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Escalating Healthcare

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Submitted By cynthiah
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Escalating Health Care Cost

Each day there is a demand for comprehensive health reform from across the country. The average American cannot afford to wait much longer. The mindset of the American is that Washington is taking too long. Corporations and families are under pressure as costs continue to skyrocket. Those Americans privileged enough to have health insurance still do not get quality healthcare. The Costs of Inaction highlights the errors in the health care structure and exhibits the cost of keeping the status. The system is setup in into three sections - Escalating Health Care Costs, Diminishing Access to Care and Persistent Gaps in Quality – there are report shows how the present system has continually failed millions of Americans and also why they must the comprehensive health reform this year. (http://www.healthreform.gov/) Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums have more than doubled in the last 9 years, a rate 3 times faster than cumulative wage increases (Kaiser, 2011).
In 2008, U.S. health care spending was about $7,681 per occupant and accounted of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP); this is in the middle of the highest of all industrialized countries. The total health care expenses grew at a yearly rate of 4.4 percent in 2008, a slower rate than previous years, yet still outpacing price increases and the growth in national income. Absent reform, there is general conformity that health costs are likely to continue to rise in the anticipated future. Many analysts have quoted controlling health care costs as a key tenet for wider economic stability and growth, and President Obama has made cost control a focus of health reform efforts under way. Even though Americans benefit from many of the investments in health care, the latest rapid cost growth, coupled with a complete economic slowdown and rising national deficit, is

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