Healthcare Reform and the Future of Socialized Medicine in the United States Essays

Healthcare Reform and the Future of Socialized Medicine in the United States Essays Healthcare Reform and the Future of Socialized Medicine in the United States Paper Healthcare Reform and the Future of Socialized Medicine in the United States Paper Nearly everyone at the end of the twentieth century agreed: something was wrong with the health care system in the United States. While some thought it delivered the best medicine in the world, one can readily challenge this claim, just pointing at the exclusion of too many people in the system and the healthcare in the country was very costly. Many others thought it did not even provide good medicine, let alone good healthcare, to the people it did include. Some perceived the difficulties to be of recent origin; others saw problems of longer duration. Some turned to business models such as managed care as a panacea; others indicted managed care as one of the major problems. These issues remain strong today, with the issues of healthcare reform and socialized medicine particularly dominating the debates. In this light, this paper describes the American healthcare system and the problems it confronts, the need for a healthcare reform, and why socialized medicine, despite its advantages, remains unattractive to many parties, especially the conservatives. https://healtheappointments.com/social-problems-in-morocco-essays/ The data presented and discussed in this paper were collected through desk research. For this research, secondary data were gathered from journal articles relating to the debates of healthcare reform and socialized medicine in the United States. One of the major strengths of desk research is its practicality. It is a quick method of collecting information and is easier to conduct than field research. The overall purpose of this essay is to draw attention to the problems associated with the American healthcare system. The Healthcare System in America The American healthcare system grew out of a series of historical accidents. Today, most commercially insured Americans receive their health care coverage through their jobs or unions. This is a legacy of the metaphorical shipyard bosss attempt to cope with the economic struggles created by the Second World War. Those who retire from the shipyard, are fired, cannot get hired, or end up permanently disabled all count on a combination of federal and state government agencies for help. Tens of millions of Americans caught in the middle – in the no-mans land outside of good jobs, union membership, major disability, old age, or chronic poverty – have no coverage at all, fending for themselves in a system built to accommodate everyone else. Contrary to popular belief, those uninsured Americans do in fact receive medical care – but they get it only when their medical conditions have deteriorated to the point of crisis, at unnecessarily great expense to themselves, to taxpayers, and to their own already marginal personal solvency. For example, workers of many small companies are not provided healthcare benefits because their employers cannot afford healthcare insurance plans. Another issue related to the provision of healthcare by managed healthcare companies in the United States is accessibility, as those uninsured, minority groups, senior citizens, chronically ill, and low income Americans are often neglected regarding their healthcare. The reliance on employer-sponsored insurance has important implications for the efficiency and quality of healthcare in the United States. One of the many benefits of this kind of insurance is that the existence of a market for healthcare insurance, in which private insurers are vying for the business of private employers, results in innovation in insurance product development (Robinson, 2002, cited in Blumenthal, 2006). However, Blumenthal (2006) states that such innovations â€Å"have not proved to be sufficient to ameliorate our nation’s fundamental health care problems of cost, quality, and access to services† (p. 86). One of the major issues in the healthcare system in the United States is the employer abandonment of employee health benefits. At present, 60% of employees receive their health insurance through their employers (Bailey, 2006). However, since 2000 this rate has progressively slipped. It is feared that Young workers today will not receive employer-provided benefits that their parents or grandparents enjoyed. Employers usually justify their actions (or lack of actions) by stating that providing employee health benefits are very costly, which may eventually result in bankruptcy. According to Bailey (2006): â€Å"These companies, along with thousands of small employers, are simply reducing employee benefits, shifting more of the benefits costs to employees, or no longer providing benefits.† (p. 26) Indeed, participation in the employer-provided health care benefit plans is negligible. In 2005, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that 47% of employees did not participate in such plans, and that among employees whose average wage was less than $15 per hour, only 39% participated in such plans.