The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world not to offer health care to all of its citizens. The most powerful nation in the Western Hemisphere and arguably the world is unable- nay, unwilling- to provide all of its citizens with access to health care. The United Kingdom has a national health service in which tax money is pooled together and used to pay government employed health services. Canada has a similar system, but instead of paying insurance providers through the national government, provincial taxes pay the insurance providers of that province. In the United States, not everyone is insured, leading to financial, economic and health problems that are non-existent or not as pronounced in the U.K. and Canada. Universal
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Ezra Klein, author of The Health of Nations: How Europe, Canada, and Our Own VA Do Health Care Better, writes about Canada’s ability to keep administrative, or employee, costs down. Klein reasons “Physicians don’t have to negotiate different prices with dozens of insurance plans or fight with insurers for payment. Instead, they simply bill the government and are reimbursed” (Merino 134). In other words, doctors are paid a set amount for their services by tax dollars run through private insurers. In the U.S., extra physician assistants trying to negotiate with insurance providers means more salaries have to be paid, leading to higher insurance premiums. But, what if a patient who needs a vital procedure or medication does not have insurance? Health clinics need to be reimbursed somehow. This is where government spending on health care comes in. Despite not offering universal health care, the United States was the highest health care spender among industrialized nations. A 2008 study by the Urban Institute found that the cost of care for uninsured patients was $57.4 billion, a sum greater than the entire Department of Defense budget (Jones 36). Uninsured patients who need care are a massive drain on government resources. In 2015, the U.S. government spent 25% of the budget on medical programs such as Medicaid, which subsidizes uncompensated care (“Policy …show more content…
Unfortunately, these world-class private clinics are only available to the wealthiest Americans, leaving the rest with subpar care that does not keep them healthy. According to an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development study of thirteen high-income countries, the U.S. had the highest infant mortality rate at 6.1 deaths per 1,000 births compared to the median of 3.5 deaths (Squires 1). over forty percent of low-income U.S. adults reported having multiple chronic conditions, compared to about thirty percent of low-income U.K. adults (Osborn 1). Everyone in the U.K. is covered under the National Health Service, but low-income Americans struggle to find affordable health insurance. As a result, uninsured people often times go without needed medical attention, leading to more cases of chronic
Ezra Klein, author of The Health of Nations: How Europe, Canada, and Our Own VA Do Health Care Better, writes about Canada’s ability to keep administrative, or employee, costs down. Klein reasons “Physicians don’t have to negotiate different prices with dozens of insurance plans or fight with insurers for payment. Instead, they simply bill the government and are reimbursed” (Merino 134). In other words, doctors are paid a set amount for their services by tax dollars run through private insurers. In the U.S., extra physician assistants trying to negotiate with insurance providers means more salaries have to be paid, leading to higher insurance premiums. But, what if a patient who needs a vital procedure or medication does not have insurance? Health clinics need to be reimbursed somehow. This is where government spending on health care comes in. Despite not offering universal health care, the United States was the highest health care spender among industrialized nations. A 2008 study by the Urban Institute found that the cost of care for uninsured patients was $57.4 billion, a sum greater than the entire Department of Defense budget (Jones 36). Uninsured patients who need care are a massive drain on government resources. In 2015, the U.S. government spent 25% of the budget on medical programs such as Medicaid, which subsidizes uncompensated care (“Policy …show more content…
Unfortunately, these world-class private clinics are only available to the wealthiest Americans, leaving the rest with subpar care that does not keep them healthy. According to an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development study of thirteen high-income countries, the U.S. had the highest infant mortality rate at 6.1 deaths per 1,000 births compared to the median of 3.5 deaths (Squires 1). over forty percent of low-income U.S. adults reported having multiple chronic conditions, compared to about thirty percent of low-income U.K. adults (Osborn 1). Everyone in the U.K. is covered under the National Health Service, but low-income Americans struggle to find affordable health insurance. As a result, uninsured people often times go without needed medical attention, leading to more cases of chronic