The Rising Cost Of Healthcare

Living in the United States, there is one essential thing you need to have, which is health insurance. Health insurance is a type of insurance that can covers cost of medical and surgical expenses when you need them. Without health insurance, the cost of one single surgery would be a enormous number. But in the United States, there are about 46 million americans are uninsured. To them, the cost of health insurance is too high. In America, the average cost of health insurance per month is about $328 and the minimum wage per hour in here is $7.25(where cite from?). From here, we can conclude that it is too expensive for those people to get sick. So, is the health insurance cost unjustifiably high? The answer is the highly developed technology, waste of health care budget and the free competitor in the health insurance market, caused health insurance’s price to remain so high.

When it comes to health care, cost is one of the biggest problems. Something needs to be done in order to make it possible for patients, families, and businesses to be able to afford health care. US does not always spend health care dollars in the most productive way. The cost of cancer treatments alone can cost up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the only way to pay for that is to raise the cost of the insurance to the patients. Cost is defined as the “price” of healthcare. The “price” or cost can come from various places such as, the physician’s bill, the cost of prescriptions, as well as what the employers pay to cover their employees. The cost of treatments, emergency room visits, medicines, the cost of newest technology and etc. is what is making our increase in cost rapidly. The rising costs leads to becoming a financial burden to families, even the ones that have health insurance, which can typically result in individuals not receiving the health services that they need.

The cost of healthcare has and will continue to rise in the United States. Some factors that contribute to those hikes are due to the consumer demanding more complex services from health care providers. Things such as new technology, equipment, research and testing procedures, along with pharmacy, and the number of uninsured are all dynamics of the increased cost in health care. The U.S. health care system relies heavily on third-party payers; these payers include commercial insurers and the Federal and state governments. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, the National Health Expenditure grew 3.6% to $2.9 trillion in 2013, or $9,255 per person, and accounted for 17.4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Id.

The rise of the cost of healthcare has been a hotbutton political issue in the United States in recent years, especially with the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. In 1995, the United States spent a little over 13 percent of its GDP on healthcare. By 2013, spending on healthcare had increased to around 17 percent of GDP (World Bank). This trend is projected to continue; healthcare spending will reach some 34 percent of GDP by 2040, with state and federal Medicare and Medicaid spending reaching 15 percent of GDP (Council of Economic Advisors). For comparison, the entire US federal government spent only 20.7 percent of GDP in 2015 (Office of Management and Budget 163) What is driving this

It is no secret that the US healthcare has many issues in its system. Especially, when you compare it to other countries like: Great Britain, Japan, France, Canada etc. According to Sultz and Young states that “The United States ranks eighth behind all of these nations in life expectancy at birth, highest in infant mortality rate, and highest in the probability of people dying between the age of 15 and 60 years.” The US healthcare system has many issues like a large number of uninsured According to Sara R. Collins, Munira Gunja and Sophie Beutel in the 2014 census 33 million people were uninsured. Other issues are medical professional shortage, medical error or infection, people using apps to diagnose themselves, and rising cost of care. The main focus in these paper will be the rising of cost. The cost of current health care explains for most of the issues that is happening in this country.

According to Robert Carroll, (2007) health care costs continue to rise in the United States. The growth of health care costs has been exceeding the GDP growth by two percentage points annually since 1940. These rising costs impose a substantial burden on the U.S. economy. Higher spending on public programs like Medicaid and Medicare strains state and federal budgets. Higher insurance premiums pose a challenge for employees and burden workers with higher health costs and lower wage increases.

The rate at which Healthcare costs in the United States are rising is about two to three times faster than the rate of inflation. This trajectory is not justifiable. There is really an increase in the Health care cost of America. Something is going to have to give. The rising health care cost has punished The United States on multiple fronts.

Contributing factors to the continuing increase in the cost of health care are the generally unhealthy lifestyle practiced by many Americans (obesity, smoking, etc.) and the advances in medical technology.

The United States has the most expensive health care system in the world. It dates all the way back to World War II. The United States and Canada do not even compare to each other, in health care, like they once did. The problem lies within the major stakeholders of the health care system, and what they are willing to change to make it less expensive for patients. This paper will discuss the history, compare and contrast United States health care system to Canada, how the stake holders’ role affect these rising costs and it will discuss recommendations suggested by the authors of “Redefining Health Care.”

American people look at their insurance bills, co-pays and drug costs, and can't understand why they continue to increase. The insured should consider all of these reasons before getting upset. In 2004, employee health care premiums increased over 11 percent, four times more than the rate of inflation.

As a national issue, there is a problem of the reemerging of rising health care costs. Over the last thirty-five years, the United States has tried to control the health costs. In 1960, there was the passing of Medicare and Medicaid. The program took some of the load off the private sector

Everyone wants to have access to health care and in order to access it they need insurance, but unfortunately not everyone can afford health insurance. The United States spends more money on health care than any other country, but raise the cost of health insurance to the citizens. Health care should be affordable if the government is willing to spend as much money as they are on it. Health insurance should be able to affordable to all classes lower, middle, and higher. The citizens of the United States has the right to know why their insurances cost are going up and if they are going to get more bang for their buck. The reason why

Appleby (2012) states the United States spends more on health care service than any other country, exceeding $2.6 trillion, or about 18 percent of gross domestic product. With the United States investing more money than any other country in the world, it means the country is making sure the American people are taken care of. But one thing is for certain and that is the American people are getting older which means more health care services needing to be provided. Another reason for price hikes is technology. As technology improves, the more health care will cost to the consumer. Lastly, the American people expect more when paying for health care rather than how good the quality of care they are receiving. They feel as though they are receiving better care when they have more care when in all actuality they are not. Doctors are seeing multiple patients an hour, reducing the actual face to face time with a patient. This creates patient dissatisfaction and not being able to really discuss what’s going on health wise with your doctor.

This collection of articles spans the vast and complicated topic of understanding the high cost of healthcare in the United States. Included are articles that come from various disciplinary backgrounds and perspectives on the topic. By examining this topic from a multifocal point of view, complex nature of the reasons behind the ever-increasing cost of healthcare. Medical professionals, economists, religious leaders, and educators, contribute a unique perspective to this topic. By better understanding this topic and the

According to Shi, Singh& D.A (2012) the main reason for high health care costs in United States are: