Health system - Research Paper Example

? Health System Outline Introduction Healthcare has become a significant social problem in American Society. The American system of health and healthcare is currently locked into delivering insufficient results and rising cost. National Concerns Health care is becoming increasingly more inaccessible to Americans, either due to the cost of health insurance, the lack of affordable medical care, or the lack of available medical resources. Rising Cost By most accounts, health care expenditures in the United States have gotten out of hand. Rising at what the National Coalition on Health Care calls "the fastest rate in our history," in 2004 total national health expenditures rose quicker than three times as fast as the rate of inflation (National Coalition on Health Care, 1). Access to Healthcare Despite significant health care spending, health care is not accessible to many Americans including Low-income working individuals, Racial and Ethnic minorities, Working families, Childless and poor adults. Conclusion Although the United States spends a higher percentage of Gross Domestic Product on health expenditures, this has not correlated over to superior health care for American citizens. The American system of health and healthcare is currently locked into delivering insufficient results and rising cost. Health System Introduction Health care and health care system is a top public policy concern in America and the issue of access to health care has become a regularly discussed issue in the media, scholarly fora, and among medical professionals. Health care insurance is an expensive benefit for employers to provide, and many are dropping their policies or requiring employees to contribute in record amounts. Healthcare system is unable to keep up with the pace of the uninsured as Medicaid eligibility requirements are becoming more stringent in order to compensate for either decreased federal matching grants or increased service demand, or both. The American system of health and healthcare is currently locked into delivering insufficient results and rising cost. National Concerns Health care is becoming increasingly more inaccessible to Americans, either due to the cost of health insurance, the lack of affordable medical care, or the lack of available medical resources. The American mixed-market economy allows access to health care in one of three ways: by virtue of having health insurance as an employee benefit, having the financial means to privately purchase health care in the market place, or by having taxpayer ­provided health care insurance (Medicare /Medicaid). American society has failed to address the fact that "insurance is a necessary condition for obtaining most forms of medical care in America today", and those without it are left without access, (Wolaver 5). "The uninsured" are 47 million Americans that have no health care insurance of any type; either self-paid, employer paid/subsidized or publicly funded, (Swartz 1). These individuals represent a heterogeneous group from different regions of the county, different age groups and different levels of income (Swartz 1). The problem is so large that a coalition called "Covering the Uninsured" has been formed by thirteen diverse organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, American Association of Retired Persons, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the (labor union) AFL-CIO, the American Medical Association, Families USA and the American Nurses Association. Despite health care spending in the U.S. of $2.5 trillion in 2009, health care is not accessible to many Americans; a significant number of them are the working poor (Yale Medical Group, 1; Swartz 1). Indigent and low income citizens that are eligible through a federal means test of income for the federally funded health care program, Medicaid, are not faring much better. Unfortunately, the eligibility requirements for Medicaid are stringent and complex; vary from state to state and narrow when federal funding is limited, (Schneider 3-48). Insured employees see a larger proportion of their income go to health care benefits and many Americans are choosing to stay at jobs rather than seek new opportunities or are selecting jobs based on health insurance benefits (Gruber & Madrian, 97-177). Whether Americans hold health care insurance privately, through their employment, or through government subsidies, access to affordable health care is a source of public anxiety and a key and timely public policy issue. Rising Costs of Health Care By most accounts, health care expenditures in the United States have gotten out of hand. Rising at what the National Coalition on Health Care calls "the fastest rate in our history," in 2004 total national health expenditures rose quicker than three times as fast as the rate of inflation (National Coalition on Health Care, 1). While the United States currently spends approximately 17 percent of the GDP on health care expenditures, this number is expected to reach upwards of around 19.6 percent of GDP by the year 2016 (Funk 1; Schuttle, 1). The NCHC study shows the average annual premium of a standard health insurance plan for an individual at approximately $4,000 or $11,000 for a family of four. One of the fastest growing segments of health care costs is that of employer-based health insurance, which has increased in cost by over 9 percent per year over the last five years. According to the study, since the year 2000, the cost of employer health insurance has raised by a total of 73 percent, while inflation only rose a cumulative 14 percent in the same time-span. What are the impacts of rising health care costs? According to the NCHC study, high cost is the fundamental reason why so many Americans are uninsured. (National Coalition on Health Care 1). The largest expenditures come from the elderly, which is quickly growing as the largest group in the U.S., according to census data. In 2006, NGA Center for Best Practices study looks at access to health care on state and national levels in recent years. The study goes on to point out the impact of the uninsured, not only on an individual financial stability level, but the affects felt by others as well. The problem of lack of insurance has contributed to overall decrease in access to emergency room care, hospitals, and