The United States Should Socialize the Healthcare System, Essay Example

The U.S. healthcare sector is careening toward collapse because it is unsustainable and indefensible (Gerald F. p 2). The imminent collapse is clearly shown by the following facts: first the universal coverage is not affordable and hence the system leaves 47 million Americans uninsured. This is because high costs of insurance cause instability on the voluntary, private, and employer based system because increases in cost means purchasers limit coverage or increase the amounts they charge their workers hence the workers choose not to be covered.

The rules of enrollment in government and private programs result in millions of Americans going without health care coverage, including children. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 45.7 million Americans (about 15.3% of the total population) had no health insurance coverage at some point during 2007(Us census Bureau, 2008) .This was mainly due to affordability constraints. International comparison by the Commonwealth Fund showed that among adults surveyed in the U.S., 37% reported that they had foregone needed medical care in the previous year because of high costs. They either avoided seeing a doctor when sick, or skipped medications or avoided other recommended care. The rate was even higher— 42%—among those with chronic conditions. The study reported that these rates were well above those found in the other six countries surveyed: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the UK (Health Affairs, 17) In this study it was also found that 19% of U.S. adults surveyed reported serious problems paying medical bills, more than double the rate in the next highest country.

Second the U.S. system is in fact a nonsystem, an incoherent pastiche that has long repulsed reforms sought by private and public stakeholders and the last evidence is the extremely high health care costs Separate legal entities offer health care service in United States. United States is the nation that spent highest amount of money and resources for its healthcare requirements. The costs on pharmaceuticals and other expenses are so high that a good percent of the GDP is streamed to the health care sector.  United States spends 16%of it s annual gross domestic product on health care compared to a country like France which is capable of providing cover for its population at only 11%GDP (Gerald F p 34). State budget deficits and federal cuts result in reduction in Medicare and Medicaid programs and employees are devoid of employment-based benefits.

Advocacy for providing affordable health care can improve the situation. State based campaigns and other campaigns developed by various social service organizations are developing strategies to solve the affordability problems in the health care sector. The major strategy is to socialize the Health Care System through the establishment of Universal health Care system. An example is the approach proposed by economist Laurence Kotlikoff to adapt the Medical Security System that takes care of all including the currently uninsured, Medicaid and Medicare recipients and those with private or employer insurance.

Under this system all participants would get annual vouchers for health insurance with the amounts depending on their health conditions. The government would then control costs by setting the values of the vouchers such that the growth benefit does not exceed the nation’s per capita growth. (Kotlikoff, L, p 91)

The medical security system combines funds from an existing government sources, a payroll tax, and other appropriations to provide a basic insurance plan to all individuals. Tax rates are originally set to approximate the current expenditure of private insurance. A portion of federal Medicaid, existing state and children health insurance programme funds for poor populations along with additional general revenues. The medical security system works through health insurance exchanges which organize the insurance market. The mss provides each exchange with enough funds to offer the plan free of charge. The MSS exchange receives a fixed amount per every enrolled person and this is adjusted considering the age and gender of the enrolees.

The MSS advocates for individual choices .Individuals are able to choose their health plan and delivery system, choose their health care provider and a plan based at least in part on whether that plan includes the providers on whom the individual relies. They may always obtain services outside of the MSS if they are willing to pay for those services. Individuals can also determine the level of financial risk they are willing to bear and can therefore choose from a range of insurance structures.

Almost all industrialized countries have some single-payer universal Health care system. Canada and UK have complete healthcare coverage system. The United States is the only industrialized nation where health care is not a citizenship right. The United States has a bad health care statistics compared to other industrialized nations. Considering the health care ranking, United States is ranked 18th in longevity, 67th in immunizations and 16th in infant Mortality. Citizens are not able to access good health care facilities because of unaffordable costs (Barlett and Steele, p 123). Financing a public health care System (through taxes) is easier and more affordable compared to administering another free health care system privately. United States spend more per capita amount on the health care sector compared to other countries having health Insurance plans that are publicly financed. In the1992, state Health Care Access Commission gave a report which showed that a publicly administered and publicly financed health care set up could save several million dollars. Such a system could cover the entire population, almost all medical care requirements, long-time care medical costs and Medicare, all without any sort of co-pays. The system can help avoid all unnecessary administrative costs and can buy medications in bulk; avoiding the extra expense caused by individual purchase. A report given by Massachusetts Medical Society the AMA of Massachusetts also gave the same opinion. There is no exact formula for universal healthcare. Different nations have different way of accomplishing of health care and medical insuring.

The present healthcare system in US is inefficient in many respects (Victoria, p 73). People are unable to afford regular check up and proper treatment. Working-class persons are found to be highly susceptible to dangerous diseases which could have been identified and treated if the person had undergone regular checkups These are that one is predisposed to out of lifestyle such as gout, cancer, and heart diseases . The majority are not able to bear the financial burden of treating these diseases until the diseases have reached its advanced stages where treatment and management is either very hard or very expensive. These people could not have used the healthcare system because the system is riddled with tough enrolment rules be it the government or the private healthcare system.

Universal health care systems vary in the services they offer; these may be complete coverage, partial coverage or no coverage at all. Some of the universal health care systems include some essential services from physicians or nurses, occupational therapy, immunization services, mammography screenings, HIV Testing, drug abuse treatment along with rehabilitation services, mental health Services, dentistry services, optometry and optician services, prescription drugs, podiatry services, medical supplies and appliances, nursing home care, emergency medical transportation services and so on.

