Health Care System

Question One

            The U.S. health care system has been described as having too many problems and dissatisfactory to the citizens. In my opinion, the greatest problem with the U.S. health care system is the cost that is incurred by employees in order to support this system. The system as it is now requires each person to seek an insurance cover from a health maintenance organization. The cost of paying for these premiums has been rising steadily for many years. This has left workers with a heavy burden of paying the money required. It has also been discovered that Americans pay among the highest rates for health care (Luft, 2008). The high costs have led to an increase I the number of people who are uninsured and do not make use of the system.

Health insurance costs are very high and citizens end up paying more than they can afford for health services. The working people of America have to pay more money in order to meet the health needs of their families. The problem is that the wages that people are earning does not match this rise. On the contrary, more and more Americans are losing their jobs making it hard for them to pay for their basic needs. The growing cost of services in the overall economy has forced many employers to shift higher health care costs to the employees (Luft, 2008). This is seen as unfair since the employers are not restricted in terms of how much they can make an employee pay. The employees have to pay large amounts of deductibles and co-pays at the time that they seek treatment making it difficult to access health care at the right time. In addition, the cost of prescriptions keeps on rising making it very difficult for the normal citizens to get treatment at the required time. It is worth noting that, the use of prescription drugs is rising among the American citizens. This delay is usually detrimental to the health of a person and results in later complications. Family covers are also more expensive creating a hurdle for a working person to provide adequate health care to their families.

Question Two

            A socialized healthcare system is also called a universal system is a system whereby all there is a universal cover for all the citizens in a country. The country’s health resources are combined to provide a system that caters for all people. This kind of system is funded by public taxes and additional charges are made at the time of treatment to meet the healthcare needs (Gordon, 2006). Many European countries have this kind of system and there is pressure for the United States to adopt such a system. One of the major problems with a socialized health care system is that a rise in taxes is inevitable. The government has to acquire funds for managing the healthcare needs of the people and therefore requires more money from them. In addition, more people will be subscribed to the system thus more funds are needed to support it. Demand for healthcare must rise because everyone depends on one system and this may result in shortages in the availability of important services. A government that keeps watch of such proceedings will be forced to ask for more money from the public to build more hospitals and health provision centers. This is the same rise in cost, which a private based health care system creates.

Another problem that is likely to arise due to a socialized healthcare system is a shortage in health specialists. As the number of patients rise, the number of health professionals should rise but this is not usually the case. The socialized system usually replaces a system with the previous number of doctors. This means that the ratio between doctors and patients will be very high. In countries like Britain, this has resulted in very long waiting hours in the hospitals (Gordon, 2006). This is a serious issue could easily lead to deteriorating health among patients. On the other hand, it leads to the formation of a parallel private system that caters for the needs of the rich. Such a condition leads to disparities in the health system and often the government system loses personnel to the private industry. In conclusion, as people advocate for a socialized system, it is important to conduct a cost-benefit analysis in order to make the right decision.

References

Gordon, S. (2006). Nursing against the odds: How health care cost cutting, media stereotypes, and medical hubris undermine nurses and patient care. Ithaca, NY: ILR

Luft, H. S. (2008). Total cure: The antidote to the health care crisis. Cambridge, MA: HarvardUniversity Press.