Health Care in the U.S., Research Paper Example

Introduction

The year 2009 in America was marked with the growing healthcare awareness. While the American President has proposed his own plan for healthcare reform, the economic crisis turned healthcare into the subject of a hot political debate. On the one hand, the need for healthcare reform is as urgent as never before. On the other hand, it is not yet clear how and in what ways the proposed healthcare plan will work to improve the quality of care in the United States. I am confident that because of the growing number of uninsured, because of the existing health disparities, because of the growing commodification of the healthcare market, and because of the lack of effective medical care, the system of healthcare in the U.S. is in the need for a profound organizational transformation, which will bring healthcare closer to people, will reduce its costs, and will improve the quality of medical interventions, turning healthcare into an essential human right.

Healthcare in the U.S.: The Current State of Affairs

That the system of healthcare in the United States is in need for profound reform is an obvious fact. Statistical research reveals the hidden inconsistencies in the present day system of medical care. The mere fact that the rising healthcare costs are not linked to positive health outcomes is one of the major obstacles on the way to improving the quality of care delivery in America. In the last 9 years, employer-sponsored health insurance premiums have doubled, making families choose between paying their health premiums and paying their rent (White House). In 2007, the United States spent nearly $2.2 trillion on healthcare, which is almost twice the average of other developed countries (White House). In conditions of the economic crisis, the situation with healthcare has become even tougher: in March 2009 alone almost 10,000 workers per day lost their healthcare insurance, and the percentage of population under 65 with employer-sponsored insurance coverage declined to less than 63 percent compared to 2007 (Dean, Volsky & Shakir 3). The situation with low-income families is increasingly problematic: mothers in low-income families are mostly uninsured and account for three out of every four uninsured mothers in the country (Harrington, Estes & Crawford 88). Although the majority of low-income mothers are from working families, they are still at the highest risks of being uninsured in the U.S. (Harrington, Estes & Crawford 88).

Apart from insurance coverage, people in the United States suffer the consequences of misbalanced financial approaches to healthcare premiums: the notorious case of a man, who lost his coverage in the middle of chemotherapy because of gallstones of which he did not even suspect and who died because of the lack of funding necessary to treat his cancer, indicates the growing urgency of the healthcare problem in the U.S. (Obama). All these aspects become even more serious and complex, given that families in the United States have to spend a minimum of $8,000 per year for their employer-based health insurance – the sum which by 2025 will almost triple! (Alter). In light of this information, the need for healthcare reform becomes more than critical. It would be fair to say that healthcare reform in the U.S. is a matter of life vs. death – death of those, who cannot afford compensating for the growing healthcare costs and those who, even if insured, still risk being left without a penny.

The Need for Healthcare Reform in the U.S.: Why so Urgent

The need for a profound healthcare transformation in the U.S. is justified by the fact that the United States was not able to resolve or to at least minimize the existing health disparities among the most vulnerable populations. “Health disparities occur when people are treated differently on the basis of a given set of defining characteristics. Such characteristics may include being socioeconomically disadvantaged and/ or being a member of a racial and/ or ethnic minority group” (Erlen 184). As a result, those who experience health care disparities in America are more subject to the risks of negative health outcomes because they may lack access to disease prevention or health promotion measures (Erlen 184). The problem is particularly difficult with low-income mothers, and misbalanced approaches to insurance and coverage often leave them behind the poverty line.

Harrington, Estes and Crawford estimate that in half of the states, where a working mother with two children is not eligible for Medicate if she earns more than $9,000 per month, she is destined to leave $5,000 below the poverty line, with the latter being at least $14,000 for the family of three (88). As a result, mothers who stay without insurance are three times more likely to miss a regular visit to a physician and 60% less likely to attend a clinical breast exam (Harrington, Estes & Crawford 90). So, who is to compensate for the deteriorating health in young low-income mothers? The issues of healthcare disparities and the lack of coverage become even more dangerous, taking into account that “the problem of health disparities is heightened because of the increasing healthcare options that are available from routine immunizations to highly technological interventions” (Erlen 184), and large population groups in the U.S. receive less and less adequate services. That means that uninsured people from vulnerable populations will engage in the medical care at later stages of the disease, thus increasing morbidity and causing higher healthcare costs.

