Barack Obama, in his 2007 campaign for president, said “Affordable universal health care for every single American must not be a question of whether, it must be a question of how” (Obama 1). In a country that spends the most in the world on health care, one would expect world class health care available to everybody, but that is not the case in the U.S. The need for reform has been recognized throughout the history of U.S. health care, but no major reform has ever fixed the problems, only delayed the consequences that the U.S. health care system has on the people. We must find out whether the United States would benefit from adopting a universal health care system, and we must do this for the benefit of both our nation and its citizens.
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Each of the options has pros and cons, like every health care system, and a single-payer universal health care system will be the first analyzed. A single-payer universal health care system is a system where the consumers, the citizens, pay a single entity, the government, for their health care, and all consumers receive the same level of care as one another. A consumer-driven universal health care system is system where the consumers choose their health care plan from private companies, the poor receive government assistance to afford health care and those who can afford pay with their money. Lastly, a consumer-driven health care system, which is currently the system in the U.S., is where health insurance is provided through employers or the government, where one is not required to have health …show more content…
First, the insurance providers do not have the consumer’s health as the first priority, but rather the company’s profit is their first priority. They charge too much for simple health care, which is a major contributor to the millions who can no longer afford health insurance. In Kingson’s research, he found that “When compared to administrative costs paid by residents of France, Finland and Japan, U.S. residents spend $97 billion a year in excessive administrative charges to insurance companies” (Kingson 5). The overspending of the U.S. public altered health insurance in a system where it is unfixable. Second, the U.S. health care system’s major flaw is the method it deals with the uninsured in. The cost of care for the insured rises every time an uninsured patient is treated, which causes more people to lose their health insurance. Barack Obama says, “We pay $15 billion more in taxes because of the cost of care for the uninsured. And it’s trapped in a vicious cycle” (Obama 2). This flaw highlights the need for a new system, and “as a share of the nation’s gross domestic product, health care expenditures have increased from 12.4% in 1980, to 16% today and are projected to grow to 20% by 2016” (Kingson 1). The inflation in the health care market is rising faster than wages can stay with, another major flaw in the current model. Lastly, a major flaw in
Each of the options has pros and cons, like every health care system, and a single-payer universal health care system will be the first analyzed. A single-payer universal health care system is a system where the consumers, the citizens, pay a single entity, the government, for their health care, and all consumers receive the same level of care as one another. A consumer-driven universal health care system is system where the consumers choose their health care plan from private companies, the poor receive government assistance to afford health care and those who can afford pay with their money. Lastly, a consumer-driven health care system, which is currently the system in the U.S., is where health insurance is provided through employers or the government, where one is not required to have health …show more content…
First, the insurance providers do not have the consumer’s health as the first priority, but rather the company’s profit is their first priority. They charge too much for simple health care, which is a major contributor to the millions who can no longer afford health insurance. In Kingson’s research, he found that “When compared to administrative costs paid by residents of France, Finland and Japan, U.S. residents spend $97 billion a year in excessive administrative charges to insurance companies” (Kingson 5). The overspending of the U.S. public altered health insurance in a system where it is unfixable. Second, the U.S. health care system’s major flaw is the method it deals with the uninsured in. The cost of care for the insured rises every time an uninsured patient is treated, which causes more people to lose their health insurance. Barack Obama says, “We pay $15 billion more in taxes because of the cost of care for the uninsured. And it’s trapped in a vicious cycle” (Obama 2). This flaw highlights the need for a new system, and “as a share of the nation’s gross domestic product, health care expenditures have increased from 12.4% in 1980, to 16% today and are projected to grow to 20% by 2016” (Kingson 1). The inflation in the health care market is rising faster than wages can stay with, another major flaw in the current model. Lastly, a major flaw in