U.S. National Health Care System - Research Paper Example

 U.S. NATIONAL HEALTH CARE SYSTEM Introduction Globally, independent countries have unique health care systems that address and meet specific health needs of its citizens. Among the primary functions of typical health care systems include keeping citizens healthy through treatment of the sick, and protection of citizens against diseases. Over the past, the World Health Organization have repeatedly supported national and state based campaigns meant to emphasize on the human right aspect of health. Technically, the World Health Organization asserts that health is one of the fundamental human rights, and belongs in the same rights category as food, shelter and clothing. This means that every citizen has a right to access health care services, irrespective of a citizen’s social and economic status (Jonas & Karen, 2007). Based on this premise, the World Health Organization have convinced many countries including the United States to formulate and implement local and national health policies meant to facilitate non-discriminatory access to essential health care services. Supposedly, national healthcare systems should provide universal health care to all citizens, failure to which amounts to violation and infringement of a fundamental human right. Contextually, it emerges that the support and advocacy of universal health care systems are merely theoretical. In practice, substantial discrepancies and inefficiencies are experienced by national health care systems of most countries. According to reports from the World Health Organization, certain social, economic and political barriers hinder achievement of universal health care systems in most nations. Practically, it emerges that most health care systems today, including the US national health care system, sufficiently address the needs of wealthy members of societies, and inadequately covers on the health care needs of poor people (Reid, 2009). Apparently, most nations’ health care systems lack mechanisms that could provide holistic health care services to its poor citizens. In formulation of health care policies and initiatives, health care approaches that would sufficiently address the needs of the poor are often under-resourced or discouraged. As a result, most national health care systems provide highly fragmented services to patients. Consequently, social and economic inequality seems to undermine achievement of universal health care by all citizens. Conventionally, inefficiencies in national health care systems would be expected to materialize in under-developed and developing nations of Asia and Africa. However, fragmented and inefficient health care systems are real in industrialized nations, specifically in the United States. As the world’s greatest economy, one would expect the United States to provide effective and holistic health care services to all of its citizens. In practice, expectations and purported efficiencies of the United States national health care system are highly overestimated. According to previous reports from the World Health Organization, the United States national health care system is not only failing, but also amplifies the health problems of American citizens (Jonas & Karen, 2007). Particularly, the WHO asserts that the US health care system denies most of its population access to primary health care services. Despite being heftily funded by the federal government, the US national health care system suffers from inefficiencies caused by increased bureaucracy, and commercialization of health care services. Technically, increased bureaucracy coupled with economic competition within the heath care industry is crippling the fundamental tenets of health care in the United States. Literature Review Thorough literature review indicates that economic inequality among American citizens plays a significant role in determining access to health care services. Admittedly, medical services in the United States are among the most exorbitantly priced health care services in the world. The cost of primary, secondary and tertiary medical services keep poor Americans at bay in terms of timely access to health care services (Reid, 2009). Allegedly, the national health care system is supposed to mitigate the effect of economic inequality within the nation’s health care industry. In the past, several reforms and policy amendments have been proposed and implemented in order to address the inefficiencies within the nation’s national health care system. For example, the Obama Care initiative is meant to remove social and economic barriers by using insurance channels as means of providing universal medical services to all Americans. However, such policy reforms trigger sharp criticism and unpopular reactions from right wing activists. Arguably, right wing activists ascertains that the United States federal government has in the past two decades allocated the most resources to the national health care system compared to any other nation in the world (Smith, 2014). Despite being the leading resource allocation, the US national health care system still emerge among the bottom slot in reference to efficiency of health care systems in other industrialized nations like United Kingdom, France and Germany. Comparatively, national health care systems in both the US and the UK are tax-funded particularly by the federal government. Both nations are wealthy; hence resource inadequacy is not one of the problems faced by their health care systems. However, UK’s national health care system is significantly more efficient and effective compared to the United States national health system (Wolper, 2010). All primary health care services in the United Kingdom are literally free, and can be accessed by all working UK citizens. Contrarily, access to primary care in most US hospitals is cost prohibitive to a sizable portion of the American population. Commercialization of medical services, especially access to drugs emerges as the most irrational element in the US health care system. In the United States, pharmaceutical companies are highly influential in formulation and implementation of health care policies (Smith, 2014). In addition, most pharmaceutical conglomerates in the United States are competing for optimal profits. In this case, profit maximization coupled with the lack of control and influence from the federal government has driven drug prices past the reach of most Americans. As a means of mitigating the effect of high drug prices, the Obama Care seeks to manipulatively influence pharmaceutical companies to cut medicine prices substantially. Today, this manipulative approach by the Obama administration has been unanimously branded by right wing activists as an act of introducing socialism principles into the United States. In practical contexts, statistics indicating the failure of the US national health care system are shocking. Currently, about 50 million Americans are still uninsured despite implementation of cost assistance insurance programs contained within the Obama Care Act. Technically, the cost assistance programs seek to subsidize insurance premiums for low income households. State based insurance firms and independent insurance brokers are supposed to enroll low income persons, and subscribe them to subsidized health insurance provisions. However, most American families cannot meet to pay the subsidized premiums because their annual incomes are still considerably low. Most of these low income households are African American families and other economically subordinate members of American societies. Approximately, 25 million African Americans still remain uninsured; hence cannot access free medical services through the national health care system. In response, these poor patients try to pay for health care services straight from their pockets (Smith, 2014). Therefore, the high cost of services and drugs in the American health care industry makes most of these poor patients invariably bankrupt whenever they pay for medical services from their own savings. The World Health Organization has mentioned that the US national health care system is not only fragmented but also misdirected. Apparently, health care institutional in the United States have reported a general increase in the number of patients suffering from obesity and alcoholism