РефератыИностранный языкAmAmerican Health Care Essay Research Paper The

American Health Care Essay Research Paper The

American Health Care Essay, Research Paper


The American Health Care system has prided itself on providing high


quality services to the citizens who normally cannot afford them. This


system has been in place for years and until now it did a fairly decent


job. The problem today is money; the cost of hospital services and


doctor fees are rising faster than ever before. The government has


been trying to come up with a new plan these past few years even though


there has been strong opposition against a new Health Care system.


There are many reasons why it should be changed and there are many


reasons why it shouldn’t be changed. The main thing that both sides


heads towards is money. Both sides want to save money just in


different ways.


The movement for changing the Health Care system believes that there


is a need for change because of the problems that the system faces


today cannot be handled. Every month, 2 million Americans lose their


insurance. One out of four, 63 million Americans, will lose their


health insurance coverage for some period during the next two years .


37 million Americans have no insurance and another 22 million have


inadequate coverage . Losing or changing a job often means losing


insurance. Becoming ill or living with a chronic medical condition can


mean losing insurance coverage or not being able to obtain it. Long-


term care coverage is inadequate. Many elderly and disabled Americans


enter nursing homes and other institutions when they would prefer to


remain at home. Families exhaust their savings trying to provide for


disabled relatives. Many Americans in inner cities and rural areas do


not have access to quality care, due to poor distribution of doctors,


nurses, hospitals, clinics and support services. Public health


services are not well integrated and coordinated with the personal care


delivery system. Many serious health problems — such as lead


poisoning and drug-resistant tuberculosis — are handled inefficiently


or not at all, and thus potentially threaten the health of the entire


population. Rising health costs mean lower wages, higher prices for


goods and services, and higher taxes. The average worker today would


be earning at least $1,000 more a year if health insurance costs had


not risen faster than wages over the previous 15 years . If the cost


of health care continues at the current pace, wages will be held down


by an additional $650 by the year 2000. More and more Americans have


had to give up insurance altogether because the premiums have become


prohibitively expensive. Many small firms either cannot afford


insurance at all in the current system, or have had to cut benefits or


profits in order to provide insurance to their employees. Those


problems are just with the system, the main part of the problem comes


from the insurance agencies. Quality care means promoting good health.


Yet, the agencies waits until people are sick before they starts to


work. The agencies are biased towards specialty care and gives


inadequate attentions to cost-effective primary and preventive care.


Consumers cannot compare doctors and hospitals because reliable quality


information is not available to them. Health care providers often


don’t have enough information on which treatments work best and are


most cost-effective. Health care treatment patterns vary widely


without detectable effects on health status. Some insurers now compete


to insure the healthy and avoid the sick by determining “insurability


profiles” while they should compete on quality, value, and service.


The average doctor’s office spends 80 hours a month pushing paper.


Nurses often have to fill out as many as 19 forms to account for one


person’s hospital stay. This is time that could be better spent caring


for patients. Insurance company red tape has created a nightmare for


providers, with mountains of forms and numerous levels of review that


wastes money and does nothing to improve the quality of care. America


has the best doctors who can provide the most advanced treatments in


the world. Yet people often can’t get treated when they need care. The


medical malpractice system does little to promote quality. Fear of


litigation forces providers to practice defensive medicine, ordering


inappropriate tests and procedures to protect against lawsuits. Truly


negligent providers often are not disciplined, and many victims of real


malpractice are not compensated for their injuries. Purchasing


insurance can be overwhelming for consumers. With different levels of


benefits, co-payments, deductibles and a variety of limitations, trying


to compare policies is confusing and objective information on quality


and service is hard for consumers to find. As a result, consumers are


vulnerable to unfair and abusive practices. Insurers have responded to


rising health costs by imposing restriction on what doctors and


hospitals do. A system that was complicated to begin with has become


incomprehensible, even to experts. Each health insurance plan includes


different exclusions and limitations. Even the terms used in health


policies do not have standard definitions. Small business owners, who


cannot afford big benefits departments, have to spend time and money


working through the insurance maze. For firms with fewer than five


workers, 40 percent of health care premiums go to pay administrative


expenses. Administrative costs add to the cost of each hospital stay


with the number of health care administrators increasing four times


faster than the number of doctors. Health claim forms and the related


paperwork are confusing for consumers, and time-consuming to fill out.


Insurance coverage for most Americans is not a matter of choice at all.


In most cases, they are limited to whatever policy their employer


offers. Only 29% of companies with fewer than 500 employees offer any


choice of plans. With a growing number of insurers using exclusions


for pre-existing conditions, arbitrary cancellations and hidden benefit


limitations, consumers have few choices for affordable policies that


provide real protection.


The movement for Health Care reform has created a plan to cover every


American. The plan is called the Health Security plan. The Health


Security plan guarantees comprehensive health benefits for all American


citizens and legal residents, regardless of health or mployment status.


Health coverage is seamless; it continues with no lifetime limits and


without interruption if Americans lose or change jobs, move from one


area of the country to another, become ill or confront a family crisis.


Every American citizen will receive a Health Security Card that


guarantees comprehensive benefits that can never be taken away.