The need for healthcare reform in the U.S. is further justified by the fact that healthcare delivery in the United States has already ceased to be a human right and turned into a privilege for the limited population groups. Commodification of the healthcare market is one of the primary issues of public concern. It is difficult not to agree to Jonas and Rakel in that the United States does not really have any care system (8). Instead of being treated like patients, healthcare consumers in the U.S. are treated like a commodity and are no longer the centers of the healthcare system. The main focus of healthcare is not in caring for patients but in maximizing profits, and patients, instead of being the objects of care, simply become profit centers (Riley 8). That means that the range and availability of medical services are governed not by patient needs, but market forces, which make the quality of medical care obsolete (Felland & Reschovsky 2). In its current state, the medical care in the U.S. acts against patients and their interests, because “medication services that we hold sacred […] often don’t work or don’t work as well as we thought they would to treat the diseases” (Hyman 20). As a result, instead of being driven by science, medical care is driven by markets and patients as commodities, which leave no room for real healthcare. Healthcare reform is needed to shift the social perspective of healthcare from being a privilege to being an essential human right (Carroll 57).

Healthcare reform is also needed to provide patients with the universal healthcare coverage. Healthcare reform is needed to reduce the costs of healthcare, because if it is not done, it will be the detriment to the American people (Montopoli). That 47 percent of all money in healthcare insurance is spent on marketing, profits, and paperwork suggests that there is no health care in the United States (Alter). Healthcare reform will make it possible to (a) improve insurance coverage; (b) reduce healthcare costs; (c) improve the efficiency of medical services (scientific efficiency!) and (d) it will give a sense of being protected from unjustified premium denials, which insurance companies use for the purposes of improved profitability. Certainly, the process of transformation will not be easy; nor will it be fast. The country should apply additional effort to identify the sources of potential investments, because no healthcare reform is possible without sound financing. Moreover, there are still those who vote against such transformations because they are fully satisfied with what they have (Alter), and altering the minds of those, who do not want any reform will take some time. However, and Riley is correct, we cannot afford not reforming health care (8). Healthcare should work for the benefit of people and not against them. It should turn into a basic human right, but without a profound organizational transformation all these goals and principles will remain a fantasy.

Conclusion

In its current state, the system of healthcare in the U.S. is in need for a profound organizational transformation. Because of the existing healthcare disparities, because of the lack of insurance coverage, because of the decreasing efficiency of medical services, and because of the growing commodification of the market, the U.S. should transform the vision of healthcare and to turn it into the basic human right. The process will be long and difficult, and it is still unclear where and how the U.S. will find financial resources to make this reform real. However, the country cannot afford living without such reform, because the system of healthcare in the U.S. does not work for the benefit of its citizens but acts against them, increasing the costs and morbidity and subjecting the American population to the major health risks.

Works Cited

Alter, J. “What’s Not to Like?” 2009. Newsweek. 01 December 2009. http://www.newsweek.com/id/209817

Carroll, V.S. “Healthcare Reform – The Time Is Now.” Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, vol. 41, no. 2 (2009): 57-58.

Dean, H., Volsky, I. & F. Shakir. Howard Dean’s for Real Healthcare Reform: How We Can Achieve Affordable Medical Care for Every American and Make Our Jobs Safer. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2009.

Erlen, J.A. “Health Disparities and Healthcare Reform.” Orthopaedic Nursing, vol. 28, no. 4 (2009): 183-186.

Felland, L.E. & Reschovsky, J.D. “More nonelderly Americans Face Problems Affording Prescription Drugs.” Tracking Report, vol. 22 (2009): 1-4.

Jonas, W.B. & Rakel, D.P. “Putting Healing Into Healthcare Reform: Will Physicians and Healthcare Practitioners Lead?” Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, vol. 15, no. 6 (2009): 8-9.

Harrington, C., Estes, C.L. & C. Crawford. Health Policy: Crisis and Reform in the U.S. Health Care Delivery System. Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2004.

Hyman, M.A. “Finding the Money for Healthcare Reform.” Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, vol. 15, no. 5 (2009): 20-23.

Montopoli, B. “Bill Frist: We Need Health Care Reform.” 2009. CBS News. 01 December 2009.  http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/16/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5390499.shtml

Obama, B. “Why We Need Health Care Reform.” 2009. The New York Times. 01 December 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/opinion/16obama.html

Riley, D. “Challenges in Healthcare Reform.” Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, vol. 15, no. 4 (2009): 8-9.

White House. “Health Care.” 2009. White House. 01 December 2009. http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/health-care