Health Care Cost In America

Running head: THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE COST 1

Impacts of Health Care Cost on Americans

Student’s Name

Institution

THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE COST 2

Impacts of Health Care Cost on Americans

Introduction

Among the developed nations, it is only U.S, the richest country in the world, has the

most expensive health care system. However, for a long time, it has been unable to provide an

affordable health care system that meets the health care needs of every citizen. Research shows

that the Americans rarely get the services they deserve despite that the government spends huge

sums of money to subsidize the health care cost. Today, more than 46 million Americans are

uninsured and struggle with matters of affordable and quality health care. Government after the

other has unsuccessfully tried various approaches to fix the health care menace. For example,

President Obama, during his reign introduced, the famous Obamacare but it has since then

proven unsuitable for most average Americans. President Trump, a major critique of Obamacare

program is yet to show the Americans the health care plan for his administration. The growing

cost of health care has left most Americans struggling to afford a health insurance cove. Health

care should be available for everyone regardless of work status or financial situation.

Discussion

Affordability is a Problem

The ability to afford health care differs from one family or household to another because

of differential wages. As mentioned earlier, more than 41 million Americans do not have health

insurance cover because of the affordability related cost (Chopra, 2015). This population cannot

afford to pay even the lowest premiums for a health insurance policy. In 2014, Medicare and

Medicaid Services estimated that on average, every American (child, woman, and man) spent

$9695 on health care (Andrapalliyal, 2013). This figure shows that in a family with at least 2.54

persons, the cost of medication amounted to $24,625 or more. The median American wage per

household as of 2014 was $53,697. Therefore, an average person or household spent at least 46%

THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE COST 3

of their earning on health care (Rotarius & Liberman, 2015). The statistics show lack of fair

distribution between the healthcare cost and income.

In 2013, Kaiser Family Foundation noted that at least 56 million Americans struggled to

meet their health care cost. A majority of these people indicated that they could not afford to pay

the health cover premiums that average between $5K and $10 annually when they earned on

average $53 697 (Andrapalliyal, 2013). Before the Obamacare health program was initiated, at

least 21.3 percent of American struggled to meet their medical bill. The introduction of

Obamacare health care program never solved the problem amicably because as of 2016, at least

16.2% Americans could still not afford to any insurance cover deductibles (Rotarius &

Liberman, 2015). Research shows that 16.9% of the Americans suffer from at least one financial

barrier when it comes to health care cost.

What should be done?

The U.S health care system may collapse if actions to solve the cost related issues are not

undertaken. As aforementioned, the current system is a burden to the Americans despite the

interventions by the central government to make it more affordable (Winkfield, 2016). Reforms

are necessary to address the growing medication cost and reverse the increasing number of

people without health care insurance coverage (Bose, 2017). As noted earlier, a significant

population of the Americans cannot afford to have a health insurance cover. The problem with

most health insurance cover providers is that they are too expensive and place limitation on

meeting the costs. They also outline what they can and cannot cover. As a result, most people

consider insurance covers as expensive and thus avoid them altogether (Stabile et al., 2013).

Those who cannot meet the monthly premium struggle to get quality health care.

THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE COST 4

There are a number of things that the government can do and save the nation from the

current health crisis. First, it should chip in to subsidize the programs further. It should put

measures to ensure that the insurance companies offer affordable insurance cover for all

Americans without having to compromise on the quality of the same (Stabile et al. 2013).

Second, America should do away with duplicate health care programs and adopt a Single-Payer

Healthcare System (SPHS) that does not classify people based on their income or employment

(Stabile et al., 2013). The existing models have failed because they classify people based on

their source of income. People with low incomes hardly access quality care while the rich and

wealthy have insurance covers that guarantee them quality care (Bose, 2017). The Single Payer

system is a unified system that is easy to manage and regulate without compromising quality.

Under this system, all the Americans will be covered for their entire medical needs. SPHS is

suitable compared to current inefficient and profit-oriented models that have placed huge

financial burdens to already suffering patients.

A single Payer system will be a public payer, and non-profit oriented (Bose, 2017). The

savings obtained from the current health care model would be enough to fiancé the proposed

model. Under Single Payer System, all premiums will disappear, and 95% of the American

households would save money (Chopra, 2015). This model can work in America comfortably.

All that is needed is adequate research before implementation. However, it has worked in

countries that guarantee affordable, accessible and quality healthcare (Armstrong et al., 2006).

Conclusion

A healthcare system that is unaffordable by a large population of the country is irrelevant.

Health care should be affordable by everyone regardless of their employment status or financial

power. The United States government should rise and institute measures to address the health

THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE COST 5

care cost issues once and for all. It is unbelievable that the world’s economy controller cannot

guarantee quality heath to it citizens. A lot of research has been completed and recommendations

forwarded to the government. It is now the time to review the most appropriate recommendation

that will help the country. The time for braining the Americans with unaffordable health care

should come to an end.

THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE COST 6

References

Andrapalliyal, V. (2013). Healthcare for All: The Gap between Rhetoric and Reality in the

Affordable Care Act. UCLA L. Rev. Discourse, 61, 58.

Armstrong, K., Rose, A., Peters, N., Long, J., McMurphy, S., & Shea, J. (2006). Distrust of the

health care system and self-reported health in the United States. Journal Of General

Internal Medicine, 21(4), 292-297.

Bose, S. (2017). The Single-Payer Healthcare System: Is it Right for America? Retrieved Oct.

21, 2017, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-single-payer-healthcare-

system-is-it-right-for_us_59ea4caee4b034105edd4e64

Chopra, D. (2015). A hidden solution to America’s Health-Care Crisis. The Huffington Post.

Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/a-hidden-solution-to-

amer_b_7664564.html

Rotarius, T., & Liberman, A. (2015). Health Care Affordability: How to Make It a Reality. The

health care manager, 34(4), 288-292.

Stabile, M., Thomson, S., Allin, S., Boyle, S., Busse, R., Chevreul, K., ... & Mossialos, E.

(2013). Health care cost containment strategies used in four other high-income countries

hold lessons for the United States. Health Affairs, 32(4), 643-652.

Winkfield, E. (2016). America’s Healthcare Crisis – Is There a Solution?. Realtruth.org.

Retrieved from https://realtruth.org/articles/090203-005-health.html

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