related health complications. Actually, treatment of lifestyle diseases consumes approximately 75% of the entire US health care budget (Smith, 2014). In this case, components of the national health care system are directed towards provision of curative medical services at the expense of preventive services. As the old saying goes; prevention is better than cure. Unfortunately, the American federal government is funding curative services, and neglects formulation of health promotion policies that would reduce the increase in preventable diseases. Moreover, fragmentation in health care services manifest in form of increased privatization and disproportional allocation of health care facilities. Establishment of health care institutions are taking place in wealthy communities, while urban settlements are forced to access services from few under-staffed public facilities. In this case, fragmentation in the country’s health care industry devalues the universal aspects of human dignity at the expense of privatization and commoditization of the nation’s health system (Jonas & Karen, 2007). Challenges in the U.S. Health Care System In essence, the United States national health care system treats access to health care services not as a fundamental right but as a privilege reserved for the wealthy. First, public facilities are not only few but also under-staffed. In addition, physicians and nurses working in these few public health care facilities are lowly paid in respect to the workload experienced by health care workers in these crowded facilities. As a result, patients visiting public facilities experience two major problems; long hours of waiting, and lack of customized attention from physicians (Harriet & James, 2012). Public health care facilities in the United States handle more number of patients than the facilities’ capacity. As a result, patients are sometimes forced to wait for up to than 7 hours before being attended by a physician. Once their long awaited turn arrives, the overworked physicians demonstrate pejorative and contemptuous attitudes towards their patients. In this context, the long awaits in public health care institutions coupled with unresponsive physicians force poor Americans to forgo their otherwise preventable complications; hence deteriorating their health conditions. Once in deteriorated states, the national health care system rushes in with their emergency services, only to incur more in treating the patients than would have been used in preventing the complication (Wolper, 2010). Besides inefficiencies in public facilities, the catastrophic effect of an inefficient health care system is amplified by poor coordination and multiple bureaucratic steps involved in the access of health care services. Once the health complications of poor American deteriorate, the national health care system is mandated to provide emergency care for the terminally ill patients. Provision of these emergency care services often require coordinated efforts from multiple health care service providers. For example, cardiovascular complications and organ transplant medical services necessitates the transfer of a patient from one specialty facility to another. During the multiple transfer processes, lab results and diagnostic information fail to reach subsequent health care providers (Reid, 2009). As a result, patients are often either misdiagnosed or their treatments delayed because of repeated diagnosis. In addition, inefficient communication between independent medical services providers cause multiple medical hitches like missed appointments and unscheduled visits. Eventually, most sick Americans who solely depend on the national health care system end up skipping care due to bureaucratic frustration and general inefficiencies in the system. At this juncture, it is undeniable that the United States national health care system is not only inaccessible to most patients, but also inefficient in optimizing the value of medical services. Sadly, approximately 800,000 Americans die annually because they are either too poor to access medical services in a timely manner, or because they deliberately forgo health care services as a result of inefficiencies and frustrations in the national health care system (Harriet & James, 2012). Despite spending huge budgetary allocations in funding the national health care system, the United States government fails to reap value from its input. In this context, the American national health care system is not only discriminatory but also an utter failure and a wasteful channel for public resources. This explains why the World Health Organization emphasized that the United States provides universal health care services that are far worse compared to any other industrialized nation in the world. Technically, inefficiencies in the national health care system not only affect patients but also cause discomfort and frustration among the physicians’ population. In most cases, physicians perform their duties in health care environments which lack appropriate financial incentives for employees’ motivation. Expectedly, overworked physicians are inclined to provide poor care for government sponsored patients (Smith, 2014). In this context, the synergistic effect of physicians’ lack of motivation coupled with general inefficiencies in the national health care system cause devastating effects on American health. Recommendations Apparently, the universal health care problem present in American today is not a new issue. Previous administrations in the federal government have tried to formulate and implement policies meant to improve universal access to primary medical services by all Americans. Unfortunately, previous efforts in the health care issue have proved futile, and in most cases worsened the situation. As by September 2013, approximately 50 million Americans lacked access to essential medical services. This portion of the population is uninsured. Whenever they fall sick, they are forced to either forgo access to proper care, or inevitably fall into poverty after incurring financial burdens of priced health care services. Undeniably, appropriate solutions must be structured in order to uplift the nation’s health care system (Harriet & James, 2012). As a recommendation, the first solution to American’s health care issue is creation of a market for affordable health care services. Currently, privatization of health care institutions and pharmaceutical companies cause unnecessary competition, thus driving the price of medical services and drugs high. In this case, the government should limit widespread privatization of health care facilities. This will give the government a chance to curb and control the skyrocketing prices of medical services in the country. Besides limited privatization of health care facilities, effective public insurance policies feature as another solution to the national health care system. Currently, the US public insurance structure provides limited cover to patients at high premium rates. In most cases, insured patients are sometimes forced to incur additional payments because certain health insurance packages are not necessarily holistic in nature. In this context, the federal government should step in and provide a universal health care insurance coverage. Instead of involving employers and subsidies in supplementing insurance premiums, the government can directly provide coverage to all Americans for vital health care services (Smith, 2014). In conclusion, creating a market for cheap health care services coupled with provision of holistic health insurance packages from the federal government will significantly address current inefficiencies in the national health care system. References Harriet, C. & James, J. (2012) Comparative Health Systems: Global Perspectives. New York: Cengage Learning. Jonas, S. & Karen, G. (2007). An Introduction to the United States Health Care System. Pittsburg: Springer Publishing Company. Reid, R. (2009). The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care. New York: Penguin Press. Smith, P. (2014) Health Care Imperative: Lowering Costs and Improving Outcomes. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. Wolper, L. F. (2010). Health Care Administration: Managing Organized Delivery Systems. London: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Read More