Universal health care became popular with former President of Unites States Bill Clinton. Even though the proposal made by the President was not a success, it helped in the starting of the universal healthcare set up. Universal health care (commonly known as single-payer system) is similar to the existing Medicaid health care program in US, which is meant for low-income people. But Universal health care offers help to all citizens irrespective of their income or financial capacity.

A ‘single payer’ is a health care system in which only one entity will be billed for all the medical expenses (for example, a universal health care department funded by government). In the system, the doctor or pharmacist or the private insurance company will bill only the universal health care agency instead of billing the patient directly. In the private sector this service is done by ‘cash flow companies’. These entities ensure guaranteed payment and reduced paperwork and give the benefit of single-payer. These benefits offered by the entities are however neutralized by the fees of employing the service of a cash flow company. A government-run health care system will not charge such fees since they never work for profit.

Unemployment in the United States is also a contributing factor towards the increased number of uninsured population .As u unemployment rates reach the highest levels in 16 years, The Commonwealth Fund analysis shows that for a few workers who have been laid off only 9% took up coverage under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) in 2006 (Science Daily). The report also finds that low wage workers are also disadvantaged because only 38%are able to get benefits from COBRA because through their jobs they don’t receive health insurance.

“Americans are losing their jobs at an alarming pace and this report clearly shows that many people cannot afford to take on the expense of COBRA just as they lose their income,” said Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis. This is alarming because COBRA which allows about 66% to extend their coverage after losing a job is not affordable. According to Science Daily (May 3, 2008) two new studies conducted by researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center show  there is  negative impact of parental job loss on children’s healthcare because they miss  the benefits   continuous health insurance coverage to meet children’s healthcare needs and reduce healthcare disparities.

The first study showed that children’s whose parents change or lose jobs were more twice as likely to lose their coverage as those for the still employed parents and worse still children with private coverage were more than three times as likely to lose coverage.” This is a particularly disturbing finding, coming at a time when job loss is becoming more common due to the economy,” says Dr. Fairbrother, Ph.D., the study’s lead author. “Because with continued rise in unemployment more and more children are likely to have a break in coverage and this affects their health care because for example they are not able to get prescribed medication and regular source of health care which puts their health at risk.

The second study examined children who did not have continuous insurance coverage in place consistently throughout the year and found that they had unmet health care needs similar to the chronically uninsured. These children were three times as likely to have unfilled prescriptions and 14 times as likely not to have a usual source of health care as insured children.

In his studies Dr. Fairbrother’s study examined data collected over two years from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, a set of large-scale surveys of families and individuals, their medical providers, and employers across the United States. She examined the effect of job loss by parents in an early round of data collection with children’s insurance coverage in a later round. The results showed that Children who lost insurance when their parents lost or changed jobs were more likely to be poor, black, from Spanish-speaking homes and reside in the southern United States. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (2008) According to a new report by the Science Daily (Dec. 1, 2008) Children of farm workers are three times as likely as all other children and almost twice as likely as other poor children to be uninsured. These make them to face a variety of health challenges. According to background information in the article, Most are Latino, a group that already has suboptimal access to pediatric health services. In addition, Mexican American migrant children who move around the United States with their farm-worker parents are two to three times more likely to be rated in poor or fair health than non-migrant Mexican American children. Farm workers’ children are often exposed to pesticides and are more likely to engage in dangerous agricultural work themselves.

“Health insurance improves children’s access to and use of health care services, making children’s health insurance an important proxy for children’s health care access,” the authors write. Roberto L. Rodriguez, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Texas Medical Branch–Austin and Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas and colleagues analyzed results of a national survey of 3,136 farm workers with children younger than 18 years. The parents reported demographic and social characteristics along with the health insurance status of their children (all of whom lived in the United States). Of these farm-worker parents, 32 percent reported that their children were uninsured, including 45 percent of migrant-worker parents. Parents who were older, had less education, had spent less time in the United States and who lived in the Southwest or Southeast were more likely to have uninsured children.

“The findings highlight the particular vulnerability of U.S. farm workers’ children regarding health insurance coverage,” the authors write. “These findings have important policy implications. They suggest that the low parental education among many farm workers as well as more recent immigration have negative effects on their children’s health insurance status.” (US JAMA and Archives Journals)

Conclusion

The social disadvantages warrant increased efforts to enroll and retain eligible children in health insurance programs. Outreach efforts also need to consider other barriers that impede insurance enrollment and retention, such as the complexity of applications, language barriers, and the inaccessibility of enrollment sites in rural areas and parents’ fear of using services or misunderstanding of eligibility guidelines. Efforts to address disparities in health insurance for farm workers children should also be made as they may lead to better access to health care and better health.”

The government should also socialize their health care system by adapting the universal health care system like the MSS to ensure that all the population is medically covered despite the social class. This will consequently improve Health care status in The United States (Blogspot.com).

Works Cited

Barlett, Donald L. $ James B. Steele. . How Health Care in America Became Big Business and Bad; 2004.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center .Science Daily 2008, May 3.

Gerard F. et al.,. Health Affairs. Harper Perennial, New York; 2008.

Health Affairs. Toward Higher-Performance System, London: PMID. 2007.

John R. &Justine McCabe The Case for Single Payer, Universal Health Care for the United States, moodus; The Association of State Green Parties; 1999.

Kotlikoff, L.  The Healthcare Fix. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press; 2007.

Mayeroff, M.  On Caring,  Harper Perennial, New York; 1971.

US JAMA and Archives Journals. One Third of Farm Workers’ Children Lack Health Insurance; Unemployment Having Impact on Kids’ Health-care Coverage. Science Daily 2008.

U.S. census Bureau. Income, poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States;  2008.

Victoria .C.  “In Critical Condition: Health Care in America.” San Francisco: Chronicle; 2004.