The United States health care system is facing major problems, thus posting the less efficient results in the world’s health care system. Since the year 2000, it is believed that the American health care system has dropped from better to good. Problems are all the way from the health institutions doorstep to the services rendered. According to Forbes, the United States health care is losing (killing) 500 and more patients every day due to infections, errors, and accidents among other things in the hospitals. As this is happening, employers as well as other parties (purchasers) who pay for the health care for the various recipients are slowly losing their patience and may exit the health care sector. At this moment, the American health care is a good for nothing system because health insurance cover is not what it used to be. What is worse is that this health insurance cover does not cover everyone simply because it is not universally available there by calling out to the government to intervene.
The Problem
One of the biggest problems in the American healthcare system is health insurance coverage simply because it is unavailable universally, and maybe only those who are well to do can afford, which extends further to affordability. Most of the American population has at least one type of insurance coverage in health. Almost the whole population of the elderly with ages 65 and above is Medicare covered. Medicare is the federal program that offers insurance cover for the older members of the society in the U.S, paying for at least half of their medical cost. Since Medicare covers just half, more cover can come from Medicaid, which covers the poor population of the U.S.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
It is hard for Americans to receive health care services simply because the costs are high. The main reason for the establishment of the ACA (Affordable Care Act), was to make the medical cost go down and thus provide affordable health insurance covers for the individuals who are uninsured (Jost, 2016). Despite this, health care affordability is still an issue. What is worse is that once the health insurance cover is lost, getting another one is difficult, thus living many of the Americans uninsured. As a result, the number of the uninsured individuals remains large and keeps growing every day. In the midst of the young population (64years and below), there is variance regarding health coverage. This exposes many who are within these age gaps to higher medical expenses, because of lacking insurance which would have given them protection from the higher medical costs. This population accounts for 17% which is about 35 million citizens of America; they are not insured with any kind of health insurance, not even Medicaid or Medicare. In the year 2011, over a half of the American population were uninsured (Young, 2012). In 2012, the percentage of the uninsured was at 26% up from 17% in 1992, today, the chances are that the percentage has risen and is still rising.
As much as the number of health insured Americans is still good, there is a fall in the insurance policies, and at the same time, the premiums are on the rise. Between the late 90s and 2005, the annual premiums on average for the coverage of a family rose by 11%, but within 2005 to 2015, it leveled off thus increasing 5% every year. When it comes to the deductible amounts, their growth rate is much faster. For instance, in a duration of 5 years (2010-2015), deductibles on every single coverage rose to 67%; this outpaces both the workers' earnings as well as inflation (Dorning, 2016). This impacts not only the health sector but also the economy. It has been estimated that the lack of an even health insurance coverage costs America from $124 billion to $248 billion every year (Dorning, 2016).
The proposal
Compared to inflation, federal revenues and wages, health care cost and that of health insurance coverage have grown significantly for many years. To tackle this problem a suitable proposal is needed. Adapting the ACA opponents’ proposals may be beneficial, that is tax credits be given to the uninsured.
An affordable and sensible health care insurance system will be on the basis of catastrophic universal coverage. With this, the federal government can provide health insurance to the American population of 209 million people who have not been covered yet by any insurance which will be at a lower cost when compared to the ACA (Hagopian & Goldman, 2017).
The low-income families can significantly benefit from the tax credits which are means-tested, but also the middle and moderate-income families struggle with issues of affordability. Federal level of poverty could be phased out at up to 400% with the means-tested tax credit. At this point, there will be need to replace it with the fixed dollar tax credits. Tax credits under replacements plans of ACA usually range from 1000 to 3000 dollars with reference to age. With a fixed dollar credit, two things can be done; the employer can either be assigned to be paying for the employer coverage, or it can be used within private of public exchange so as to purchase insurance. Tax credits of fixed dollar can only be applied on for health insurance coverage which covered an essential set of health benefits which are established on the basis of state-by-state. Also the tax credits are like investments which are paid in advance when they are used in nongroup markets. On the other hand, it is possible that the employers can claim tax credits through adjusting withholding, with the end-year report (Jost, 2016). There will be no overpayments clawing back, or reconciliation needs simply because tax credits are always fixed and independent. The tax credit is available for all households with low income. Fixed dollar tax credits can be modified to give enough for setting a clear and transition of about 400% of the federal level of poverty. All the same tax credits may complicate the tax filling processes of middle all the way to the lower income families who will be unable to afford the services of tax preparation. Also, it contains an Internal Revenue Service which constitutes a creep mission which is straining the agency on the estimated billion dollars debt that is tax owed goes uncollected.
The analysis
The above proposal is the best that can be done to the health care so as to ensure that health insurance coverage is all through the nation. The proposal may have both the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats as well. The proposal’s strength is that it provides a way of giving health insurance coverage to the lowly and middle-income families for the sake of a healthier population. However, the proposal packs some weaknesses; one of them being that may complicate the tax filling processes of middle all the way to the lower income families who may be unable to afford the services of tax preparation thus becoming a burden to them. On the other hand, the proposal provides opportunities not just to the population but the whole nation. This is because the proposal considers all the people of America thus giving them equality of opportunity of getting medical cover thus promoting the national health status. Last, the proposal also has threats which are a great burden to the American nation because it will mean that low taxes are collected, and other percentage goes uncollected thus leading the nation into depts. Also, the proposal will cost more to the government.
Most of the American population is lacking health insurance cover, and the number is even expected to rise simply because it is always growing. This because the costs of health cover are increasing thus making unaffordable to the low-income families and the middle-income families as well. In the year 2005, the average cost of an employer-sponsored premium annually for a single person health cover was $2,713, and for a family coverage, it was $8,167. In 2015, the amount of health insurance premiums had risen to $17,545 for family coverage and $6,251 for single coverage. This clearly shows the increase in premiums cost and which is thus unaffordable by more than 30% of the American families. It is therefore about time to go back to the table and think about this percentage that cannot manage the inflated prices of health cover.
Reference
Dorning, J. (2016, August). The U.S. Health Care System: An International Perspective . Department of Professional employees (DPE). Retrieved from http://dpeaflcio.org/programs-publications/issue-fact-sheets/the-u-s-health-care-system-an-international-perspective/
Hagopian, K. & Goldman, D. (2017). The Health-Insurance Solution . National Affairs, No. 31. Retrieved from https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-health-insurance-solution
Jost, T. (2016, February 29). Affordability: The Most Urgent Health Reform Issue For Ordinary Americans . Health Affairs Blog. Retrieved from http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2016/02/29/affordability-the-most-urgent-health-reform-issue-for-ordinary-americans/
Young, J. (2012, April 19). Health Insurance, Once Lost, Stays Elusive As Americans Remain Uninsured . Huff Post. Retrieved from, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/19/health-insurance-uninsured_n_1435953.html
