Universal Health Care - Essay Example

Universal Health Care is becoming an increasingly popular concept because of how it would benefit nearly every person in the country. Currently, the United States is the only industrialized nation that has failed to guarantee access to health care as a right of citizenship in the country. Debates are very common on this problem because it is becoming larger as the country’s population increases. It is estimated that, currently, there is are 41-50 million people in the United States who do not have health insurance, with most of these people coming from minority groups, with a great number of them being children. The type of health care system that the United States would switch to is called a single payer system. Under this system, all the money would run through a single agency, which would take care of all the paperwork that is done and would ensure that every American citizen is taken care of medically, according to the emerging standards of medical care. The problem is that there is no set formula for setting up a universal health care system, so it is difficult to tell whether or not a theoretical system would work in actuality. While most Americans would agree that sick people, and especially children, should be taken care of, many would also argue that this type of system is socialist, which is viewed as being un-American. One of the main reasons why the United States needs a universal health care system is that certain minority groups are underprivileged and lack even basic health care. Health insurance is defined as “private coverage or government coverage. Private health insurance is a plan provided through an employer or a union or purchased by an individual from a private company. Government health insurance includes the federal programs Medicare, Medicaid, and military health care; the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP); and individual state health plans. People were considered ‘insured’ if they were covered by any type of health insurance for part or all of the previous calendar year. They were considered ‘uninsured’ if they were not covered by any type of health insurance at any time in that year” (DeNavas-Walt et al, 2006, 20). The discrepancy between whites and minorities means that universal health care is much more important for people from poor neighborhoods than it is for the vast majority of Americans. The Hispanic community is a group that is rapidly expanding in the United States and is not showing any signs of declining in the near future. With many of these Spanish-speaking citizens in the workforce, there is a new demand for them to be taken care of, much like other members of society. Unfortunately, they very often do not receive the same benefits that other ethnic groups do based on a variety of factors. Firstly, many do not have the same access to heath care benefits because they do not work the types of jobs that normally provide these benefits. Since it is not beneficial for employers to provide these benefits, they do not. Records show that 75% of the Spanish-speaking Hispanics are legally employed in the state, but only 35% of the workers had health care provided by their employers. This is much different from English-speaking Hispanics, as while only 64% of them are legally employed, 75% of these workers are insured. Other ethnic groups have a much high rate for health insurance, which is a major reason for this discrepancy (Gizlice and Herrick 2004). There are also language barriers to overcome, which often create an uneven playing fields when Spanish-speakers wish to apply for management-type positions. New immigration policies have also been brought into place that make it much more difficult for Spanish-speaking citizens to gain the benefits that other members of society hold. In order to give these uninsured or underinsured people the proper health benefits, the Institute of Medicine estimates that it would cost an extra “$34 - $69 billion per year” (Chua, 2006, 4). Currently, however, there is $34.5 billion per year in unpaid medical expenses from people who cannot afford procedures that are necessary for them and this should be taken care of under the emerging standards of medical care. If the current system took care of those who cannot afford to take care of themselves, then some of these costs would be offset. While it is impossible to tell how much universal health care would affect this, it is possible to tell that it would make a difference. What a system like this would also do is simplify administration, computerize files, and ensure that all facets of the industry were taken care of financially. The most important thing to remember is that “universal health care, coupled with cost controls, can save money while expanding health care access to everyone. If universal health care simply expanded access, the net expenditure would be large. The only way to pay for this expanded access is to institute cost controls such as administrative simplification. Note that it is much easier in some universal health care solutions to institute cost controls than others. For instance, a single payer system allows for a more dramatic reduction of administrative costs than do the other three solutions, all of which build on the current system” (Chua, 2006, 7). The bottom line is that universal health care comes down to what takes precedence on the budget, which are currently things other than health care. It’s feasible for the government to implement a universal health care system, but it will not happen unless the government makes it a priority financially. Currently, the United States spends almost twice per as much per capita as other developed countries, but it has no universal insurance policy. The country must find better ways in which to spend this money because there is currently much too much money being wasted in the health care system, as “Americans do not need more money for health care; they need more health care for their money” (Chua, 2006, 7). This is shown by the fact that “in 2002, the United States spent $5,267 per capita on health care—53 percent more than Switzerland, the next-highest-spending country, and 140 percent more than the median OECD country” (Anderson et al., 2005). Perhaps one of the most telling stats in favor of a universal health care system is that “although the exact amount is disputed, most policy analysts agree that replacing this fragmented system of funding care with a single, universal, publicly administered insurance program could recover 200 billion dollars or more, which are currently being wasted on useless and sometimes detrimental administrative services” (McCanne, 2004). While streamlining the health care industry is a great theory, a system would have to be worked out in order to make it a theory. If this could not be worked out, then the money would have to come from somewhere else. Cost matters in this situation because it is the government’s duty to spend the tax payers’ money in the most beneficial manner. The government, however, would not get away with significantly raising the taxes, so this process would have to be completed without doing so. This could be difficult, however, as the money would have to come from somewhere. The country is in the middle of a war, so the money would not come from its defense fund. Therefore, the most likely source for this money would be from the education system. The problem with the education system is very similar to the problems associated with the current medical system: The rich can afford anything they want and the poor are stuck with the leftovers. Providing additional care for those who have either no medical insurance or inadequate medical insurance could be difficult to achieve, however, because “the overall cost of health care -- everything from hospital and doctor bills to the cost of pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, insurance and nursing home and home-health care -- doubled from 1993 to 2004, said the report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In 2004, the nation spent almost $140 billion more for health care than the year before” (Kaufman and Stein, 2006, A01). The United States needs a universal health care plan, but it must go about it in the proper fashion. While studies have shown that if things were done properly that they could end up being less expensive, there is no sure way to accomplish this. Also, since the American people will not agree to any significant tax increases, the money must come from somewhere else in the budget if things are not streamlined. Currently, “Despite the perception that U.S. health care is primarily financed by the private sector, public funds account for 45 percent of medical spending” (California Health Care Foundation, 2006, 11), which means that the government is already making significant contributions. This is a major problem for the American government because it cannot come from the military, because it is already strained, or the education system, because it is already under funded, especially in urban areas. Works Cited Anderson, Gerard F., and Hussey, Peter S., and Frogner, Bianca K.Health. (July/August 2005) "Spending in the United States and the Rest of the Industrialized World". Health Affairs. P. 903–14. California Health Care Foundation. (2006). “Health Care Costs 101”. Retrieved 7 November 2007. http://www.chcf.org/documents/insurance/HealthCareCosts06.pdf Chua, Kao-Ping. (February 10, 2006). “The Case For Universal Health Care”. retrieved 7 November 2007. http://www.amsa.org/uhc/CaseForUHC.pdf DeNavas-Walt, Carmen and Proctor, Bernadette D. and Lee, Cheryl Hill. (August 2006). “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005”. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 7 November 2007. http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/p60-231.pdf Gizlice, Ziya. Herrick, Harry. (July 2004) “Spanish-Speaking Hispanics in North Carolina: Health Status, Access to Health Care, and Quality of Life”. NCPH SCHS Studies. retrieved 7 November 2007. http://www.schs.state.nc.us/SCHS/pdf/SCHS143.pdf#search=latino%20access%20to%20health%20care%20north%20carolina Kaufman, Marc and Stein, Rob. (10 January 2006). “Record Share Of Economy Spent on Health Care”. Washington Post. P. A01. McCanne, Don R. "A National Health Insurance Program for the United States". California Physicians Alliance. Retrieved 7 November 2007. http://capa.pnhp.org/a_national_health_insurance_program_for_the_united_states.php Read More