...PubHealth129- Final Paper TA: Vinne 12/12/12 Single-Payer Systems The United States health care system and the health coverage it has for its citizens are both unmistakably flawed. While our country offers many means of achieving health insurance like private, employer, and government assisted, twenty percent of citizens still do not even have health insurance. This means that these people are not getting coverage on their medical bills, and are therefore a lot less likely to visit the doctor until there is no choice. Even people who do have health insurance in the United States still do not get the affordable, comprehensive coverage they should. Compared to similar industrialized nations, we are far behind their level of comprehensive and affordable services. These countries often have what is called a single-payer system. The single-payer system is a health care plan that funds every person’s medical expenses from the same pool of money. The challenges of implementing the single-payer system are going to be from political barriers and transitioning the United States from a mixed insurance system. There are both advantages and disadvantages to this type of insurance mechanism, but this method has proven to have worked. There is no reason not to implement this advantageous system in America. Right now the insurance industry in the United States is not only complex, but inadequate. There are tens of thousands of different health care organizations; HMOs, private billings, etc...
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...Single Payer Health Care System Purpose – The focus of this research is to identify, analyze and evaluate a type of health care system called Single Payer Health Care System by finding answers to the following questions. Health care is one of the basic necessities that a government should provide to its citizens. Single Payer Health Care systems are catered towards the well-being of its citizens that regard people’s health as their main priority. What is a single-payer health care system? Single-payer national health insurance, also known as “Medicare for all,” is a system in which a single public or quasi-public agency organizes health care financing, but the delivery of care remains largely in private hands. Under a single-payer system, all residents of a country would be covered for all medically necessary services, including doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs. The program would have a single public system of administration, eliminating the present highly expensive multiple, fragmented, and duplicative system operated by different government agencies and private hospitals. The whole operation would be paid by a combination of present Medicare and Medicaid expenditures, existing state and local expenditures for health services, mandated employer contributions, and additional tax revenues equal to the amounts now spent by citizens out of pocket, savings obtained...
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...Analysis University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Nursing Define the problem and assemble the evidence Too many Veterans in the United States lack health insurance and are ineligible to receive care provided by the Veteran’s Health Administration. According to American Community Survey (ACS) conducted in 2010, one in 10 of the nation’s 12.5 million veterans under the age of 65 is uninsured. A veteran is defined by federal law as any person who served for any length of time in any military service branch. Contrary to the presumption of most, not all veterans qualify for free healthcare through the Department of Veteran Affairs. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) operates as a branch of the Department of Veterans Affairs and is the largest health system in the nation. It is recognized for its commitment to providing high-quality population specific healthcare. The VHA also works closely with academic medical centers across the nation. Haley and Kenney (2012) identify eligibility for health care provided by the VHA as being on veteran status, service-connected disabilities and income level. Other factors include demographic location and cost sharing requirements. Health insurance coverage for veterans as with other groups of nonelderly adults has heavy dependence on access to employer sponsored insurance (ESI) and the costs of obtaining it. It must also be considered that the majority of states in our nation deny Medicaid coverage to nondisabled adults without...
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...Single-Payer a Nightmare for Quality Care Single payer is a great idea in theory, however, in reality, it adversely affects the quality of care patients receive which can change health outcomes. While the cost of care is a problem for a lot of middle and lower income Americans without insurance the system we currently have in place provides them with access to one of the best medical systems in the world. We could fix the issues with our system using free market principles and removing government from the doctor’s office, which will drive down costs and improve the quality of care patients receive, when they go to see a physician. According to Pearl, a lot of the cost issues can be fixed by organizations embracing new technologies, the government...
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...cost of health care has left many Americans struggling to pay their medical bills. Workers are complaining they are not able to afford the high premiums for health insurance. Many employers are cutting back as well as doing away with health benefits, which are causing millions of more people to be in the uninsured position. With programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, the federal government and state are lacking to meet the increasing costs. In the United States, the health care costs are a lot higher than other advanced nation. According to The Common Wealth Fund, the number of uninsured went from “39.8 million to 43.6 million,” a 9.5 percent jump, from the year 2000 to 2002. (Davis, 2004) “Rising health care costs are a problem for all Americans, but they weigh especially heavily on uninsured and “underinsured” individuals, who pay much of the cost of their health care directly out-of-pocket.” (The Common Wealth Fund, 2004) The higher the costs are to patients, will result in the underuse of suitable care and cause a great financial burden on the sick. After some thoroughly research, I have found that the Single-Payer Health System is the way for the future in the United States. We are no longer able to afford and/or tolerate careless spending on care that is not beneficial to patients or the repeat of over costly and unnecessary procedures. Below is a chart from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, showing the number of persons without health insurance coverage...
