Health Care Policy in the United States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Health Care Policy in the United States - Essay Example Health care in the United States has evolved considerably since its inception. Prior to 1990s, people rarely spoke about health care coverage issues, as health care was considered exclusively for the upper middle class of the society (Kronenfeld, 2002). Over the years of economic development in the United States, the health care policies came to include the middle and lower income classes of society. Over the course of 50 years, the United States has transformed the health care system into a billion-dollar industry. The companies, shareholders, and stakeholders associated with the health care system experienced huge gains and rapid growth throughout the period. The general health care was viewed important by each and every American; they took pride in the development of the system within the country, the increasing use of ever-evolving technologies, and the growth of modernized hospitals located throughout the country (Kronenfeld, 2002). Americans across the nation started believing that health care system was one of the contributing factors behind the enormous economic growth. A series of statistical studies regarding the health care system of the country revealed that they system was collapsing. Several independent researchers within the system concluded that the health care system was in a position of providing proper health care to only 60% of the chronically ill of the country. One of the main reasons supporting this theory was that about 15.8% of Americans were not covered by health insurance despite the United States spending 12% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 1990 on health care (Patel & Rushefsky, 2006). The other industrialized countries of the world – mainly Canada, West Germany, and Japan – spent much less on the health care of the country, yet were still able to provide comprehensive coverage to a greater portion of their populations. Use of the most advanced techniques for improving health care thus did not translate into a h ealthy population (Kronenfeld, 2002). Key amongst the problems with the health care system of the United States was the existence of more than one health care system. According to the study made by Torrens in the year, 1988 there were four different health care systems in the country. The first system covered the middle and the high-income group of the country – those were regularly employed and possessed comprehensive health insurance policies. The second system covered the poor population – those without any insurance coverage. The third and the fourth system of health insurance covered the working military personnels and their dependents and the retired military people, respectively (Kronenfeld, 2002). The health care system of the United States in essence had most of the population covered by private insurance and the government providing insurance mainly for the backward section of the society. To overcome the loopholes of the system of health care of the country and to alleviate the problems relating to the presence of more than one health care system in the country, one option is to form a nationalized health care system with the government of the country acting as the single player of the health care system. The total spending of the system of health care would be done from the government budget. Hence the government