Affordable health care is a part of the “American dream.” This dream is slowly turning into a nightmare with “42.6 million Americans uninsured including 10 million children” (govspot.com, 2012). The needs of the current health care system need to be addressed and changes need to be made because many Americans are also underinsured. The issues that will be discussed are the level of current nation health care expenditures, whether spending is too much or not enough, where the nation should add or not, and why, and how the public’s health care needs are paid for and financed by various payers.
The level of current nation health care expenditures is currently at $2.1 trillion. This translated into $7,026 per person and 16% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (ajronline.org, 2008, pg. 1). 31% of this is for hospital spending, which is above the nationa health care expenditures. 5.9% for physician expenditures, which is currently lower than the overall expenditure rate due larglely to the 2% medicare fee for physicians. 19% for overall Medicare part D which caused a spike in prescription drugs. 8.8% in admisistravie fees, which grew faster than the overall rate because of the of the high number of members who joined the Medicare Advantage plan. Medicaid for the first time in history shrank because of the high number of people who enrolled in Medicare Part D.
Heath care spending is to high and continues to grow, which means the health care growth rates continue to exceed the overall gross domestic product (GDP) and eventually will surpass other spending. This means that the national health care expenditures will not be sustainable for the future health care system to run efficentlty or at all. In the private sector Medicare has had a sufficent increase in Medicare Advantage making managed care more important currently putting the fee-for-sevice