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...…10 Evaluation Criteria………………………………………………………………………………………………………10 Policy Recommendation……………………………………………………………………………………………..12 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..13 References………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….14 Introduction Recent health care reform legislation, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and Education Reconciliation Act, which is now being referred to simply as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. Since the 20th century, several United States presidents have faced challenges in passing national health reform into law. Before the ACA was enacted, national health reform proposals under different governments in the United States faced strong opposition from various stakeholders and multiple interest groups. Therefore, the enactment of the ACA is revolutionary healthcare reform in the history of the United States. Healthcare insurance is a program that assists in paying medical expenses through privately purchased insurance or social welfare programs. In other words, health insurance is a system that provides protection against health costs. This newly legislated healthcare reform offers health insurance for all Americans and legal residents in the United States. Furthermore, the law was enacted to control the constant increase of healthcare costs as well as improving the healthcare delivery system in the...
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...National Health Insurance -- Setback or Solution? Unless a person has been living under a rock the last few decades, they would be aware the U.S. healthcare system - how it is financed, how it is delivered, and who receives the benefits has been in and out of public consciousness. Why all the attention? According to a policy brief, released by the New America Foundation, “lack of health insurance negatively affects the overall productivity of society, the stability of emergency care, and the health and financial well-being of individuals” ( Carpenter & Axeen, 2008, p. 1). The brief also states that everyone’s cost of care is affected by the uninsured, so therefore to address the cost problem, the uninsured will have to be covered (Carpenter & Axeen, 2008, p. 1). H.R. 676, drafted by Rep. John Conyers, proposes national health insurance (NHI) as a solution which raises many concerns and questions ("Text of H.R. 676 | John Conyers for Congress", n.d., p. 1). Is national health insurance another way of saying ‘socialized medicine’? According to Uew Reinhardt, a respected economist,” socialized medicine refers to health system in which the government owns and operates both the financing of health care and its delivery” (Reinhardt, 2009, p. 1). In contrast, national health insurance is a system in which “…the government pays for care that is delivered in the private (mostly not-for-profit) sector” (Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), 2012, p.1). NHI, as...
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...Improving the access and affordability of health insurance coverage for all Americans should be a primary concern for those who help create the laws of the land. At this date, there are roughly 44 million Americans without any type of healthcare coverage. Another 38 million people have inadequate health insurance (PBS, 2012). What this all means is that the people who need it the most are putting off seeing a doctor until last moment and then usually end up visiting an emergency room. If they cannot pay for the visit, the cost of that ER visit falls back on the taxpayers, people who have health insurance coverage, and the Federal Government. The young, under the age of nineteen, are usually covered by Medicaid and the elderly, 65 and up, are usually covered by Medicare. The people lost in the middle are mainly those aged 19-64, who are uninsured and do what they can to keep themselves healthy. When that does not work, the local health departments and emergency rooms are expected to take up the slack. Of those who may have health insurance coverage, that coverage comes through their employer. The people who have insurance through their employer make up about 56% of the population American workers, while about 11% have privately purchased insurance (Jovanovic, et. al., 2003). The people who do not have traditional jobs such as those who work part-time, work through a temporary agency, or work for a small company who does not provide health insurance, make up 29% of the American population...
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...Health care reform in the United States has a long history. Reforms have often been proposed but have rarely been accomplished. In 2010, landmark reform was passed through two federal statutes enacted in 2010: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), signed March 23, 2010, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 , which amended the PPACA and became law on March 30, 2010. Future reforms and ideas continue to be proposed, with notable arguments including a single-payer system and a reduction in fee-for-service medical care. The PPACA includes a new agency, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, which is intended to research reform ideas through pilot projects. ------------------------------------------------- History of national reform efforts Here is a summary of reform achievements at the national level in the United States. * 1965 President Lyndon Johnson enacted legislation that introduced Medicare, covering both hospital and general medical insurance for senior citizens paid for by a Federal employment tax over the working life of the retiree, and Medicaid permitted the Federal government to partially fund a program for the poor, with the program managed and co-financed by the individual states. * 1985 The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) amended the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to give some employees the ability to continue health insurance coverage after...
