The US health care system can be described as lacking a reasonable cost-benefit ratio. This happens since about 40 million people are not insured, while another 30 million are underinsured. Besides, the American healthcare system is costly; hence, the insured are always worried about the high premiums they have to pay every month. Also, the American healthcare system has categorized care depending on the monthly premiums that users pay (PBS, 2019). Additionally, the insurance companies are autonomous; hence can decide whether to cover users, turn them down, or even dent claims. Moreover, US citizens believe that healthcare is a commodity that can be purchased using money. Since the poor cannot afford to buy health insurance plans, they cannot access this critical service. As such, the healthcare system in American can be conceptualized as not working for the benefit of a large portion of the citizens.
The solutions to the US health system described are practical and feasible. For example, it is necessary to enhance competition in the system, just like in Germany. Competition facilitates transparency and efficiency in the healthcare system. However, profit should not be the foundation for competition in healthcare. Limiting revenue, therefore, maximizes competition leading to the provision of better services and, thus, ensuring that more people are covered and bureaucracy is limited. Americans can also borrow from the Taiwan system, which first focused on increasing coverage in the population before putting in place a cost system (PBS, 2019). Besides, countries within the European region such as Switzerland and Germany, view healthcare as a social service that needs to be financed equally by everyone. As such, everyone has an equal chance of accessing healthcare services. This is opposed to the situation in America since the country lacks a universal national health insurance policy. In Taiwan, most of the doctors are involved in private practice hence compete with each other in offering the best services. As such, citizens in the country have more choices in the doctors and hospitals they attend as compared to Americans who are forced to go to specific hospitals based on their insurance plans.
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One counterargument to my opinions concerns the Hsiao plan. While the Hsiao plan could be useful in covering people's healthcare needs, I think including long term care is essential in an era where lifestyle diseases are causing high morbidities and mortalities. Excluding people who need long term care from a universal coverage plan would be exemplifying inequality, which is a prevalent issue in the US healthcare system (PBS, 2019). Another counterargument is that I think that rolling out a socialized care system in the US would jeopardize the healthcare system in the country. While the system is highly unregulated and facilitates inequality, US citizens have adopted this faulty method of handling the delicate healthcare industry. As such, the US healthcare system can only be adjusted to fit a socialized approach, but rolling out a completely different system would not be possible.
I also believe that rolling out a socialized healthcare system in the US would be chaotic as people practice an independent culture based on the capitalist form of production. This proposition is portrayed by the unequal healthcare plans and benefits which are supported by the state and federal governments. As such, competition is not based on the provision of better and affordable services to patients but by the cost that healthcare companies reimburse specific hospitals based on the monthly premiums patients pay.
However, I think that the US needs an overhaul of the whole healthcare system. I believe that a vital care system such as healthcare should offer all the citizens an equal chance to get services. However, this is not the case in the US since the healthcare system has been commercialized and is treated as any other business venture. Thus, the state and federal governments need to step up and streamline the US healthcare system.
Reference
PBS. (2019). Sick Around the World. Season 2008 Episode 7 . Retrieved from https://www.pbs.org/video/frontline-sick-around-the-world/