specialty services (NGA 1). How did we get to this point? Urban Institute study, focuses on the reasons people report being uninsured, in hopes of turning around the trend in the future. The top finding in the Urban Institute study was that high insurance costs, including those for individuals with access to employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) is a major deterrent of those wanting to sign up for insurance, and has helped to drive the growing uninsured rates in the United States (Graves 1). As has been determined in similar studies, the rising cost of health care in the United States has by far been outpacing its GDP, as well as other cost measurements of the American economy, such as the Consumer Price Index. Overall, the Graves study determined that expanding eligibility for public insurance, as well as subsidies to help offset the cost of insurance on the least affluent members of society will help increase access to insurance. In addition, raising the cost of being uninsured, such as the financial penalties set up in the state of Massachusetts, which mandates all residents to have coverage, is effective in increasing enrollment to health plans. Lack of Access to Health Care The study conducted by NGA highlights an important and growing relationship between the high costs of health care and access to health care. The ultimate finding in the Urban Institute study is that "Policy options aimed at reducing the number of uninsured must address the fact that many of the uninsured view the cost of the coverage options that are available to them as "too high" (NGA, 6). As previously stated, the high cost of health coverage has limited the ability of people to gain access to coverage, which in turn leads patients to using expensive emergency room visits in place of routine medical care, thus perpetuating the cycle. One growing segment of the population that has low insured rates is immigrants, both legal and undocumented. A recent study notes that over three million Hispanics in California struggle with limited access to health care (California, 1). The study, which focused on rural migrant workers, which are predominantly Latino, estimates that up to half of the nation's immigrants are in the state of California. Not only have workers coming into the United States had problems getting health coverage, but American citizens working overseas. Many American group-sponsored health plans drastically limit the medical care that is covered when American nationals are overseas, usually allowing only emergency medical care for true emergencies. At the same time, many employers, both domestic and multi-national corporations, send workers overseas for an extended amount of time each year. These are just two instances of many in which the American health care delivery system is falling behind that of our European counterparts. The problem of access has also expanded into the traditional, domestic American workforce. An ACP Online study looked at the consequences of a lack of insurance for American consumers (ACP Online, 2006, 1). Among the data presented in the study is a look at reliance on insurance, and the current estimates of the uninsured. An interesting fact presented is that in 1998, an estimated 47.5% of poor full-time workers did not have health insurance. In addition, the most affected groups by this study are blacks, Hispanics, children, young adults, and poor and middle-income families. Millions of Americans, (approximately 46 million from the most recent statistics available) are currently uninsured. Lack of insurance has been found to contribute to higher morbidity and mortality in the United States, and has had other important consequences, both on health and on the financial system, as workers are less productive, and often absent, when they do not receive necessary health care. Conclusion In conclusion, the American system of health and healthcare is currently locked into delivering insufficient results and rising cost. Although the United States spends significant amount on health care, medical and pharmacy costs are spiraling; physicians are unequally distributed among the population; very low Medicaid reimbursements make providing safety net health care economically unsound for health care providers who lose money serving this population, and emergency rooms are turning away uninsured, non-critical care patients. Work Cited ACP Online. "Consequences ofa Lack of Insurance", available at http://www.acponline.org/uninsured/lack-paper.pdf; ,2006. California Endowment. "Agricultural Worker Health Initiative". Available at http://www.calendow.org/article.aspx?id=1598&ItemID=1598, 2006. Funk, Josh. "Buffett says economy recovering but at slow rate". San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate.com). March 1, 2010. Graves, John A. and Sharon K Long. "Why do People Lack Health Insurance?" Urban Institute No. 14. Available at http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411317_lack_health_ins.pdf;, 2006. 12 pp. Gruber, J., & Madrian, B. Health insurance, labor supply and job mobility. In C. McLaughlin (Ed.), Health policy and the uninsured (pp. 97-177). Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute Press, 2004. National Coalition on Health Care (Online Factsheet), Retrieved from http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml; 2006. National Coalition on Health Care. "Health Insurance Cost; Facts on the cost of health care". Retrieved from http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml; 2006. NGA Center for Best Practices, "Improving and Increasing Access to Care: State Health Coverage Expansions Since 2004," NGA Center for Best Practices. Washington, DC: 2006. Schneider, A. The Medicaid Resource Book. Washington, DC: The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, 2002. Schulte, Margaret. "Health and Hospitals." Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations: A Reference Handbook. 2010. SAGE Publications. Swartz, Katherine. "Uninsured Individuals." Encyclopedia of Health Services Research. 2009. SAGE Publications. Wolaver, Amy M. "Economics of Health Insurance." 21st Century Economics: A Reference Handbook. 2010. SAGE Publications. Yale Medical Group, Health Highlights: Retrieved from http://www.yalemedicalgroup.org/stw/Page.asp?PageID=STW035034, Jan. 6, 2011. Read More