America's Medical System is or is not Broken - Research Paper Example

America's Medical System is or is not Broken Introduction The health-care system of the United States (US) was learnt to be stated as ‘broken’ and is known to have undergone just few enhancements with regard to the overall system. The condition is found to have been deteriorating owing to the failure of promises regarding improving the healthcare system and increasing costs of premium. It is being estimated that around 45 million of the American citizens still remain uninsured. It has also been stated in this regard that the mentioned issues are likely to get heightened in the coming decade along with the creation of other fresh challenges. Although it has been assessed that the competence of the healthcare system in the US is likely to get enhanced, the expenses in relation to fresh treatments as well as tests are perceived to prevail over or rather overshadow the savings of the individuals. The reason behind the mounting expenses of healthcare is measured to be the increase in the life span of the individuals owing to the advancements done in the field of healthcare. The growth in the life span is expected to raise the need of care for a longer period of time for the individuals (Garson, “The US Healthcare System 2010”). Thesis Statement The paper will intend to focus on the various aspects related to the healthcare system of the US. The various concerns and arguments in relation to the concerned system will also be highlighted in order to assess the soundness of the system. Therefore, the paper will attempt to ensure the effectiveness of the overall system of healthcare that prevails in the US. US Healthcare System Assessed to be Broken The heath care expenses in the US has been witnessing a sharp and constant rise in comparison to the income levels of the individuals who require to pay for the medical services. Estimates have been made in this regard that the healthcare expenses are supposed to witness a further constant rise in the future which is measured to put at risk the living standards along with the economic protection of the workers as well as the retirees. This particular condition is expected to compel the employers to gradually more transfer the healthcare expenses to their respective employees. The budgets ascertained by the government are also predicted to be controlled by the requirement of funding the expenses related to the Medical as well as the Medicare advantages. The rise in the wages is failing to bring in any kind of solace for the employees as the major portion of it gets engaged in meeting up the need of health coverage (Epperly, “Fractured: America’s Broken Health Care System and What We Must Do To Heal It”). The system of healthcare in the US has been stated to be broken owing to the fact that it is been observed to focus more on the aspects of sickness along with disease rather than health and the avoidance of such issues. The dearth of principal care donors for the reason of servicing every individual in the country makes it tough as well as next to unfeasible to provide the basic facilities related to wellness care and health. These facilities are perceived to entail high probabilities of catering to increasingly grave issues. The consequences or the results of the mentioned system have been gauged to remain insufficient in comparison to the costs of the healthcare system charged in relation to the individual citizens of the country. The US has been learnt to be stressed and constantly being hurled with queries regarding the aspect of healthcare being a personal right or to be an advantage that is believed to be reliant on money. Massive discrimination with regard to the service is observed in the country as it has been found that the wealthy people command a proper access to superior facilities related to healthcare. However, the underprivileged and the deprived are learnt to suffer from sickness for not being able to gain an access to the healthcare benefits. The actuality behind such a scenario is attributed to the dysfunctional healthcare structure. It has also been mentioned in this regard that the medical advancements or rather the wonders in the medical field are executed for few while the availability of care remains limited and inaccessible for others (Epperly, “Fractured: America’s Broken Health Care System and What We Must Do To Heal It”). The above mentioned facts prove the reality that the healthcare system of the US is regarded as broken. The nation is believed to engage more funds in comparison to the other developed nations. Regardless of such increased amount of funds and in spite of the superior degree of individual endeavors of the practitioners and the establishments, the US still remains inferior with regard to its underlying quality of healthcare. This particular condition of increased costs and inferior quality in relation to the health structure have been learnt to place odd pressures on the providers, patients and payers. The broken healthcare structure of the country is also known to gravely trigger an unconstructive influence on the various classes of citizens of the US. The competence of the employers of the US is learnt to be constantly challenged along with obstructing their respective skills in relation to contending in the global marketplace. The expenses of the employers with regard to offering healthcare facilities to their employees have been stated to be more in comparison to their respective operational costs. The continuous increase in the expenses related to healthcare is also assessed to pose great difficulties with regard to the families (Clemmitt, “Rising Health Costs”). It has been disputed by various critics that the healthcare structure of the US is regarded to be the worst with regard to the presently developed world. The conduct of the US has been measured to be shoddier or quite inferior on situations or circumstances of supposed preventable deaths acquiescent to the prevailing medical treatment (Conover, “Healthcare Wasn’t Broken”). A major number of the citizens have been learnt to be short of health insurance in the present times. The uninsured individuals are known to survive with no suggested preventive care. This particular scenario makes the individuals suffer from critical circumstances as they are required to wait for a particular illness to become grave which further makes its treatment increasingly expensive before gaining access to any kind of related care for it. A substantial portion of the family income is required to be engaged for the purpose of insurance for those individuals with health insurance. It has been ascertained in this regard that a raise in the premiums associated with health insurance that were employment reliant was experienced by approximately 100 percent from the year 2000. Several of the providers of healthcare structure or facilities have been encountering mammoth damages. The incessantly growing costs in relation to the