Question

Should the United States stay with the current system of employer-offered healthcare programs ?

Answer 1

The United States stay with the current system of employer-offered healthcare programs :

• USA should develop a national health care plan that will cater the health care need of every individual in the country. This plan should be implemented, because it will reduce cost of health care, achieve distributive efficiency and allocation of services for everyone will be achieved.
• Though, USA has already implemented Medicaid and Medicare plans, but it has limited scope and limited category of people can benefit. The scope of national health care plan will cover everyone and benefits can be delivered to the last member of the society. Further, it will also ensure that the quality of services is maintained and service providers remain ethical in their health care delivery so that focus in on quality, rather than accruing of the bill.
• In contrast to it, employer offered health care programs, reflects the market based economy, but it is unable to deliver the benefits to everyone. Further, private insurance companies ask very high premium and everyone in the country is not even employed to get these benefits. This employer based system is silent about the poor people who cannot afford to ay the premium, but want health care services as a part of their livelihood. So, this system has drawbacks that can only be eliminated using national health care system.

Based on our opinion on the United States should not stay with the current system of employer-offered healthcare programs and they should develop a national healthcare plan similar to other developed countries because of the following reasons :

• US being a supreme power in world should facilitate best healthcare services to people, so that US people will get best healthcare service and can lowered their health related expenses in the nation.
• US best healthcare approach will be later an example to follow by other countries, so that it will be good for other countries to drive their efforts in this direction.
• US being the supreme power in the world, should design supreme healthcare support system for their people so that they get best of the services in the world.
• US will get best support from their people or citizen, if they have good health service support, such that they will be more capable to support the US business plans due to their better fitness.
• US new health service system can be the eye opener for many countries, who are low interested in healthcare system.
• US need to take care of their people and need to support their people in managing their health in the US.
• US nation need to provide the best health care environment at the US nation, so that it can be used as a best practice for benchmarking purpose by other nations.

Health care in the United States is provided by many distinct organizations. Health care facilities are largely owned and operated by private sector businesses. 58% of US community hospitals are non-profit, 21% are government owned, and 21% are for-profit. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States spent $9,403 on health care per capita, and 17.1% on health care as percentage of its GDP in 2014.

Healthcare coverage is provided through a combination of private health insurance and public health coverage (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid). The United States does not have a universal healthcare program, unlike other advanced industrialized countries.

In 2013, 64% of health spending was paid for by the government, and funded via programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and the Veterans Health Administration. People aged under 65 acquire insurance via their or a family member's employer, by purchasing health insurance on their own, or are uninsured. Health insurance for public sector employees is primarily provided by the government in its role as employer.

The United States life expectancy is 78.6 years at birth, up from 75.2 years in 1990; this ranks 42nd among 224 nations, and 22nd out of the 35 industrialized OECD countries, down from 20th in 1990.In 2016 and 2017 life expectancy in the U.S. dropped for the first time since 1993. Of 17 high-income countries studied by the National Institutes of Health, the United States in 2013 had the highest or near-highest prevalence of obesity, car accidents, infant mortality, heart and lung disease, sexually transmitted infections, adolescent pregnancies, injuries, and homicides.A 2014 survey of the healthcare systems of 11 developed countries found that the US healthcare system to be the most expensive and worst-performing in terms of health access, efficiency, and equity.

Prohibitively high cost is the primary reason Americans have problems accessing health care.[4] Consulting company Gallup recorded that the uninsured rate among U.S. adults was 11.9% for the first quarter of 2015, continuing the decline of the uninsured rate outset by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).At over 27 million, the number of people without health insurance coverage in the United States is one of the primary concerns raised by advocates of health care reform.

Lack of health insurance is associated with increased mortality, about sixty thousand preventable deaths per year, depending on the study.A study done at Harvard Medical School with Cambridge Health Alliance showed that nearly 45,000 annual deaths are associated with a lack of patient health insurance. The study also found that uninsured, working Americans have an approximately 40% higher mortality risk compared to privately insured working Americans.

In 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) became law, enacting major changes in health insurance. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of most of the law in June 2012 and affirmed insurance exchange subsidies in all states in June 2015.