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...Health Care Spending P1 Health Care Spending No name HCS/440 April 16, 2012 Health Care Spending P2 There are trillions of dollars spent on health care spending in the United States. This dilemma of possessing to spend trillions of dollars on health care leads to numerous problems with the government. There have been many issues that make the health care spending rise with people having no health care insurance being one. For instance, not having health care insurance leads to people going to the Emergency rooms for minor illnesses. The Emergency rooms does not require payment at the time of the visit that leads to many non-payments for the hospital. This issue has been a problem for many years and will continue to be a problem. Maybe one day the government will decide to address this and other problems and make changes accordingly. The problem that will discuss...
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...National healthcare has been a debate for many years. Several countries provide healthcare for their population. There have been attempts in the US to emulate this program. Several presidents have tried this, but all failed. Recently, President Obama was able to get a bill through a bi-partisan congress requiring all US residents to have some sort of healthcare. While this is not a single payer plan, it can be viewed as a step in the right direction. There were millions in the US without access to affordable care, and now they can at least get a plan that covers basic healthcare. As the years have gone by there have been issues with the program, and how it was implemented. Healthcare is something all should have access to, but the government...
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...Single-Payer Healthcare Reform in the United States Not long ago, Tina Bachtel, a beautiful thirty-five-year-old women from Ohio walked into a local healthcare clinic seeking treatment. Tina was pregnant and having health issues. She had visited the clinic prior to that day while uninsured which resulted in her having a large unpaid balance. Bachtel was denied treatment. She was told she could only be granted service if she paid one hundred dollars per visit. Tina Bachtel did not have the money to pay upfront. Shortly after leaving the hospital, Tina Bachtel and her baby died (Krugman). Healthcare nightmares like these are not uncommon in the United States. Reform of the American healthcare system is crucial for a healthier and more financially...
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...Single-Payer the Only Way to provide Quality Care Single payer is a great idea which positively affects the quality of care patients receive which can change health outcomes for millions of Americans by providing piece of mind whenever a person goes to see a doctor. The cost of care is a problem for a lot of Americans with and without insurance and the system Americans currently have in place provides people with too little, too much, or no access to one of the best medical systems in the world. Americans could fix the issues with our system by adopting a national single payer program, which would drive down costs and improve the quality of care patients receive, when they go to see a physician. Doctor Fredrick Dodge Mott, was the Chief...
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...U.S. Health Insurance Analysis: The Uninsured Background For much of its history, America was essentially made up of an uninsured population. Many companies hesitated to provide insurance because of the uncertainty of controlling costs. The Blue Cross/Blue Shield program was the first to attempt to tackle this issue. However in 1941, fewer than 10 million Americans were covered and most remained uninsured, paying their health expenses out of pocket (Barr, 2011). As of July 2017 the uninsured rate went up to 11.7% from 10.9% in the fourth quarter of 2016 (Luhby, 2017) and even with the individual mandate, there are still 24 million uninsured Americans. In the 1960s the two major events that impacted health policy were 1) expanding health...
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...Questioning Assumptions about Health Care Systems Executive Summary The United States Health care system is the subject of much debate. At one extreme are those who argue that Americans have the best healthcare system in the world, pointing to the freely available medical technology and state-of-the-art facilities that have become so symbolic of our system. At the other extreme are those who accuse our system of being fragmented and inefficient, pointing to the fact that the U.S. spends more on health care than any other country in the world, yet still suffers from a substantial rate of uninsured, uneven quality, and administrative waste (Sultz, 2013). A review of U.S. healthcare expenses by the Institute of Medicine revealed that thirty cents of every dollar spent on medical care is wasted, adding up to $750 billion annually (http://www.iom.edu, 2012). The Institute of Medicine report identifies six major areas of medical waste: unnecessary services; inefficient delivery of care; excess administrative costs; inflated prices; prevention failures; and fraud (http://www.iom.edu, 2012). Americans spend twice as much on health care per capita than any other country in the world. In fact, according to a series of studies by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co, the US spends more on health care than the next ten biggest spenders combined: Japan, Germany, France, China, the U.K., Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain, and Australia (http://www.mckinsey.com, 2008) Introduction ...
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