...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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...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 Most industrialized nations have single payer systems. Many argue...
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...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 by age group: United States, 1997-2008. (2009) Table 1.1a. Number of persons without health insurance coverage, by age group: United States, 1997–2008 Year Number in millions: all ages Number in millions: under 65 years Number in millions: 18–64 years...
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...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...
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...Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………3 The History of Healthcare Reform……………………………………………………………………………..…4 The Problem with the ACA……………………………………………………………………………………………6 The Current Policy………………………………………………………………………………………………………..8 Policy Alternatives………………………………………………………………………………………………………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...
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...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 dependent children. Medicaid coverage...
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...Healthcare in America B. Powers ENGL103-1204B-01: Composition: Writing and Research Colorado Technical University December 24, 2012 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...
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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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...Introduction United States has one of the highest GDP among developed nations yet it fails to deliver a widespread and affordable health care to its citizens. Will health care reform be able to deliver quality services at affordable cost with its existing workforce crisis in the healthcare system? Number of uninsured Americans has significantly increased, mainly due to aging population and income change. The prevalent issue of America’s healthcare system is insurance coverage, access to healthcare. Americans believe this issue should be prioritized, and it is the direct responsibility of federal government to ensure medical care for those citizens that lack insurance. This essay include history of United States healthcare system, its evolution and how healthcare providers can contain costs of healthcare and provide quality and access to healthcare for everyone. From the beginning of 2014 Affordable Care Act by Obama government is trying to solve the enduring issue of American healthcare system. It is a step in the right direction but this reform is facing lots of resistance from Republican Party, that this reform will put country in debt stress. Many Americans are concerned with quality and access to healthcare with the influx in number of insured entering the healthcare system which is already facing the workforce crisis. United States Health care History Healthcare in United States is enduring issue and it is very sensitive subjects for Americans. United states from the...
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...Full draft The United States spends 17.6 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on healthcare each year (Kane, 2012), this amounts to 17.6 cents of every U.S. dollar. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an economic group comprised of 34 member nations including the United States. The OECD average is between 6 and 8 percent GDP spent on healthcare. Among OECD nations the U.S. scores below average in almost all areas of healthcare, despite spending 2 ½ times more of its economy on the health industry.There are many reasons for this and just as many proposed solutions. I will address three potential solutions here. These are price variations for services, bureaucratic waste, and prescription oversite. Price variation is a substantial part of why healthcare costs so much in the United States. Prices for the same procedure vary by hospital, region, provider and insurer. For the first example, we will look at the cost of a lower joint replacement. According to a Washington Post article (Kliff and Keating, Ye2013r) the price in Virginia varies from $25,000 to $117,000. While in Texas, two hospitals that are 5 miles apart range from $42,632 to $160,832. The second example comes from two hospitals in New York City, which have a price variation of 321% for treating complicated cases of asthma and bronchitis. The difference is $34,310 compared to $8,159. (Kliff and Keating, Ye2013r) Other countries have developed a set fee schedule to address...
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...Executive Summary The United States continues to spend significantly more on health care than any country in the world; however, even though with this statistic the United States has a lot of uninsured and does not have the healthiest citizens. The lack of universal healthcare coverage in the United States has been a forefront issue. With the overwhelming amount of uninsured Americans and the past unsuccessful efforts of health care reform, the possibility of universal health care seemed to be very unlikely. The new healthcare reform bill that was recently passed under Obama’s administration anticipates covering 30 more million of the uninsured (Riegelman, 2010). However, this bill does not offer universal healthcare. While excellent medical care is available in the United States, the rising cost and the U.S. health care delivery system present many challenges for the consumer and lawmakers. This paper addresses four dimensions that are pivotal to the successes and failures of the system: cost, efficiency, quality. The cost of the U.S. health care system is higher than any country in the world. Its efficiency is also under heavy scrutiny. If it were not an emergency most physicians would require insurance verification. Therefore, patients would be delayed of treatment. Moreover, The healthcare system in the U.S. should be redesigned in terms of prevention rather than treatment when people are already sick. Insurance should not go higher for people that have pre-existing conditions...
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...including Europe, the powerhouses of Asia, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. The United States (U.S.) is not one of them. Funded through taxes and run by the government, health care proves vital to all countries across the world. Unlike other first world countries, the U.S. falls behind in attempts to providing a single-payer health system, a type of Universal Health Care. Health care affordability continue to drastically decrease for United States citizens, becoming less affordable due to its high costs. Other first world countries are able to provide their population with adequate amounts of medical attention without the high expenses like the current system...
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...high-quality medical care (Anderson, 2013). Currently there are 46 million that do not have health coverage in the United states and this would drastically increase to 72 million if a health reform was not passed (The Economic Case for Health Care Reform, 2012)Why the United States is the last to adopt this government mandated insurance coverage, is possibly one of the most widely asked question around the nation. This, however; is all in the process of changing and will be completed by 2014 with the passing and implantation of Obama-care. There are three systems or levels of coverage under Universal Health Care; Single Payer, Two-Tier, and Insurance Mandate. Could one of these be beneficial to the United States and what is in store for the United States as we moved toward the change? The Single Payer Tier of the Universal Health care program is paid for by the government and pays all coverage except for the copays acquired at the appointment and for prescriptions (Anderson, 2013). Single Payer as the name suggest, is funded by one public agency and from a single fund. When medical fees are accumulated, all services are paid for by a single government source. It does not specify the type of delivery, or who the doctors can or will work for. Single-payer systems create contracts for healthcare services from private organizations or can own and employ the healthcare resources and personnel. Meaning, the government pay for the procedures and equipment and doctors only get paid...
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...have been debating healthcare for the last hundred years. Before the 1900s, doctors didn’t have much technology to diagnose and treat the sick, so it was more affordable to patients. Once new medicines were found, doctors started taking advantage of these new treatments, which increased cost. Therefore, as the cost went up, the public needed a way to pay for the treatments; this was the start of health insurance. Health insurance and healthcare came about during the time of the Great Depression. There are currently two main methods of providing healthcare: public and private. Public healthcare provides universal access and is funded through the government. Two forms of public healthcare are Medicare and Medicaid which President Johnson signed into law in 1965. Medicare, or public healthcare, was first enacted by the U.S. government to provide healthcare to the elderly. Medicaid provides insurance to anyone who has a disability or is in poverty. Private insurers are funded by premiums and cover clients while also making a profit. The first private insurer was the Baylor Hospital in the 1930s, which later became Blue Cross Blue Shield Health Insurance. The purpose of this report is to determine whether private healthcare coverage, as it currently exists in the United States, is more or less effective than a single payer system according to three criteria: cost, availability, and quality. Method: The Commonwealth Fund supports research on healthcare issues and helps to...
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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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