healthcare structure of the US for the past eight years proved to have worn down the margins for quite a few of the service providers which led them on the edge of wrapping up their respective business operations. At the similar time, the number in relation to undercompensated care that is offered to the individuals who are supposed to be uninsured is believed to be posing great complexities in order to maintain the operations of the emergency departments (Conrad, “How Do We Fix Our Broken Healthcare System”). Suggested Healthcare Reforms It can be deciphered from the above made explanation that the US needs to better comprehend the actual obstructions towards the aspect of healthcare restructuring. The US is required to initially and fundamentally focus on the issue of aiding the citizens of the US to provide them with the timely availability of rationally priced superior quality facilities related to the healthcare structure. An immediate need for the introduction or encouragement of an improvement and restructuring of the healthcare structure of the US can thus be ascertained from the above mentioned facts. The restructuring and the enhancements are required to be imperatively executed on the basis of three chief principles and they are quality enhancement, expense and coverage. Therefore, restructuring of the health related activities needs to be considered as the foremost concern for the fresh Congress as well as the Administration (Conrad, “How Do We Fix Our Broken Healthcare System”). Certain number of healthcare restructuring has been found to be observed that is believed to include prospects of offering savings along with enhancing the health related results in the long-run. The improvements with regard to the healthcare structure of the US needs to be done by taking into deliberation quite a few factors. The US needs to ensure the universal coverage in terms of an essential health plan as per the choice of the citizens of the country. The availability of various plan needs to be made accessible for the families with the benefit of annual alteration of the plans when intended. A substitute plan requires to be provided by the employers to the employees with regard to health insurance. The plans or rather the selection of insurance plans that are offered to the employees are learnt to be made limited as no other choice of plans is offered to their respective employees. Owing to this particular condition, significant number of individuals in the form of employees gets fixed to their jobs only for the trepidation of losing their insurance coverage. Therefore, it needs to be made mandatory for the employers to keep in place few choices regarding the insurance plans that are intended to be offered to the employees (Garson, “The US Healthcare System 2010”). The largest as well as the most significant reform since the year 1965 was observed to be the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which was approved and passed in the year 2010. This particular Act was passed as an attempt which was made towards the reorganization of the healthcare system. The Act aimed at providing insurance coverage in the field of healthcare to an additional populace of around of 32 million individuals who presently lacked in such kind of benefits. This is measured to make certain of the fact that those individuals are facilitated in order to receive the key care in relation to the healthcare system. The benefits would encompass and make certain of offering practical avoidance as well as wellness care along with providing appropriate management of chronic diseases. The notion of offering better availability and by assessing and increasing the fundamental care workforce, the reality of increased practical care and less imprudent care could be made certain of. Availability is regarded as the vital concern with regard to the facilities related to the healthcare system. The dearth of availability of the accurate kind of donors in the appropriate kind of situations at the precise times and also for the exact reasons result in giving rise to a definite system of healthcare that is considered to be reactive, wasteful, expensive and superfluous. Therefore, this particular Act is perceived to mend the broken health care system of the US to a considerable extent. It also intends to trigger the saving of finances with regard to the particular stated system and believes to save around US$ 128 billion in the initial decade of its implementation which in a way implies that this Act prevents the addition of further costs along with trimming down the related spending (Garson, “The US Healthcare System 2010”). The mentioned Act also attempts to put a stop to the prejudiced practices in relation to the various insurance companies for instance refuting the benefit of insurance coverage owing to persistent conditions and withdrawing the insurance in relation to healthcare when a certain individual becomes sick. The Act also brings an end towards yearly and lifetime limitations on the amount of insurance payments, removing the existing gender favoritism towards women owing to the reason of having offspring along with providing the benefit of insurance coverage for children till the completion of 26 years of age (Garson, “The US Healthcare System 2010”). Conclusion The above discussion helps in offering a lucid comprehension regarding the healthcare system of the US. It can be well deciphered from the actualities mentioned above that the healthcare system of the US can be considered to be broken. It is owing to the fact that the expenses or rather the costs related to the healthcare system have been witnessing a constant rise. However, the quality of the facilities provided with regard to this particular system is also considered to be of inferior quality which proves the inefficiency of the considered system. The growing expenses in relation to the healthcare system are known to be covered by a substantial portion of the family budget. This is making it tough for the families to survive and to maintain the continuation of their insurance coverage. This definite scenario is leaving millions of people in the US without a proper insurance coverage. Therefore, immediate measures similar to the ACA Act need to be implemented by the federal government of the US for the reason of healing the system. Works Cited Clemmitt, Marcia. Rising Health Costs. CQ Researcher, 2006. Web. 05 Jun. 2012. Conover, Cristopher. Healthcare Wasn’t Broken. Opinion, 2012. Web. 05 Jun. 2012. Conrad, Kent. “How Do We Fix Our Broken Healthcare System?” Group Practice Journal (2009): 12-13. Print. Epperly, Ted. Fractured: America’s Broken Health Care System and What We Must Do To Heal It. Sterling & Ross, 2012. Web. 05 Jun. 2012. Garson, Arthur. The US Healthcare System 2010. Current Perspective, 2000. Web. 05 Jun. 2012. Bibliography Greenblatt, Alan. “Obesity Epidemic: Can Americans Change Their Self-Destructive Habits?” CQ Researcher 13.1 (2003): 73-104. Print. Read More