Fundamental principles underlie health care reform, the guarantee of


comprehensive benefits for all Americans, effective steps to


control rising health care costs for consumers, business and the nation,


improvements in the quality of health care, increased choice for


consumers, reductions in paperwork and a simplified system, making


everyone responsible for health care. Americans and their employers


are asked to take responsibility for their health coverage and, in


return, they are guaranteed the security that they will always be


covered under a comprehensive benefit. The Hea

lth Security plan


creates incentives for health care providers to compete on the basis of


quality, service and price. It unleashes the power of the market and


puts American consumers in the driver’s seat. Consumers choose from


whom and how they get their care.


The plan empowers each state to set up one or more “health alliances”


that contract with health plans and bargain on behalf of area consumers


and employers. Health plans must meet national standards for coverage,


quality, and service set by the National Health Board. But each state


tailors its approach to local needs and conditions. The Health


Security plan frees the health care system of much of the paperwork and


regulation, allowing doctors, nurses, hospitals and other health


providers to focus on providing high-quality care. It cracks down on


abuse, reforms malpractice law and policy and outlaws insurance


practices that hurt small businesses and imposes the first national


standards for the protection of patient privacy and confidentiality in


medical information and records.


This plan that has been developed by this movement is under serious


scrutiny by the people that don’t want to see a change, mainly


Republicans. Their main argument is that by allowing the states to run


health care insurance agencies will run out of control.. Unfortunately,


reforms have generally relied on increasing government control rather


than expanding market choices. A review of nine states’ reforms


reveals a host of negative consequences: insurance premiums increase;


access to medical care is not improved; jobs are lost; spending on


Medicaid


goes up; insurance companies leave the market; and medical care is


explicitly rationed. The Republicans are completely against state run


health care and are fighting for federal


government health control. The Republican plan allows workers to keep


their health insurance if they leave or lose their job, even if a


worker has a pre- existing condition. Allows the self-


employed to deduct from their taxes 80 percent of their health


insurance premiums . Allows the self-employed and small businesses


with 50 or fewer employees to open tax-free Medical Savings


Accounts to pay for routine medical expenses. In the year 2000, MSAs


will be made available to businesses with more than 50 workers unless


Congress prevents the expansion . Allows tax deductions for long-term


health care, including nursing-home and home-health care. Fights fraud


and abuse in the health care system and reduces burdensome paperwork..


The Republican national health plan that would be funded by the


federal government and administered by the federal government. The plan


would fully cover everyone via a comprehensive public insurance pool,


paid for by taxes from individuals and businesses. The plan has


provisions to limit over-treatment and insufficient care, designed to


both protect patient interests as well as contain costs. Costs would


also be controlled by cutting the current administrative overload and


through health care planning. The plan would not result in an increase


in total health expenditures. The people who are now uninsured will be


insured with funds deriving from massive savings that will occur from


the elimination of the inherent waste in the current system. With more


than 1500 insurance companies and virtually countless payment plans and


policies, our administrative costs have exploded. A single payer system


has a much more basic payment scheme. Doctors would spend less time on


paperwork, and potentially more time with patients. Clinics and


hospitals would need fewer staff members, and would require less costly,


redundant equipment.


The details of the Republican plan are as followed. All essential


care would be incorporated into the plan, including: mental health,


acute care, ambulatory care, long term care and home health care,


prescription drugs and medical supplies, rehabilitation services,


occupational therapy, and preventive medicine. Exclusions would be made


for unnecessary and ineffective procedures. These exclusions would be


determined by expert panels, most probably made of doctors, nurses,


other health care workers, and health planners. Everyone in the U.S.


would receive a national health care plan card, with necessary


identification encoded on it. The card can then be used to gain access


to any fee-for-service practitioner, hospital or clinic. HMO members


can receive non-emergency care through the HMO. As mentioned before, to


implement the national health program, health care costs do not need to


increase. It would however produce a major shift in payment toward


government and away from private insurers and out-of-pocket payments.


Individuals and businesses would pay the same amount for health care,


on average, but the payments would be in the form of taxes. The taxes


contributing to the plan can be found for businesses, for instance, by


adding up the amount spent currently by business for health care. This


would approximately add up to a 9% tax increase for midsize and large


employers . Hospitals and clinics would receive a global sum on a


yearly basis, in addition to allowances for new technology. Funds


would be distributed to physicians and other health care workers in one


of three ways: through fee-for-service arrangements with a simplified


billing schedule, through capitation, paying health care providers on


the basis of how many patients they serve, or through global budgets


established for hospitals and clinics employing salaried health care


professionals.


The debate stands now between letting the states run health care or


continuing control by the federal government. Both make valid points


as to why they are the way to go, but my stance after careful thought


is one of compromise. Let the federal government standardize health


care


while the state governments fund it on a state to state level. With a


national standard to follow prices would be forced to keep the same


through out America. Procedures for problems would not be questioned.


Finally there will be less paperwork. Making the state governments


fund their own health care system at first lance seems to be cost


inefficient. At another look and a explanation I can dispute that.


With the government in total control it had one big pile of money it


had to divide to all the states and no real way to determine how to


divide it. With the individual states involved in funding health care,


they know the size of their population, who needs care in their


population and can do a more efficient job on a smaller scale. Also by


letting the governments on the state level run everything the problem


of the government giving to little to states that need funding and to


much to states that don’t need it


will not occur.


Unfortunately due to the way the government handles major changes


health care reform will most likely be debated for another ten years.


The way the debate is moving it seems to be heading towards the state


controlled health care, but there doesn’t appear to be enough power


behind the movement to get it approved. The dream of universal


coverage s it a dream or is it a near future for all Americans, only


with patience by the people will they find out.

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