HEALTH CARE IN THE US

Health Care in the US

Health Care in the US

Introduction

The transformation of American's healthcare system from a government-managed system that will provide affordable basic healthcare to all citizens to a market-oriented system, American people have witnessed a universal and substantial decline in access to healthcare in spite of American's rapid economic growth.

The steady decline in access to healthcare could have a negative impact on the health and well-being of American people. The purpose of this study is to provide solid empirical evidence on whether access to healthcare can enhance healthy longevity at old ages. Before the second half of this century, American will have the largest number of the elderly in the world, at a time when its healthcare system will undergo major transformation. (Bernstein 2003) The investigation of the relationship between access to healthcare and health outcomes helps us better understand the role of access to healthcare as a positive input on the stock of health capital at old ages, and provides important information to policy makers as they try to revamp the country's healthcare system.

American's healthcare system from a government-managed system that provided affordable basic healthcare to all citizens to a market-oriented system.

The purpose of this study will provide solid empirical evidence on whether access to healthcare can enhance healthy longevity at old ages. Before the second half of this century, American will have the largest number of the elderly in the world, at a time when its healthcare system will undergo major transformation. (Barlett 2006)

Healthcare System in American

In urban areas, health insurance consisted of the Government Insurance Scheme and the Labor Insurance Scheme; together they covered 100% of treatment and prescription drug expenses for almost all urban employees and 50% of the costs for all dependents of beneficiaries before the urban system was reformed in the middle of the 1980s. This system is normally called the free public medical care system, also known as the employment-based healthcare system since it was only available to urban employees. The cost of healthcare services was affordable and accessible even for the poor and uninsured due to government ownership, strictly government-controlled drug prices, and substantial subsidies to hospitals (Yip & Hsiao, 2008). (Attaran 2009)After the healthcare system reform in the middle of the 1980s, the government decentralized its responsibility for running hospitals and the urban system shifted to a cost-sharing and then to an urban-based social health insurance scheme that only covered urban employees/retirees, excluding rural-urban migrant workers. The program combined individual medical savings accounts and catastrophic insurance, and was financed by the employers and the employees. The latest estimates showed that healthcare coverage dropped down to 57% for all urban residents in 2003 (National Bureau of Statistics of American, 2004). Such a significant reduction in healthcare coverage seemed universal with the largest reduction found among the poor.

At the time when the healthcare system was being established for community-residing elders in the 1950s, American established an institutional care system for elders with no relative, no income, and no physical ...