about their policies on accepting new patients with different plans; some may be willing to take on customers who need extra treatment but won’t offer any discounts because they haven’t seen them in a while—and others might charge less than usual depending on how many people are uninsured at any given time.

Insurance companies are against universal care.

Insurance companies are against universal care.

They have a vested interest in keeping the current system, as well as a lot of influence in Congress and the media. Insurance companies receive subsidies from taxpayers through tax deductions for their “insurance” premiums (which are actually deductibles). In other words, when you buy an insurance policy from one of these companies and pay your monthly premium, it’s really just another way to lower your taxes!

This means that any politician who wants to reduce health care costs will need to take on the corporations that make money off those costs—and there are many ways for them do so: by raising taxes on products like cigarettes or soda pop; increasing regulation on industry practices; limiting advertising budgets; etcetera.[1]

We do some things better than other countries.

Our health care system is a work in progress, but we do have some things going on that other countries don’t. We’re one of the most innovative medical systems in the world, with new drugs and procedures used to treat conditions like cancer being developed by American companies. And our life expectancy rates are also high—the U.S. ranked 31st out of 196 countries surveyed by The Lancet medical journal as far back as 1990—and we rank higher than any other country when it comes to access to doctors and hospitals (2nd place).

Employer insurance doesn’t work for everyone.

Employer-sponsored insurance is the most common type of health coverage in the United States, but it doesn’t work for everyone.

• Employer-sponsored insurance often doesn’t cover the full cost of care. In some cases, employers contribute only a percentage toward your monthly premiums and still expect you to pay all other costs out-of-pocket (for example, if you get sick).

• It can be expensive. Depending on your employer’s plan and how much they’re willing to spend on it each year, premiums can vary greatly—and this number doesn’t include any other fees associated with signing up for coverage (such as copayments or deductibles). If you want access to more advanced technologies like genetic testing or artificial intelligence solutions that help improve outcomes at lower costs than traditional treatments do now then this could add up quickly!

The U.S. is unique in the developed world in not providing health insurance to all its citizens.

The United States is unique in the developed world in not providing health insurance to all its citizens. Other countries have a single-payer system, which means they fund and administer all aspects of healthcare through one entity–usually the government–and allow individuals to buy into that system with their taxes. In the U.S., we have a multi-payer system: each citizen (or resident) pays different amounts based on income levels and other factors such as age or geography where you live; there are no subsidies for lower-income households; employers contribute directly toward employee premiums each year; Medicare and Medicaid cover seniors over 65 years old who don’t qualify for employer coverage; private insurers also provide coverage for some people whose employers don’t offer them any money at all

The U.S.’s health care system has some serious problems, but can be improved with changes to policy and funding.

The United States spends more on health care than other countries, but also has a higher infant mortality rate and more people without health insurance. In addition to these issues, the U.S. has a higher rate of obesity than many other countries as well; this may be due to a lack of access to healthy foods or physical activity options in public spaces like malls and parks that encourage walking instead of driving cars at all times (or at least not often).

The American Health Care Act (AHCA), which passed through Congress in May 2017 but has since been suspended pending negotiations between Democrats and Republicans over its future status, would have made changes to Medicare’s payment structure so that doctors could receive payments based on quality instead of volume; however, this proposal was met with much opposition from both sides because it would have left some seniors uninsured altogether or raised their premiums significantly—and therefore wasn’t passed into law by Congress until 2018 when President Trump signed it into law after having promised during his campaign that he would repeal Obamacare if elected president back then!

Conclusion

The United States has a health care system that’s not good enough for everyone. We’re expensive, ineffective and inaccessible to many people who need it most. But there are ways to improve the system, and we can do it if we have the political will to make those changes.