2023 1 You made some good points Judy but the U S is not the

  

1-You made some good points Judy, but the U.S is not the only one struggling with the health care . I was reading different articles and realized there are so many countries going through the same things and maybe even worser. The Pakistan’s health profile portrays high maternal and child mortality, increase population growth rate, and the twofold burden of infectious and non-infectious diseases (WHO, 2007).Just 27% of the Pakistani people avail advantage from full coverage of health care that include armed force members, beneficiaries and government employees, whereas, the rest 73% of the population pay out of pocket (Settle, 2010).They are viewed as a country that is not really important and get overlooked and struggle with health care. People are still paying a crazy amount of money just to get the care they need to stay healthy. With everything going on it makes it hard and for people to reach out when they really need it and it progresses to where it can not be reversed and as a nurse it just sucks seeing people go through this and hope it gets better as the years pass. 

  

2-Many American families have a limited access to health and are uninsured. Our healthcare system focuses more on treatment and medical services than preventive care. Health care spending has been increasing over the years, yet there isn’t a significant improvement in health outcomes (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2017). In 2013, $2.9 trillion dollars was spent on the healthcare alone, which is about $9,255 per person (Levitt, Claxton, Cox, Gonzales & Kamal, 2014). For insured families, insurance premiums have risen about 11% and household earnings only 3% increase from 1996-2003. Soon, family premiums will cost more than the family income by 2025 if trends continue. All that money spent, yet there coverage in limited/inadequate. Over recent years, insurance premium cost increases have slowed, but this places more of the financial burden on the family (Devoe, 2008).

In 2016, 27.6 million people are not insured. Many low income families cannot afford to pay for health insurance, so they gamble and delay any medical services in fear of how much it will cost them (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2017). Many fear that it could lead to financial ruin. Among families with health insurance, almost half of all personal bankruptcies were due to high medical costs (Devoe, 2008).

There is also the issue of people uninsured when they’re in between jobs or waiting for approval of Medicare/Medicaid. About 82 million Americans have these coverage gaps during a 2-year period (Devoe, 2008). Life is unpredictable, and something can during these gap periods.

References

Devoe, J. (2008). The Unsustainable US Health Care System: A Blueprint for Change. The Annals of Family Medicine, 6(3), 263-266. doi:10.1370/afm.837

Levitt, L., Claxton, G., Cox, C., Gonzales, S., & Kamal, R. (2014). Assessing the performance of the U.S. health system. Retrieved May 24, 2018, from https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/assessing-the-cost-and-performance-of-the-u-s-health-system/#item-start

Kaiser Family Foundation. (2017, December 07). Key Facts about the Uninsured Population. Retrieved May 23, 2018, from https://www.kff.org/uninsured/fact-sheet/key-facts-about-the-uninsured-population/

  

3-I have found that the health care system in the United States is expensive and not easily obtained. There is much room for improvement. The concern about quality arises more from fear and anecdote than from facts; there is little systematic evidence about quality of care in the United States. We have no mandatory national system and few local systems to track the quality of care delivered to the American people. More information is available on the quality of airlines, restaurants, cars, and VCRs than on the quality of health care (Scuster, 2005).  The U.S. does not have a uniform health system, has no universal health care coverage, and only recently enacted legislation mandating health care coverage for almost everyone. This can be difficult for someone who is working minimum wage and has a job that does not require to give employees benefits such as health care insurance. One could argue that minimum wage is not meant to be a long term job for an adult. Though the theory of minimum wage jobs might have originally been meant for minors, the reality of our nation is that many adults living in poverty are employed at minimum wage paying jobs. It should be our duty to provide affordable health care for all members of our nation regardless of our own personal beliefs. Obama Care may not be a perfect system because even though it is said to be afforable health care, it has shown to still not be as affordable as one might need based on their income. However, I believe that this was a good start and can be improved to fit our nation and every individual in it as needed. Health care is only getting more and more expensive with the new medications and technology that we are developing as time goes by. Our nation leaders need to think of someway to have health care available for everyone. One option could be to provide health care for everyone like Canada has for their citizens. Though this comes with problems of its own, I believe that it is a system that cares for all and would great individuals that cannot afford health care. Whatever the United States decides to do regarding the issue of so many Americans being uninsured, something needs to be done quick. With so many people being uninsured, many diseases go untreated or even diagnosed due to the financial fear individuals that are uninsured face. People would rather not see a doctor or a clinic because of the fear that they will bring financial burden to their family. As a nurse, this breaks my heart. 

Schuster, M. A., McGlynn, E. A., & Brook, R. H. (2005). How Good Is the Quality of Health Care in the United States? The Milbank Quarterly, 83(4), 843–895. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0009.2005.00403.x